May 10 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's job was hanging in the balance Sunday in the aftermath of the worst local council election results for his Labor Party in its long history, analysts said.
Political rivals were circling around the prime minister after the ruling party's support on councils in England and in devolved Parliaments in Scotland and Wales collapsed in Thursday's voting, leave the right-wing Reform UK and left-wing Green Party as the biggest electoral winners.
In what was termed a "total bloodbath," a "calamity" and a "wipe-out," Labor was voted out of power in 40 local councils, losing about 1,500 councilors along the way, with the vast majority of the seats being seized by Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
Starmer's party also lost the Welsh Senedd to Plaid Cymru, surrendering its control of the body for the first time since the Welsh parliament was created in 1999.
The results came during what is essentially the mid-point of the Starmer government's five-year term following Labor's lopsided victory over the Conservative Party in 2024, and he vowed on Friday that he would not stand aside.
