Many of the front pages lead with the immediate fallout from Labour’s election losses across England, Scotland and Wales. The Times calls the election results “Labour’s historic battering”. The paper says the party faces an “existential threat” after it lost “1,300 councillors, was routed in Wales and gave up areas in the traditional heartlands it had controlled for a century”. In addition to losing seats across the north of England and Midlands to Reform UK, “Labour haemorrhaged support to the Greens on the left in its former strongholds in inner-city London”.
“Starmer defies MPs’ calls to quit”, is the FT Weekend’s take, summarising the results as “big gains” for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and “Labour routed in Wales and Scotland”. Financial markets “had a doomsday scenario for Labour and Starmer”, Investment director Matthew Amis tells the paper, as bond markets regard Sir Keir and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves as “bulwarks against a more leftwing government”.
The prime minister is told “it’s time to go”, according to Labour MPs and union leaders who are calling for a change after the party was “thrashed in the local elections”, the Daily Mail says. Allies of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham told the paper he was “ready to throw down the gauntlet to Sir Keir as soon as next week”, the Mail writes.
The other big news to grace the front pages of the newspapers is the split of Tess Daly and Vernon Kay. The Daily Mirror reports that the celebrity couple are breaking up after 22 years of marriage. “The ex-Strictly host, 57, and the Radio 2 DJ, 52, said the decision was mutual,” the paper writes.
