Paddy O’Connell
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And that's a question that everybody will be able to answer in their own minds.
But Keir Starmer personally...
So people have used these local elections, which are about homelessness, my bins, my health service, my education of my children.
They've used this as a national poll.
It's not really fair on councillors who are doing their job, is it?
Well, no, I mean, these elections are about lots of different things and they're about people who make decisions that influence our lives that have got almost nothing to do with number 10, you know, in terms of your bins and local services.
But, you know, like it or not, that's what this became in large part.
Not least, and it will have been helped in this by the fact that Reform, who ran a campaign very hard, Nigel Farage went to...
so many different places around the country.
I mean, he basically went back on the road to do that sort of celebrity tour that he does every now and again.
That's what he's been doing for the last few weeks.
And the reform slogan was, vote reform, get Starmer out.
And there was a reason for that.
And that was both a reflection of public sentiment, but also something that tried to push on public sentiment.
And the reform success in these elections has just been absolutely extraordinary.
Now, their overall vote share compared to last year actually went down a bit.
They have a success in terms of the number of seats and the gains that they were making.
They made huge progress from nowhere in Wales.
They made huge progress from nowhere in Scotland.
And it's been an incredible political achievement from them.