Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance. But first this hour, we turn to the UK local elections, which have brought difficult results for Keir Starmer and Labour with reform making major gains. Is this an early warning sign for the British Prime Minister or just a snapshot of local frustration?
Well, I'm joined by former Labour MP Stephen Pound and LBC reporter and presenter Henry Riley. And Henry, I'll come to you first for the overall picture as the results are still emerging. How do things stand as of this morning?
Around a third of the councils that are up for election, there's 136 in total. We've had around a third of those declared.
Chapter 2: What were the results of the recent UK local elections?
There's just over 5,000 councillors who are up for election in England, of course. We don't know the picture yet from Scotland and Wales. They've just started. counting in those areas. But certainly based on these local elections, it's a very good night for Reform UK based on the results coming in. They've just ticked over 400 seats in terms of councillors.
And as your news headlines have been reflecting, it's been a really bruising night for Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. I'm actually joining you from Havering, which is the
first part of london to go turk boys the first area that reform uk have won in the capital and they didn't just win claire they won huge they've won 70 percent of the councillors 39 of the 55 the conservatives who were actually the largest party here in terms of seats last time out are reduced to zero. They've gone from 23 to zero.
And I've just been speaking with Nigel Farage, who's been in Havering, as you might expect, sort of basking in the results, not just here, but in areas like Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire. And I mean, he's very much making the point that he is a government in waiting. He's topping the opinion polls still. He's very serious about that and undoubtedly a very good night for his party.
And what about the Conservatives then? I see they've taken Westminster. That's a cause of celebration for them. They lost it, didn't they, back in 2022, having held it since 1965. So they'll be delighted with that result. But what's the overall picture?
Well, you're right to highlight Westminster because that really was one of their sort of crown jewel councils. The same with Wandsworth that was often said to be Margaret Thatcher's favourite council because they, for some years, froze council tax. And the Conservatives, the largest party, they didn't quite win it back Wandsworth, but they did win Westminster, as you say.
But they are down a huge number of seats. And look, Kemi Badenoch, as a leader, her personal ratings are above the
conservatives but that's hardly surprising given the drubbing that they received at the last general election here in july of 2024 so i think it's going to be a difficult night for her and and but certainly there won't be questions about her leadership purely because there is that recognition that the party's in a difficult place the last time these councils elected was right after the vaccine and and there was seen to be a sort of vaccine bounce but but really claire we've heard
from the Prime Minister, speaking from a Methodist church today, Sir Keir Starmer, saying that he's going to carry on as leader. And, you know, when a party leader says something like that, often it can mean the writing's on the wall.
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Chapter 3: How did Reform UK perform in the local elections?
We haven't had some of the inner London areas count yet. And that's where the Green Party pose a big challenge in areas like Camden, in Islington. I mean, these are areas that Zach Polanski and his Green Party will be hoping to hit Labour. And do they tack to the right to counter reform? Do they tack to the left to tackle the Greens? It really is a bit of a nightmarish scenario.
And Andrew Marr, the veteran political commentator, saying today that Nigel Farage is on course to enter Downing Street.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, and he's saying, I see in his, as you say, he's basking in the glow of this, but he is saying that he will run as a candidate for prime minister in the next general election. But the Green Party you mentioned there and Zach Polanski, their leader, long heralded over the last number of months, certainly as somebody who was a real breakthrough star.
But in recent days, his reputation has suffered. There were... notes on his cv claims that he had made about being a spokesperson for the british red cross where he had to say actually i wasn't also his comments about the police response to the jewish attack in golders green they no doubt have impacted his him and his party in this election
Oh, undoubtedly. The shine has come off, if you like, for some people when it comes to Zach Polanski. And the only sort of saving grace for him is that, certainly from Green Party sources, there was an awful lot of postal ballots that had been done by that time. And so that wouldn't have affected those people. But you're quite right to highlight, I mean,
There was an incident where you say where he said he was a spokesperson for the Red Cross. It turned out he did a fundraiser for them. He claimed he was on the Society of Hypnotherapists in the UK. It turned out he wasn't. He'd never been a board member. And most seriously as well, he shared a tweet on X that appeared to criticise the police saying,
in their response to the suspected terror attack in Golders Green. And that certainly has impacted him as well. Nonetheless, I do think in some of those inner London areas, faced with the choice of Sir Keir Starmer or Zak Polanski, there does seem to be a strong sense that many have opted for the Green Party leader.
So how will this play out over the course of the day? How long is it going to take until we get the full picture?
Well, I think it's due to go right into tonight. I'm unclear. Sometimes there are some councils declaring on a Saturday, but I think we should have the full picture tonight. But through the course of the afternoon, we'll start hearing some of those Green Party targets and how well they've done. Also, Wales and Scotland. And look, there were some reports earlier on.
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Chapter 4: What challenges is Keir Starmer facing after the election results?
But the reality is that we have a huge job to do. A lot of us in the Labour Party are quite terrified about the implications. of a reformed government, in all honesty. And certainly on the island of Ireland, there should be a great grave concern about the fact that the reform are completely opposed to any integration further of European customs rules, which are crucial for the island of Ireland.
Also, their attitude is pretty brutal, in all honesty.
at the moment what's going to happen i think as the dust of battle clears and you know maybe the bodies are dragged from the battlefield people are going to raise their eyes from the potholes in the street and look at the bigger picture the global picture and when you look at the situation in ukraine you know that the war in iran the united states
I don't think anyone in this country believes that there's a better person to be at the helm of the good ship, United Kingdom.
I don't know, Stephen. I mean, a lot of the early reaction I saw coming through, a lot of the candidates have been saying to reporters, it was Keir Starmer's name who came up on the door as the biggest obstacle for people who felt that they couldn't vote for their Labour candidate.
Well, you know, the old thing, you know, keep a hold of nurse for fear of finding something worse. I mean, it's all very well defenestrating somebody. You've got to see who fills the vacuum, who fills the gap. And at the moment, we're in a period, clearly, and you know more than most people, in a period of absolute global insecurity and fear and danger.
There's the possibility of a huge market, a global market crash coming down the hill pretty fast at the present time. The situation in Iran and obviously Hormuz that you've spoken about is getting worse and worse. Now, To change horses in midstream at the moment would be fatal.
It would be lethal, not just for the economy, but I think for our position in the world and the way we're finally working with our European partners, the European brothers and sisters, including in Dublin particularly.
Okay, but what if the horse was Wes Streeting or Andy Burnham or Angela Rayner?
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Chapter 5: What does the election outcome mean for the Conservative Party?
I think he can. Let me just say the reality of the situation. The Reform UK won about 10 council seats. They've made a dog's breakfast of every one of them. There's not a single one of the councils that Reform run which is actually operating successfully. Not one of them has actually cut council taxes, they all promised.
Not one of them has got rid of what they felt was a sort of infestation of wokeism, which didn't actually exist. It was all very well as a soundbite on the doorstep, but you look under the bonnet and there's nothing there.
So I think just as the gloss is coming off the Green, it's very much indeed, and you and Henry rightly identified some of the problems, and certainly I'm seeing a lot of people who've got buyer's remorse about their support for the Greens. There's more and more stuff about some of the dregs of the worst aspects of Corbynism washed up in the Green Party.
I think it was Dick Tuck's famous comment, which I can't repeat in there entirely, but he said, you know, the people have spoken, the Asterisk, asterisk.
I see some analysis in the London Times today, which starts with the line, the Labour Party is losing to everyone, everywhere. It concedes that Reform UK hasn't peaked, but Keir Starmer is doing worse than Jeremy Corbyn here. That is an extraordinary place for the British Prime Minister to be.
It is a terrifying place and it's an unprecedented place. We've circled the wagons many times. We've not had the wagons circle around us before. And the terrifying thing here is that it's very, very difficult to actually to fight a war on so many multiple fronts. It's not impossible. But it's very, very difficult. We're facing asymmetric political warfare at the present time.
And I think the only way we can actually deal that is instead of chasing after each and every one of them, we've got to actually clarify the Labour message, the decency and the stability and the support for people that is part of our DNA, part of our bloodstream. We've got to get that. People have got to come to us. It's not just a question of us chasing after the people.
We've got to actually stand on the hill and say, here we stand. And I think there's a bit of pride in what we do. And I have to say, this is probably the most sort of febrile time in politics. I wasn't around in 1922 when Labour first won Wales, but I feel like I've been around for a pretty long time.
And I've never, ever known anything where I've been sort of walking down the street and having people throwing stones at me from every one of the 360 degrees.
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