Keir Starmer under pressure to agree exit plan after election mauling | Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer is under pressure to set a timetable for his departure after a crushing defeat in British elections led senior Labor MPs to call for him to resign within a year.

In disastrous results, Labor had lost control of more than 25 councils and almost 1,000 council seats in England by Friday evening; Many of these were lost to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which made big gains in the Midlands and the north as well as taking seats from the Tories in the south.

After more than a century in power, the Labor Party faced near extinction in Wales and the party’s first minister, Eluned Morgan, lost her seat. Labor could fall to third place in Scotland, behind the SNP and Reform. The rise of the Greens in London meant that Labor lost control of the councils it dominated, including Hackney and Waltham Forest.

Although the Prime Minister appeared to be avoiding a sudden coup, there was an angry reaction to the results among senior MPs and unions; some warned him to change course or risk being forgotten in the elections. On Friday evening, a further 10 MPs had called on him to set out a timetable for leaving Number 10.

Louise Haigh, a former cabinet minister and co-chair of the powerful Tribune group of MPs, was the first to go into hiding. “What is very clear is that the prime minister cannot lead us to another election unless the government makes significant and urgent change,” he said.

One senior backbencher said: “We want Keir to agree a timetable for his departure, but we want it to be dignified. He should have his final conference this autumn and then run a leadership contest straight after. He can’t take us to next year’s domestic competition. It’s too late now.”

But although Starmer acknowledged voters were fed up with the slow pace of change, he insisted he would not “walk away” from the leadership, thinking it would “plunge the party into chaos”.

Downing Street sources said the prime minister will make a major speech next week where he will try to put forward a more optimistic vision for the country’s future.

The king’s speech on Wednesday will also include policy announcements, but no cabinet changes are expected.

On a stormy day:

• Farage said a “truly historic shift in British politics” had occurred after Reform UK won hundreds of seats and control of more councils in England. Among the gains was Essex, where Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has his own constituency and which the Conservatives have held for 25 years.

• Plaid Cymru has become the largest party in Wales, overtaking Reform into second place, after Labor admitted it was on track to lose control of the Senedd for the first time since devolution. Morgan, the first woman to lead the Welsh government, was the biggest casualty and called on Labor to “get back to being the party of the working class”.

• SNP leader John Swinney declares victory in Holyrood election; but it was expected that he would not reach an absolute majority. Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar conceded defeat, saying his party had failed to counter “national dissatisfaction” with Starmer.

• The Greens won the first two directly elected mayors in Hackney and Lewisham, but missed some more ambitious targets in London, with their leader Zack Polanski declaring Britain’s two-party politics “dead and buried”. They also won three councils: Norwich, Hastings and Waltham Forest.

• The Conservative Party was on course to lose hundreds of seats (to both the Reform and Liberal Democrats) in the south of England. But they won back the flagship Westminster council in central London, which Badenoch announced meant the party would “come back”.

• Labor appeared to be struggling in its London stronghold and was unexpectedly losing control of Brent, despite early signs that its votes were holding on. Party insiders were watching councils such as Lambeth, Lewisham and Haringey closely.

Despite Labour’s losses, allies of Starmer’s potential leadership rivals Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham said they would stick to their advice and watch how events develop over the weekend.

Wes Streeting was expected to address the media following the local council results. However, all of them appeared to have put their coup plans on hold.

As the results were announced across the country, several senior Labor MPs, most of whom are thought to be Burnham supporters and have generally refrained from openly criticizing the prime minister, went public with their warnings.

Sarah Owen, chair of the women and equalities committee, said: “Unless Keir Starmer delivers tangible change and truly connects with the public on a human level, he cannot lead us to another election at a local or national level.”

Knowsley MP Anneliese Midgley said: “The results here and in the north are beyond our worst expectations. They are truly devastating. It is clear that the Prime Minister cannot lead us to another election unless this changes significantly and quickly.”

Stroud MP Simon Opher added: “The public has spoken; I think we need to change our leader. It’s not a matter of now, it’s a question of when. Keir is a decent man but I don’t think he’s the right leader for the next election. If we go into the next election with him we’ll be slaughtered.”

Several frontrunners told the Guardian they agreed that the prime minister’s term should not extend beyond the end of the year. “If he is still in place by the fall, it is clear that efforts to remove him will need to increase,” one of them said.

Cabinet ministers and Labor elders rallied around Starmer, with more backbenchers calling for him to go.

Housing minister Steve Reed said: “The British public don’t want to hear about timetables, backroom deals and navel-gazing. Let’s get on with our job.”

Business Secretary Peter Kyle added: “Reversing these results requires a collective effort, not just blaming the boss. We can’t do this by giving in to ourselves. We do it by rebuilding our faith in Labour’s ability to inspire and lead our country. Losing our Prime Minister is the exact opposite of that.”

It will be a relief in Downing Street that some of Starmer’s strongest critics have not directly called for his resignation. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham issued a warning that Starmer must “change or die” but Labour’s union liaison group issued a statement – although critical – clearly calling for a change of direction, not a change of leadership.

London mayor Sadiq Khan issued a dire warning that Labor could face the same fatal decline in the capital as it does in Scotland, but did not call for Starmer to resign.

“Labour lost votes to a variety of different parties in London, but the biggest change was the shift of Labor voters to the Greens,” Khan said. “Without a change of course and an acceleration of delivery, the threat to Labor is existential. We risk repeating what happened in Scotland, where we have still failed to recover, in London, Wales and across England.”

Some cabinet ministers have privately admitted that despite Starmer’s determination to remain in Downing Street after the election results, backbencher mood is heated and events could spiral out of control over the weekend.

They also admitted that although they would now discourage any move against Starmer, they did not expect him to lead the party at the next election.

“When your personal brand is this weak, it is rarely recoverable,” one told the Guardian earlier this week.

But Labor MPs who had called on Starmer to move left as he lost votes to the Greens were set to be disappointed.

Writing in the Guardian, the prime minister said: “While we have to respond to the message voters have sent us, that doesn’t mean we veer left or right.”

Starmer also faced problems in his own backyard, as Camden council’s Labor leader, Richard Olszewski, was one of three councilors to lose his Holborn and Covent Garden ward to the Greens. He had switched from a seat in the north of the borough, which was at risk from the Liberal Democrats, supposedly because it was safer.