Animations onAnimations off

Animations onAnimations off

How Britain's political map has been torn up

Seven scrolling charts on Labour's collapse, Reform's rise and the fracturing of two-party politics

By Jess Carr and Callum Thomson 10 May 2026 News

These elections were always going to be a tough test for Keir Starmer's Labour party, but the way votes fragmented across England, Scotland and Wales suggests Britain is entering a new era of multi-party politics. Let’s explore what’s happened.

Labour and Tory councils in England fall to Reform

The council elections in England were Labour’s to lose: around 5,000 seats in 136 councils were being contested and the party held more than half of them.

A stacked bar of the number of councils controlled by each party prior to the election. Labour held 65, Conservatives held 15, and Lib Dems held 12. 41 councils had no party majority and 2 councils are newly formed.

Before the elections, Labour was in control of 66 of the councils - with their support concentrated in urban areas, from Birmingham and Barnsley to Preston and Plymouth.

A flow diagram showing how the number of councils controlled by Labour changed after the election. Labour sought to defend 65 councils, but retained control of 28 councils. In 26 of the councils they looked to defend, no party won a majority while Reform and Green flipped 8 and 3 councils respectively. Labour didn't flip any councils.

But Labour held on to fewer than 30 of them - largely in places where only some of the seats were up for election. Many of the others ended up with no party majority - but the Greens took three councils directly from Labour, while Reform UK took eight.

A flow diagram showing how the number of councils controlled by Reform and the Lib Dems changed after the election. Reform didn't control any councils prior to the election, but won 8 from Labour, 3 from Conservative, and converted 3 which previously had no party majority. The Lib Dems controlled 12 councils before the election. They lost 1 council to no party majority, gained 2 councils from no party majority, and gained 2 councils which were newly formed

Reform UK also picked up councils from the Conservatives, while the Lib Dems lost one council but took four others.

Share of council seats by party

Before

After

The counts of seats per party are as follows: Labour 1063, Conservative 801, Lib Dem 844, Reform UK 1453, Green 583, and other parties held 278

Sankey diagram showing flows of council control (number of councils): Labour to Labour 28, Labour to no overall control 26, Labour to Green 3, Labour to Reform 8, Labour to Conservative 1. No overall control to no overall control 33, to Green 2, to Reform 3, to Liberal Democrat 2, to Other 1. Conservative to no overall control 4, to Reform 3, to Conservative 8. Liberal Democrat to no overall control 1, to Liberal Democrat 11. Newly formed councils to Liberal Democrat 2.

The loss of 1,400 councillors is believed to be Labour's largest at any council elections.

Three women embrace and smile in a crowded room. Two of the women are wearing a green Green party ribbon.

Getty

Green party candidate Ifhat Shaheen is embraced by supporters after winning a seat in Stoke Newington

There are four people in the foreground looking off to the right and appearing mildly anxious. There are people out of focus in the background. The four in the foreground wear red Labour ribbons and red Labour shirts

PA Media

Labour party activists look on as ballot papers are counted Clacton Leisure Centre in Essex

A surge in support for Nigel Farage's party in both former Labour and Conservative heartlands means that more councils in the North, Midlands and South of England are now under Reform UK control.

A map of the district council results in England. Councils won by reform in the midlands and north are highlighted — 10 in total. There is an annotation for Sunderland and Barnsley. In Sunderland, Reform won 58 of the 75 seats. A picture shows three people wearing Reform ribbons smilling and lifting their arms in celebration. In Barnsley Labour lost control of Barnsley to Reform. A picture shows two people wearing Labour ribbons looking anxious yet relieved.

Reform's support came at the expense of both Conservative and Labour, whose combined share of the vote went down by almost 30 percentage points. The other party to benefit was the Greens.

Change in vote share from 2022 election by party (percentage points)

Votes share change for each party is as follows: Labour -18, Green +9.8, Reform +19.8, Lib Dem -3.7, Conservative -9.9, Other parties +2

A map of the district council results in England. Councils won by reform in the south are highlighted — 2 in total. There is an annotation for Havering where reform won 39 of 55 seats. There is an image of Nigel Farage looking excited amongst supporters.

In the South of England, Reform took control of Thurrock from Labour, but also flipped two Tory-held county councils.

They were Suffolk, where Conservatives have dominated for decades, and Essex, where several members of Kemi Badenoch's shadow cabinet hold seats in Parliament.

County council results

A before and after map of the county council election. The results are as follows: Hampshire Conservatives loss. No party majority. West Sussex Conservatives loss. No party majority. East Sussex No party majority hold. Essex Reform gain from Conservative. Suffolk Reform gain from Conservative. Norfolk Conservative loss. No party majority

The Greens had their best ever performance in council elections, boosting their vote share and gaining more than 400 new councillors. The Lib Dems' vote share went down - but they picked up more than 150 extra councillors.

All of Labour's woes came together in London where they faced challenge from both the left and the right. Defending 21 of the capital's 32 boroughs, the party ended up with control of only nine and lost more than 450 of their of their 1,100 council seats.

Labour

Conservative

Lib Dem

Green

Reform UK

No party majority

Other

No election

A side by side image of council control in London before and after the election. Prior to the election, the number of councils held by each party was as follows: Labour 21, Conservative 5, Lib Dem 3, and No party majority 3. Following the election, the councils held by each party are as follows: Labour 9, Conservative 6, Lib Dem 3, Green 3, Reform 1, No party majority 9, and Aspire 1. 1 council has no election. Hackney, Waltham Forest, and Lewisham are noted for flipping to Green and similarly Havering is noted for flipping to Reform.

'Catastrophic' result for Labour in Wales

An image of the South Wales Valley. There are several terraced houses alongside a leafy hill. The image is coloured red.

It's difficult to overstate the extent of Labour's collapse in Wales. The outgoing First Minister, Eluned Morgan - who lost her own seat - called the results "catastrophic". It has been the largest party in Cardiff Bay since the start of devolution in 1999, but in the new Parliament, Labour will only have nine of the 96 Members of the Senedd (MSs).

A map showing that Afan Ogwr Rhondda, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni are located in southeast Wales

Notional Labour vote share figures for Afan Ogwr Rhondda, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni for the 2021 election. The figures are as follows: Afan Ogwr Rhondda 49%, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr 47%, and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni 44%.

Parts of the south Wales valleys have consistently voted Labour in national elections for more than a century. At the last Senedd election in 2021, the party's support was close to 50%.

A slope chart showing Labour's vote share in Afan Ogwr Rhondda, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni in the 2021 election (notional results) and the 2026 election. The figures are as follows: Afan Ogwr Rhondda 49% in 2021 to 17% in 2026, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr 47% in 2021 to 13% in 2026 and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni 44% in 2021 to 11% in 2026.

On Thursday, however, Labour's vote share plummeted.

A slope chart showing Reform's vote share in Afan Ogwr Rhondda, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni in the 2021 election (notional results) and the 2026 election. In 2021, the vote share in all three constituencies was 1%. In 2026, it had risen to 34%, 31%, and 35% in Afan Ogwr Rhondda, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni respectively.

Reform UK picked up lots of these votes, seeing its share surge from the tiny proportion it received in 2021.

A slope chart showing Plaid Cymru's vote share in Afan Ogwr Rhondda, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni in the 2021 election (notional results) and the 2026 election. The figures are as follows: Afan Ogwr Rhondda 24% in 2021 to 37% in 2026, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr 21% in 2021 to 40% in 2026 and Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni 23% in 2021 to 42% in 2026.

But it was Plaid Cymru who topped the poll in all three of these valleys constituencies and will send nine MSs to the Senedd.

Parts of the south Wales valleys have consistently voted Labour in national elections for more than a century. At the last Senedd election in 2021, the party's support in these areas was close to 50%.

Afan Ogwr Rhondda, Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, Blaenau Gwent Caerfilli Rhymni, Casnewydd Islwyn, and Sir Fynwy Torfaen are located in southeast Wales

On Thursday, however, Labour's vote share plummeted.

Reform UK picked up lots of these votes, seeing its share surge from the tiny proportion it received in 2021.

But it was Plaid Cymru who topped the poll in all three of these valleys constituencies and will send nine MSs to the Senedd.

Succeeding an unbroken line of six Labour first ministers is likely to be Rhun ap Iorwerth, the leader of Plaid Cymru - the largest party in the Senedd with a group of 43 MSs.

A collage of the Welsh first ministers. Each first minister is shown in a black and white, full-body, cutout photo. There is an accompanying timeline of their tenures. The names of the first ministers and the date they held office are as follows: Alun Michael 1999-2000, Rhodri Morgan 2000 to 2009, Carwyn Jones 2009 to 2018, Mark Drakeford 2018 to 2024, Vaughan Gething 2024, Eluned Morgan 2024 to 2026, and Rhun ap Iorwerth 2026 to present

But to be elected as first minister and begin governing Wales, he will need to secure the support of at least one other party.

Ap Iorwerth has consistently ruled out working with Reform UK, but some form of co-operation with Labour seems likely.

Dan Thomas, the Welsh leader of Reform UK, the second-largest party, will have more of a challenge to form a majority. During the campaign, only the Conservatives declined to rule out working with them, but the two parties combined still fall short of the 49-seat threshold.

A stacked bar showing the distribution of seats by party after the Senedd election. The number of seats per party is as follows: Plaid Cymru 43, Labour 9, Green 2, Lib Dem 1, Conservative 7, Reform UK 34. The majority line of 49 seats is indicated.

SNP enters its 20th year in government

With 58 MSPs, the Scottish National Party will return to government for its fifth term. And one man has been at the top table throughout: the First Minister John Swinney.

A photo of the Scottish cabinet from Alex Salmond's first government in 2007. John Swinney, standing on the sides, is highlighted, and first minister Salmond is sitting in the middle front. They are wearing business attire and pictured in an ornate room.

From Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth under Alex Salmond in 2007...

A photo of the Scottish cabinet from Alex Salmond's second government in 2011. John Swinney is highlighted and stood towards the back. First minister Salmond stands at the front alongside Nicola Sturgeon. They are pictured standing on the steps outside Bute House. Many of the cabinet members are waving (though Swinney is not)

A photo of the Scottish cabinet from Nicola Sturgeon's first government in 2014. John Swinney is highlighted and stands in the second row, just behind Sturgeon.. They are pictured standing on the steps outside Bute House and smiling politely.

A photo of the Scottish cabinet from Nicola Sturgeon's second government in 2016. John Swinney is highlighted and stands in the second row, just behind Sturgeon. They are pictured standing on the steps outside Bute House and smiling politely.

A photo of the Scottish cabinet from Nicola Sturgeon's third government in 2021. They are pictured standing on the steps outside Bute House. John Swinney is highlighted and stands towards the left of the frame, next to Sturgeon though a few feet apart. Another cabinet member stands to the right of Sturgeon, again a few feet away.

A photo of the Scottish cabinet from John Swinney's government in 2024. John Swinney is highlighted and stands at the centre front. They are pictured standing on the steps outside Bute House and smiling politely.

...to First Minister of Scotland in 2024. Apart from a short break during Hamza Yousaf's 14 months as First Minister in 2023-24, Swinney has been a part of every SNP cabinet.

Before the election, Swinney predicted that the SNP would secure an overall majority - which he claimed would be a mandate to demand a second referendum on independence.

His party fell seven seats short of that, although the record number of Scottish Green MSPs means that there are more politicians from pro-independence parties (73 out of 129) than ever before.

Stacked bar chart showing number of seats by party and year. 1999: SNP 35, Scottish Green 1, Other 1. 2003: SNP 27, Scottish Green 7, Other 7. 2007: SNP 47, Scottish Green 2, Other 1. 2011: SNP 69, Scottish Green 2, Other 1. 2016: SNP 63, Scottish Green 6, Other 0. 2021: SNP 64, Scottish Green 8, Other 0. 2026: SNP 58, Scottish Green 15, Other 0.

Reform UK had hoped for a breakthrough in Scotland, but returning 17 MSPs - the same as Labour - leaves them less dominant than in Wales.

The decision of voters to keep Reform from power at Holyrood may have helped the SNP, but Reform’s rise, alongside stronger Green support across all three nations, points to a further fracturing of traditional party politics in Britain.

Photo credits

Getty, Scottish Government, PA Media

More on this story

What latest election results show us in maps and charts

Historic win for SNP but change and challenges ahead at Holyrood

Plaid Cymru wants to run Welsh government on its own, leader says