AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The United Kingdom's two-party political system is fracturing. New antiestablishment parties trounced the two traditional parties, Labour and the Conservatives, in local elections this past week. And there are calls for prime minister Keir Starmer to step down. Centrist establishment leaders are facing similar challenges in other European countries where the far right is gaining support. NPR's Lauren Frayer joins us now from London. Good morning, Lauren.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Good morning, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So last week, Brits voted for town councils in England and regional legislatures in Scotland and Wales. Tell us about those results and why they're significant.
FRAYER: Yeah, so these are local elections, which we might not typically cover for an American audience, except that they were just so devastating for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's center-left Labour Party. And it gives us a sense of how the national election could go. Labour lost more than half of municipal seats across England. It lost the Welsh parliament for the first time since its creation, and big gains were seen by the upstart Green Party and even more by the far right anti-immigrant party called Reform, particularly in working-class areas that used to vote Labour, similar kind of to what you've seen in some working-class areas of the U.S., turning to President Trump.
RASCOE: So what does this mean for Prime Minister Starmer?
FRAYER: So he was elected two years ago with a huge majority, huge mandate, which back then we saw as a victory for the center. The center was holding while the far right was gaining support elsewhere in Europe. Now that is no longer the case. Starmer has one of the lowest approval ratings in history. He promised to increase government services, a break on the cost of living, and polls show voters think he has not delivered on that. The next national parliamentary election isn't expected for another three years, but the question is whether Starmer will hang on or get ousted by his own party.
RASCOE: And what has Starmer said?
FRAYER: He's refused to step down. Here's what he told reporters this weekend.
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PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: Let me be clear, these are really tough results. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
FRAYER: He said he and his party face real challenges.
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STARMER: And I'm not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos.
FRAYER: Basically, Starmer is asking for more time. He told the Observer newspaper today he wants a 10-year project of renewal. He'll be arguing his case with MPs. And then on Wednesday, there's the King's Speech. It's a traditional annual reopening of Parliament filled with pomp and ceremony where King Charles will read out Starmer's new legislative agenda.
RASCOE: Tell me about this far right anti-immigrant party that did well. Like, could they take power nationally?
FRAYER: I mean, that's what the next two years of British politics may be about. This party is led by Nigel Farage. He's one of the leaders of Brexit. He lobbied for Britain to leave the European Union. And he's cast himself as sort of a plain-talking, chainsmoking man of the people. You know, he's connected with regular folks in a way that Starmer has not. His party is funded in part by a British-born crypto billionaire who lives in Thailand and uses a pseudonym, so there are lots of questions there about campaign finance.
Reform's main issue, though, is halting immigration. And Farage talks with nostalgia about when Britain was a, quote, "white Christian country." He's had this on-again, off-again friendship with President Trump, but immigration is an issue that they have in common. The Reform Party will now be running many town councils across England, and voters will be able to see them in action and evaluate how they govern.
RASCOE: We've been talking about England, but what about Scotland and Wales? Is the same dynamic happening there?
FRAYER: Wales is really interesting because it used to be a Labour heartland, and as coal mines have closed there, the populist Reform Party has made gains. But it was actually a Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, that won the most votes there. And this sets up a situation where all the regions of the U.K. outside of England - so that's Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales - all of them will now be governed by nationalist, pro-independence parties, which could possibly, you know, hasten the breakup of the United Kingdom longer term if they push for independence referenda, as Scotland did several years ago. So that's something to watch.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Lauren Frayer in London. Thank you so much.
FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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