Labour Party

Rule Changes

Defending the most council seats; polls suggest historic losses

Polling stations across England, Scotland, and Wales opened on May 7, 2026, in the largest day of voting Britain has held since Keir Starmer's Labour Party won a landslide general election ten months ago. English voters chose more than 5,000 councillors across 136 authorities, including every seat in all 32 London boroughs. Scotland elected all 129 members of its parliament at Holyrood. Wales, for the first time, elected an expanded 96-member Senedd under a new closed-list proportional system, voting for parties rather than individual candidates.

Updated 2 hours ago

Rule Changes

Governing party facing leadership crisis

Morgan McSweeney, the strategist who engineered Labour's 2024 landslide victory, resigned on February 8, 2026, taking responsibility for advising Prime Minister Keir Starmer to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington despite known ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Communications Director Tim Allan departed the following day, marking the fourth communications chief to leave Starmer's administration in 18 months. The crisis has now expanded dramatically: on February 19, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew) was arrested on his 66th birthday on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations he leaked government information to Epstein while serving as UK trade envoy between 2001 and 2011.

Updated Feb 19