‘They deserve to lose’: Labour at risk of ‘red wall’ collapsing in May elections

Voters in Barnsley, Sunderland and Wakefield express frustration with party amid strong Reform UK challenge

When millions of voters across Great Britain go to the polls on 7 May, the result will have a profound impact on the future of Keir Starmer’s government.

In Wales and Scotland, nationalist parties are expected to be in charge for the first time simultaneously, joining Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland. In London and the cities, the Greens are on the charge.

But it is across Labour’s former heartlands in the post-industrial swathe of the Midlands and north of England where Starmer faces losing hundreds of councillors to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK

That result would alarm several cabinet ministers whose seats are in the once-solid “red wall”, including Yvette Cooper, John Healey, Ed Miliband, Dan Jarvis and Bridget Phillipson.