By Charlie Simpson | May 10, 2026
On 7 May, millions of voters went to the polls. Local elections and mayoral contests were held across England, while voters in Wales elected a new Senedd and those in Scotland returned members to Holyrood.
The results revealed strong support for Reform UK right across England, alongside notable advances for the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. Labour and the Conservatives, by contrast, were the clearest losers. Taken together, these outcomes suggest that the long dominance of the two main parties has finally fractured, ushering in a new and more fragmented era of British politics.
Looking first at the overall picture from the English local elections, Reform UK won by a country mile. The party took more than 1,450 council seats – nearly 30 per cent of all those up for election – and gained control of 14 councils. In the old red wall seats where Labour once swept to victory, Reform emerged as the biggest beneficiary. Were a general election held tomorrow, the results point clearly to Nigel Farage entering Downing Street and Reform securing a small but workable parliamentary majority.
Labour managed just over a thousand seats but lost more than 1,490, along with control of 38 councils; they now hold only 28. These results were catastrophic for the party of government and broadly in line with what national polling has shown for months. The Liberal Democrats, as they have done consistently for the past eight years in local contests, made significant gains, winning more than 840 councillors and adding over 150.
The Conservatives were also badly hit, losing over 560 councillors and control of six councils. These were poor results for the Tories, yet in my view they could have been far worse. Most polls had forecast even heavier losses. I believe the party dodged a bullet under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership. She has come across as measured and thoughtful, which appears to have won back some lost voters and broadened the party’s appeal. That said, the results were still horrific for them.
The Greens, led by Zack Polanski, performed reasonably well and made gains, winning over 440 councillors. Yet the party, which has been running at around two-thirds in many national polls, finished fifth and underperformed expectations. A More in Common poll, for instance, had projected around 600 gains; the Greens fell some 200 short, a pattern repeated across other pollsters. So while the party has undoubtedly seen a rise in support, it does not yet command overwhelming backing from the electorate as a whole – indeed, it lost seats in some areas. In my opinion, comments made by Zack Polanski in the run-up to polling day in response to the Golders Green terror attack probably cost the party votes.
The Greens did, however, pick up two of the six directly elected mayoral positions, largely at Labour’s expense.
It is also worth mentioning Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain, which stood all nine candidates in Great Yarmouth under its local banner, Great Yarmouth First. The party swept every seat, taking all nine and amassing more than 15,000 votes in the constituency. Reform UK barely registered there. I suspect that had Restore Britain contested more seats, it could have prevented Reform from making at least 85 gains – a small-sounding number that is significant for a new party. Many voters told me they were lending their support to Reform in the short term but planned to back Restore Britain in the longer run. With over 120,000 members nationwide, Restore Britain looks set to be a real force in coastal areas come next year.
In short, these were not the Reform versus Greens local elections that much of the media had hyped. It was Reform UK against everyone else – and no one came close to matching them.
In Wales, Welsh Labour was decimated, losing 35 seats and reduced to just nine. The party shed around 25 per cent of its vote share compared with the previous Senedd election. Since the creation of the Senedd, Labour has always been the party of government in Wales, and for the best part of a century the dominant force. These results show that Labour no longer has any truly safe areas. If the pattern continues through to 2029, the party would be fortunate to win even 150 seats at the next general election. Plaid Cymru’s victory in the Senedd has moved Wales visibly closer to independence and signals that many voters no longer wish to remain part of the Union.
Over in Holyrood, the SNP once again held its ground as the largest party, though its overall position remains fragile. The results confirmed the continuing fragmentation of Scottish politics, with both Labour and the Conservatives struggling to make meaningful inroads while smaller parties nibbled at the edges.
All in all, 7 May felt like a landmark moment. The old two-party system that shaped British politics for generations is cracking, and a more volatile, multi-party landscape is taking its place. What happens between now and the next general election will determine whether this shift proves temporary or permanent.
Leave a Reply