Starmer thought he could vanquish the left. Polanski has proved him wrong

While Reform UK sweeps through small-town England, the Greens are outperforming their expectations in their target urban communities. For two decades, Labour won Hackney’s mayoralty by at least a 25-percentage-point margin: the Greens took it by 12 percentage points. They’re now bullish about other inner London communities, such as Lewisham and Haringey.

In Manchester, they hoped to take six council seats – instead they won 17. They made sweeping gains in Sheffield, ousting the Labour leader, and in Newcastle. They even increased their vote share in my hometown of Stockport, as well as Oxford and Exeter.

Labour’s high command gambled that a vicious smear campaign against the Greens would lower their vote. Yet Zack Polanski’s insurgents look well positioned to replace Labour in large swathes of its urban heartland. Keir Starmer believed that if he could crush the left within Labour, he would be able to expel it from politics for ever. The Greens have proved him wrong.

The chasm between Reform and the Tories deepens

Journalist and commentator

So far, on the right, the results seem clear enough: an excellent night for Reform UK, and a potentially dangerous, not-quite-disastrous one for the Conservatives.

In 1990, victory in Westminster and Wandsworth allowed Margaret Thatcher to put a brave face on a terrible set of local election results. Kemi Badenoch fell two seats short in Wandsworth this time, but retaking Westminster may do her a similar service – especially because, since Robert Jenrick’s defection, the Tories are overall keen to avoid another round of internal recriminations.

But despite picking up seats in a few places, the overall results as they stand are dire for the party. Unlike last year’s rout, which the Conservatives could at least comfort themselves was fought in places last........

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