Plaid Cymru have won 43 seats in Wales’s Senedd election with all constituencies declared, Bethan McKernan reports, putting the Welsh nationalists in a comfortable position to form a minority government and ending more than 100 years of Labour hegemony.Polls consistently suggested Plaid Cymru and Reform UK were neck and neck in the race to become the biggest party under Wales’s new more proportional voting system.As in last year’s closely watched Caerphilly Senedd byelection, however, the contest was not as close as predicted.Reform has come in second, with 34 seats – up from 1% of the vote share in 2021’s election.Labour, for so long Wales’s political behemoth, has limped into third place with just nine seats in a 96 seat parliament.

Read Beth and Steven Morris’ full report below:The Guardian’s live coverage of the UK’s local elections is coming to an end for today.Below is a round-up of the key events as the counts have come in.Keir Starmer is facing pressure to step down from some of his MPs after Labour suffered poor results in the elections, losing over 1,000 councillors in England and historic loses in the Welsh Senedd election.Asked if he would stand as prime minister at the next election, Starmer replied: “Yes.There’s a five-year term I was elected to do.

I intend to see that through,”Richard Burgon, who is on the left of the Labour party and was a Jeremy Corbyn loyalist under his tenure as Labour leader, released a statement saying that Labour’s local election results have “Keir Starmer’s name written all over it”,A number of other Labour MPs called for Keir Starmer to go, or to set out a timetable for his departure,However, Starmer’s cabinet have remained loyal to the PM so far,Speaking from Chelmsford, Essex, Nigel Farage said the election results have reflected a “truly historic shift in voting patterns” in the UK after his Reform party won more than 1,000 councillors and won control of at least seven councils.

“The results in the ‘red wall’ are truly astonishing,” Farage said, celebrating Reform’s gains from Labour in the Midlands, the North East and the North West,He also laid into the Conservatives, saying “no one would forgive them” for the decisions they took while in power,The Green party also made gains in these elections, winning hundreds of council seats and the mayoral race in Hackney and Lewisham,“Today, we start the fightback,” said the new Hackney mayor, Zoë Garbett,“Across London and the country, people have made it clear that they are desperate for an alternative to this failing Labour government.

It is not old parties versus new parties, this is about a system of fear versus a movement of hope.”Plaid Cymru won 43 seats in Wales’s Senedd election, putting the Welsh nationalists in a comfortable position to form a minority government and ending more than 100 years of Labour hegemony.Eluned Morgan, Wales’s Labour first minister, lost her seat in the Senedd elections, the first major indicator of an expected near-wipeout for the party that has led Cymru since devolution began in 1999.John Swinney, the Scottish National party leader, challenged Keir Starmer to show “greater respect” to the Scottish government after winning the Holyrood elections by a comfortable margin.The Scottish National party secured a record fifth term in office on Friday after securing at least 57 of Holyrood’s 129 seats, with Labour and Reform vying for a distant second place.

With 129 of 136 results already declared from English councils, we won’t have full results tonight – or even tomorrow.The Birmingham City Council poll count was halted with just two of 101 seats left to declare.Returning officer Rob Connelly confirmed that the count in the remaining ward would resume on Monday.The undeclared ward – Glebe Farm and Tile Cross – is understood to have gone to several recounts.With two seats remaining to be decided, Reform had won 22 seats, Green Party 19, Labour 17, Conservatives 16, independents 13 and Lib Dems 12.

PA gives some further quotes from Wes Streeting, who declined to say he believed Keir Starmer was the right person to lead Labour into the next general election.Asked whether he believed Starmer was the right person to do so, he told reporters in Redbridge: “Keir Starmer won a general election in 2024 that people thought was absolutely impossible after Labour’s crushing defeat in 2019.“Now there’s no doubt that with the message that the voters have sent us across England, Wales and Scotland, that the Government bears a huge degree of responsibility for good Labour people losing, we have to take that on the chin, we have to respect the voters, and we have to show that Labour can still be the change that people are crying out for, the change that they voted for at the last general election, the change that they’ve demanded through this set of elections.”Wes Streeting said Keir Starmer will “have my support” in setting out how the government will move forward.The health secretary, who is widely viewed as a potential leadership contender, told reporters at the count for Redbridge Council: “Keir Starmer will be setting out how he will do that as our leader and prime minister.

“He will have my support in doing that, and I’ll continue putting my shoulder to the wheel as the health and social care secretary, who’s getting the NHS back on its feet and making sure it’s fit for the future.”Keir Starmer is under pressure to set out a timeline for his departure after a crushing defeat in elections across Britain prompted senior Labour MPs to call for him to step down within a year, Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot write.double quotation markWhile the prime minister appeared to have avoided an immediate coup, there was a furious response to the results among senior MPs and the unions, with some warning him to change course or risk electoral oblivion.By Friday evening, 10 more MPs had called for him to set out a timetable for departure from No 10.Louise Haigh, a former cabinet minister and co-chair of the powerful Tribune group of MPs, was the first to break cover.

“What is abundantly clear is that unless the government delivers significant and urgent change, then the prime minister cannot lead us into another election,” she said.One senior backbencher said: “We want Keir to agree a timetable for his departure, but we want it to be dignified.He should have his last conference this autumn and then oversee a leadership contest straight after.He can’t take us into next year’s locals.It’s too late.

”However, Starmer insisted that he “won’t walk away” from the leadership as doing so would “plunge the party into chaos”, although he acknowledged that voters were fed up with the slow pace of change.Read the full report at the link below:Reform UK’s Scottish leader has said his party is “behind the curve” north of the border, as he branded opponents “disrespectful” for not staying until the end of an election count.Speaking in a nearly empty counting hall at the Braehead Arena in Renfrew, Malcolm Offord said he had been disappointed not to win the constituency in which he was running, PA reports.Offord finished third in Inverclyde, though he was still elected on the regional list.With almost all Scottish Parliament seats declared, Reform are vying with Scottish Labour for second place.

He said his political opponents were “disrespectful” for not staying at the count in Renfrew until the end, saying: “I think I’m here till the end because we recognise that voters all came to the polls … the least thing I could do was wait until the end, and I’m glad I’ve done that.”Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has said he always expected a “tough election”, on a day which has so far seen his party lose at least 12 seats, PA reports.With 91 out of 129 Holyrood seats declared, the Scottish Conservatives have held on to four of the five constituencies they won at the last election in 2021.One-time party leader Jackson Carlaw lost his Eastwood seat to the SNP’s Kirsten Oswald, and the party also lost five of its regional seats.Speaking to journalists at a count at the Braehead Arena in Renfrew, Mr Findlay said votes for Reform had caused his party to lose to the SNP in a number of close-fought seats.

“In many seats the Scottish Conservative candidates were beaten by the narrowest of margins, and that’s because people voted for Reform in those seats and let the SNP through the middle.”Findlay is a candidate in the West of Scotland regional list, which is expected to be declared later on Friday.Ed Miliband has joined the Labour cabinet MPs lining up to back Keir Starmer after Labour’s poor showing in the local elections.“These are devastating election results for Labour and I’m deeply sorry for all of those colleagues who have lost their seats,” Miliband said in a post on X.“Voters are making clear their anger at a broken economic and political status quo.

As Keir has said, we must go further in delivering the mandate for change that Labour won in 2024 - and show how we will answer the call for change in our country.”News wire PA provides some key developments after 120 of 136 English councils had declared full results:Labour had lost control of 29 councils and suffered a net loss of 914 seats.Reform gained control of 12 councils and added 1,200 seats.The Conservatives suffered a net loss of seven councils and 373 councillors.The Liberal Democrats won two councils and gained a net 98 seats.

The Green Party gained control of three councils and put on 211 councillors,Labour has maintained overall control of Camden Council, despite a challenge from the Greens,Labour won 30 seats out of the 55 on the council, down from 47 at the last election,The council takes in Keir Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency,As well as losing seats in its traditional Red Wall, Labour has been counting its losses in London too.

Labour has lost Hackney to the Greens,The party also failed to keep its majority in Southwark, Enfield and Brent,We are still waiting on results for Croydon, Lambeth, Haringey, Lewisham, Newham and Tower Hamlets,The Greens also won the mayoral elections in Hackney and Lewisham,Labour MP for Bassetlaw and Red Wall Caucus chair Jo White has warned that today’s results have been “really, really difficult for Sir Keir”.

Speaking to Sky, she said that “big, big changes” were required, though she would not be drawn on whether she thought it was time for a new Labour leader.“I’m meeting with my Red Wall colleagues on Wednesday, as soon as we get back into Parliament.Our focus is on delivery and getting that, economic investment into our communities,” White said.When asked whether she thought Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham would serve the Red Wall MPs better, she said she didn’t “think it’s time” for him.All 73 constituency seats in the Scottish Parliament election have been declared, with the SNP holding Uddingston + Bellshill being the final such result.

Among the 73 constituency seats, the SNP won 57, the Scottish Lib Dems won seven, the Scottish Conservatives won four, Scottish Labour won three and the Greens won two.Speaking from Chelmsford, Essex, Nigel Farage has said the election results have reflected a “truly historic shift in voting patterns” in the UK.“The results in the Red Wall are truly astonishing,” Farage said, celebrating Reform’s gains from Labour in the Midlands, the North East and the North West.He also laid into the Conservatives, saying “no one would forgive them” for the decisions they took while in power.He wrapped up his speech by saying: “The results have exceeded, frankly, the best expectations I had – for Essex, for Suffolk – for many areas.

”Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill has hailed the gains of the SNP and Plaid Cymru as a seismic shift in the political landscape of the UK.“For the first time in history there could be three nationalist, pro-independence and pro-self-determination First Ministers,” said O’Neill.“I want to send my congratulations to the SNP and Plaid Cymru for their historic success.“It is clear people want better.They want a brighter future, filled with hope.

“More and more people are looking beyond the constraints of Westminster where decisions are made without regard for people and communities in Scotland, Wales and the north of Ireland.“That future is beyond Westminster.The desire for independence cannot be ignored.“I look forward to working closely with John Swinney and Rhun ap Iorwerth to build on the existing relationships, strengthen the ties that bind us and continue the momentum towards constitutional change.”Last month the Guardian reported on how strong election results for nationalist parties who aim to break up the UK could reshape politics’.

“The change will be seismic,” said Angus Robertson, a senior minister in the Scottish government.The Green Party has won a majority on Hackney council, usually a Labour stronghold.By 8.30pm, 37 Green councillors had been elected out of 57 seats, ousting Labour for the first time since 2002 when the council had no overall control.Labour has so far held onto just eight seats of 43 it had held.