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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Rafael Behr

Labour’s nationwide collapse risks making Nigel Farage the face of the UK’s fragile union

Nigel Farage on stage in front of giant projection of union flag
Nigel Farage at Reform UK’s annual party conference in Birmingham, 20 September 2024. Photograph: Benjamin Cremel/AFP/Getty Images

Keir Starmer has neither a heartland nor a stronghold. That is the picture likely to emerge once all the votes in this week’s local and devolved elections have been counted.

Council seats in Labour’s traditional northern-English working-class base will fall to Reform UK. Parts of inner London, where the electoral map has been red for decades, will go Green.

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