British Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted Friday that he will not resign after bruising elections that saw his governing Labour Party suffer big losses, with major gains for the anti-immigrant Reform UK and the far-left, anti-Israel Green Party winning its first directly elected mayoralty.

Both Reform and the Greens face accusations of antisemitism and bigotry at a time when Jews in the UK are under increasing threat.

The local and regional elections are widely seen as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he led Labour to power less than two years ago.

Early results underscored the fracturing of Britain’s traditional two-party system, with the once-dominant Labour and Conservative parties losing votes not only to Reform, but to the left-wing Green Party at the other end of the political spectrum, and to nationalists in Scotland and Wales. The centrist Liberal Democrats made some gains.

The main beneficiary was the populist Reform UK party of Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, which gained more than 400 council seats in England, and could form the main opposition in Scotland and Wales to the pro-independence Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru in results later on Friday.

Across the UK, Labour lost votes to Reform UK on its right, and also to the Green Party, whose popularity has risen under self-described “eco populist” leader Zack Polanski.

Polanski has made anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian issues a centerpiece of his party’s platform, and he and many of his party’s candidates are also alleged to have engaged in antisemitism.

The Greens hoped to win hundreds of council seats in urban centers and university towns, and took the mayoralty of traditionally Labour-supporting Hackney in east London. Hackney Council is responsible for Stamford Hill, home to tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Speaking outside the vote count, the Jewish, anti-Israel Polanski hailed the “historic victory” and declared “two-party politics is no longer dying; it is dead and buried.”

“My message to Keir Starmer is that he needs to go. But I don’t think that’s my message; I think that’s the country message,” said Polanski. “We’ve seen for a long time now his popularity has been going, and he’s lost........

© The Times of Israel