Starmer must go – or be responsible for handing Farage the keys to No 10
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage following the 2026 local election results, 8 May 2026 (Alamy)
4 min read
Labour has taken a hammering in these elections.
The collapse in our vote shows just how badly we have squandered the hopes millions placed in us to deliver the real change they desperately need. These results cannot simply be spun away, minimised, or blamed on mid-term difficulties.
We need to be honest that these losses are the direct result of political choices that have alienated large numbers of former Labour voters. From winter fuel cuts to the Gaza response and attacks on disability support, too many people now feel Labour is no longer on their side and no longer shares their values. Repeated scandals, from freebies to Mandelson, have shattered the belief that Labour would clean up politics.
The consequences for our party are brutally clear. Labour now faces an existential crisis from which we may never recover. What’s more, we risk opening the door to a Nigel Farage government.
Preventing such a dangerous outcome must now be the priority for all progressives. To do that, we need to be clear about what has happened to Labour’s vote.
The coalition that delivered Labour’s 2024 victory has fractured badly. We are losing support in every direction. But we are mainly losing former Labour voters to other progressive parties and to people no longer voting at all, rather than directly to Reform.
In some places, that has meant Labour losing seats to the Greens or Plaid Cymru. But more often, Labour is losing voters to other progressive parties, and that split allows Reform to win seats.
To stop Reform, Labour must rebuild its broad electoral coalition. Polling shows that taking on an economy rigged in favour of the rich and powerful is the best way to win back voters lost to other progressive parties, as well as those lost to Reform.
That means Labour must be far bolder in standing up for ordinary people being hammered by soaring rents and bills, and in confronting the grotesque inequality that scars our society. That will become even more urgent with the cost of living crisis set to dominate the run-up to the next general election.
But none of that change will happen unless we confront how Labour ended up in this crisis.
A narrow clique at the top of Labour was only able to pursue its increasingly unpopular agenda by clamping down on our party’s internal democracy. Debate has been systematically shut down rather than encouraged. Senior figures who warned against the direction we’ve been heading in, like Andy Burnham, were marginalised. MPs, along with many councillors who raised concerns, were suspended or deselected.
That culture has to change. Members need to be listened to, not managed. Trade unions and the wider labour movement must be treated as partners, not inconveniences. People inside Labour need to be able to speak freely again. Without that change, the party will remain disconnected from the communities we exist to represent.
We also need to address the question of the leadership. It is clear that Keir Starmer has fought his last election as Labour leader, and deep down he will know it. There must now be a timetable set out for an orderly transition to a new leader by the end of this year.
Our party will only get one chance to get this right. We cannot become like the Tories, lurching from leader to leader. So, we need time for a calm, open, and democratic leadership contest that allows for a serious debate about what has gone so badly wrong and how we correct course.
It must allow a full range of candidates to stand, without the exclusions and stitch-ups that have come to dominate our party’s internal democracy, as we saw most recently in the Gorton and Denton selection.
For me and a growing number of colleagues, one lesson is obvious: nobody implicated in the decisions and scandals that have led to Labour’s collapse will convince the public that they represent real change. To get out of this crisis, Labour needs a genuine fresh start.
If we get this wrong, Labour will lose far more than the next election. We will be responsible for handing Nigel Farage and his Trump-style agenda the keys to No 10.
Richard Burgon is Labour MP for Leeds East
