Infighting has broken out in the Labour Party after a devastating night in the local elections, with the party losing 187 seats. Many have called for change to avoid a Reform takeover at a national level at the next General Election. Many within the Labour Party have condemned Keir Starmer's unpopular policies, such as cutting winter fuel payments and disability benefits.

Nigel Farage's party won 677 seats in the local elections and also narrowly took Runcorn and Helsby from Labour in the by-election by just six votes. Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne told Sky News that Starmer is on the way to becoming more unpopular than Margaret Thatcher in the Labour-voting city. Byrne said: "If we don’t roll back on policies which harm those most struggling after years of austerity, we will roll out the red carpet to Reform."

He added: "Starmer is reaching the unpopularity levels of Margaret Thatcher in Liverpool and the failure to grant a Hillsborough Law was the final straw to many in my city."

The narrowly re-elected Doncaster Mayor, Ros Jones, condemned Starmer's winter fuel decision as "wrong".

Jones said: “I wrote as soon as the winter fuel allowance was actually mooted, and I said it was wrong, and therefore I stepped in immediately and used our household support fund to ensure no one in Doncaster went cold during the winter.

"I think the results here tonight will demonstrate that they need to be listening to the man, woman and businesses on the street, and actually deliver for the people, with the people.”

Meanwhile, Labour MP Rachael Maskell said her party needs to scrap winter fuel and welfare cuts. She urged Labour to listen to society's needs rather than take from the " pockets of the poorest."

The York Central MP told BBC Breakfast: “We’re not any other political party, we were created to serve the needs of people across working areas of our country so that people had a real voice of the kind of change that they wanted to see."

She explained that if Labour wants to progress, it needs to understand its responsibility to continue the 1945 welfare state.

Maskell said: “So, scrapping these proposals to push disabled people into hardship is an absolutely crucial part of that change, showing that we’re going to be listening to the country and protecting the people at their time of need.

“Of course we want to get more people into work. Of course the changes to the health system is really crucial … but also we’ve got to help people and care for people as we go on that journey.”

“People went cold last winter and that’s not what a Labour government should be doing. We have got that mandate, I believe, as a party to look at how we can better redistribute wealth, as opposed to taking out of the pockets of the poorest.”