The Duran Podcast - UK Elections: Labour Crushed, Reform Landslide

Episode Date: May 9, 2026

UK Elections: Labour Crushed, Reform Landslide

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the elections in the UK. I believe we're talking about local elections, mostly local elections. And the results do not look good for labor or for the conservatives. And the big winner in all of this appears to be reform. Though the statements, the first statements from Stomer, is that he's not going to step down, at least. That's what he's saying in his first statements. So what do you make of these elections? Well, I think what you just said is true, but I think it understates the scale of the moment.

And in some respects, what happens to Starman now, I think he's beginning to look almost like an irrelevance. I think to talk about a revolutionary moment, these can be overstated words, but we are gradually approaching this. This isn't just a reform win, it's a reform landslide. It is an absolute breakthrough. And it has enormous significance in cultural terms as well, because what has happened is that the working class in England, which has been the bedrock of the British left, which has been the great standard bearer of English socialists. which supported and created the Labour Party and the trade union movement and all of that.

It is now fully, completely and entirely divorced itself from the left. So all of the former left-wing bastions, working class bastions across England, in northwest England, in the Midlands, in, well, all sorts of places, they are now voting overwhelmingly for reform. And of course, reform defines itself as a right-wing party in some ways to the right of the conservatives. So this is a conceptual, a political landslide. I mean, it's transformation in British politics.

I mean, to say that the Labour Party, the working class in Britain has been connected to the left, associated to the left, that has been consistently true since the 18th century. I mean, you know, we go back that far in relation to this. So this is a transformative moment. Nothing like this has happened on this kind of scale in any election before. Now, we have had previous moments in European elections, in local elections, when the kind of parties that Nigel Farage set up. in the past have done really very well and have seen to sweep the board, parties in parties like UKIP and those sort of parties.

But that was always in connection with the issue of the European Union and British membership of the European Union of the EU. This is not an issue as such in this election. So when working class voters who previously might have self-identified as left-wing, but nonetheless voted for UKIP because they wanted to leave the EU, something which, by the way, used to be a left-wing position in Britain. When that happened, that was not a transformative moment. When voters, working class voters in England, vote for a party like reform now, when membership of the European Union is not the main topic of discussion. That is a completely different thing.

So Nigel Farage is now the spokesman and leader of working class England. Now, the party that used to represent working class England, the Labour Party is now clearly in catastrophic eclipse. We have not yet got the results from London, full results from London. We've not got results from Scotland and Wales, but all the indications are that they're going to be very bad for labour there. I have to say to me, this looks like an existential moment for the world. the Labour Party, I don't really think it makes any difference in terms of the future of

Labour politics or the position of the Labour Party, whether Kirstama goes or stays. I think this event is so enormous that if Starma resigns tomorrow and someone takes his place as the leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister, I think that by now, the moment when Labour could turn it round has gone. I think they've missed the bus here. The Conservatives, well, they've won back, they've clawed back a little ground in London, in the very conservative, very affluent, very rich places where wealthy people historically have voted conservative. But everywhere else, middle-class England is also increasingly going towards reform as well.

And they are still sliding. The Green Party has done poorly. I mean, there was many expectations that it would win over support from middle-class left-wing voters. As of today, as of the time we're talking, it looks like those voters are preferring the liberals, if anything, to the Greens. So the Greens have not broken through, and I think they're going to be disappointed by this result, that we haven't yet had the results in London. But put all that aside, the big story here is reform and the fact that it is now dominating the political landscape. And it is looking increasingly now as if it will form the next government. Is reform any different than the conservatives or labor when it comes to domestic issues and when it comes to foreign policy issues?

I mean, foreign policy, it seems as if Farage is going to follow the same line as labor or the conservatives. That's how it looks foreign policy. But domestic, is he different? Well, no, really. One of the problems with reform is that it's developed so fast that it's brought. altogether people from all kinds of different political traditions. So sometimes it comes across as being a very much a free market party, which I suspect to Farage's own personal instincts.

I mean, he was a city trader at one time, so that's what you would expect him to come from. But there are other groups within reform who are perhaps more connected to the new working class base that it's winning over who you could argue. on more interventionists, they want to preserve the National Health Service, they want the more activist economic policy, more closer to that of the Labour Party. I'm going to say this about reform. One, it does itself identify as a more right-wing party.

It also is increasingly clearly now an English nationalist party, which we've never really had in Britain up to now. I mean, there have been Scottish nationalists, there have been Welsh nationalists, but this is clearly a nationalist party. Thirdly, once it becomes the government, because it brings together all sorts of people with different views, both on domestic and, by the way, even foreign policy, it's much more likely that. you're going to see people come from within reform who will challenge the political conventions of today. So if we talk, for example, about foreign policy, about Russia, Ukraine, and all of that, pretty much all of the critics of the existing policy are now voting for reform or are part of

reform. So yes, at the moment, they look like they're going to continue the same political line, but it's more likely if we get a reform government that we're going to have voices in parliament, in the government itself, perhaps in the cabinet who will actually speak out and criticize it and voice arguments against it. So, The political conformity that's had Britain in its grip, which is, you know, the globalist, WEF, EU conformity is cracking. And that, I think, is an important thing. And it's frankly necessary if there's going to be any way back for Britain today.

It's cracking, but will it go away? Will it dissolve? Or will it or will it close ranks and solidify? Well, that's the big question. I mean, that's going to be the test of reform at the end of the day. I mean, it hasn't yet formed a government. If it does form a government, I mean, if it sticks with the existing policies, then, I mean, the process of decline in Britain, which we already see is going to accelerate. I should say the financial situation is dreadful. We have a position where debt-to-GDP ratios are now over 100%, where the government can't

basically sort out a budget, where there is increasing concerns in the bond markets, so that interest on British government bonds, which confusing the, are called GILTS, are the highest in the G20. So we could very well find ourselves in a major financial crisis in the autumn. And Labor doesn't have any plan for that. The Conservatives don't really have a plan for that. If there's going to be a plan, it must come from reform. If reform cannot work out a plan if he can't look at the real problems in Britain,

if we can't address the realities of why our energy costs as high as they are, and these go beyond the issue of green policies, they absolutely are based upon foreign policy, the collapse of our relationship with Russia, the sanctions war, all of those things. Unless reform does these things, it will fail. We will have an even deeper crisis in Britain, and it will be replaced by something else. And already we see that there are parties starting to develop

actually further to the right of reform that are becoming more aggressive in articulating these views. So reform itself is on borrowed time. But despite that, despite the absolutely correct words of caution that you've introduced, we should still understand the importance of the moment, the British people, at least in England, are clearly had enough of the consensus, and they are rebelling massively against it. Whether the political class wants to acknowledge that fact or not, well, that's the reality.

Shouldn't Stommer step down? I mean, you know, you're saying it's not so important now if Stommer steps down or not, but he's, he symbolizes the, the establishment globalist class, the incompetence of the establishment, the establishment ignoring the people. Yeah. The endless amounts of money to, to Project Ukraine, the constant trips outside of the UK, hanging out with his other globalist buddies, ignoring what's happening at home. the economic situation and the lack of interest that he has for the economic situation, the lack of interest that he has for the UK, for migration issues, for all of these things. I mean, he just doesn't care.

He just wants to hang out with his global, his buddies, and poor endless amounts of money into Project Ukraine. I mean, wouldn't it be a good thing for the UK if they did see Stomer step down, even if he was replaced by another stammer, the next stomer in line, at least you get the man that symbolizes all of the bad that has been happening over the past year or two. At least he goes. Not that the reset would be any better, not that the new person would be any better, but you know. You know, you're absolutely correct.

And from a party political point of view, that is what should happen. I mean, it should have happened last year. It should have happened in the autumn of last year when it became absolutely obvious. I mean, there was no way even then that anybody could seriously, you know, had any interest or knowledge of politics, could have been in any doubt that this man is completely unfit and incapable of leading Britain at this time, that he's not a good prime minister for any time, let alone these times. and if the Labour Party had behaved like a real political party and had told him in October of last year to go,

as I thought they might do, or had told him to lead by Christmas, as I thought even more likely that they would do so. Well, then, then we might have seen a different politics. In terms of the Labour Party, I don't think it matters anymore. I think that the moment to get rid of Stama and to retrieve the position has gone. And none of the people who look likely to take over from him, I think of any ability to reconnect with the British people or have any real plan or genuine understanding of the way to go about doing it.

So that's one thing to say. But I'm going to say something else. And that is that your critique is an absolute. correct one to anyone other than an EU globalist oligarch who is the sort of person who wields power in Britain today. They look at the situation as it presents itself now. They see that everything is falling apart in terms of the mood in the country. They see that reform is on the moment.

move and is winning over the British people. They see enormous changes taking place in the world as well, changes which we discuss regularly in our programs. They also see that there is no one in the political system, the actual political class who frankly can do any better than Kirstama himself can. So think about it from their perspective. They may say to themselves, Well, look, in this situation, which is becoming increasingly unstable and increasingly volatile, where everything could break down very fast, is it really such a good idea to get rid of Stama, deeply unpopular, deeply incompetent, deeply corrupt, deeply all the bad things that you say he is, as indeed he is?

Because if we actually take this person away, then isn't that going to increase the instability? Aren't we going to have a revolving door of prime ministers? Are we going to have further instability at the center of power? Isn't that going to bring the moment when reform comes in and takes over even closer? and maybe we can win over reform, but we haven't fully managed it yet. There are all these disturbing people in it who have ideas that we don't personally like.

So let's keep Stama there. He is like, if you like, the stopper in the bottle. He keeps everything from fizzing out. So we just keep him there because we don't really want to remove him and bring on even more quills. the explosion that is to come. So I'm not saying that's the view that's ultimately going to prevail. The general sense today, this morning, in Britain, is that this is the last nail in Starrmer's coffin.

And even though he says he wants to stay, there are more voices again calling for him to go. But I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that he will go because it seems to me, that there is at least a current of view, a current of opinion within the British elite, which says, just keep them there. We give ourselves a little bit more time that way. Something might come up. We might win over more people in reform. We might be able to change reform.

If we remove Starma now, we're just bringing on the instability and bringing close of the moment when a reform that we don't wholly control takes over. So I think there is that view there. There is the alternative, which is within the Labour Party, getting out as quickly as possible, bringing West-streeting Blair-right conservative figure within the, I'd say conservative, forget about conservative, Blair-right figure within the Labour Party,

but supposedly a better communicator than Starma, bring him in, he can't possibly do worse than Starma, he might even be able to steady the ship a bit. There is that view as well, but I have to say that some of the more left-wing, or so-called left-wing, people that people have been talking about, like Burnham and Rainer, to my mind, don't look at all convincing at the moment.

It doesn't mean that they might not come in, But I don't really see that they're going to make any difference. Why not stop elections? I mean, the party's so unpopular. What's the support? 10% of Stommer? Yeah. He's got a 10% support or something like that.

How do you remain in governments with 10% support? I mean, aren't you obligated to call elections? I mean, isn't your party obligated to say, look, we've lost support. So we have to call elections at this point? Well, if you're a Democrat, that's exactly what you think. Are these people Democrats? I mean, they're not, they don't have to, they don't have to, they don't have to call elections. Constitutionally, they can cling on until 2029. So why should they call elections? Why should they, why should they, why should they call elections today and make Nigel Farage prime minister tomorrow and take that, take that, take, themselves away from the trow where they're feasting at the present time. I mean, what would you say is obviously true, as I said, if we had a democratic, truly democratic, truly accountable, truly responsible system, one in which the political class felt a degree

of responsibility towards the nation, as by the way they used to do. earlier times, as I well remember, then the argument that you are making would be not just a compelling one, but an overwhelming one. But that's all the political class we have today. I mean, I'd just say that because it's just understood, at least in Europe, it's understood that when your party hits a very low support level, under 20%, 15%, then you're pretty much going, you're pretty much obligable, you have to call stamp elections. I mean, that's just common procedure throughout all of Europe, even if the Constitution says you can stay in power for X amount of years, most political parties call elections, right? A lot of political parties

call elections before they see the bottom fall out. They see the trajectory and they try to call elections to circumvent, to short circuit, the trajectory. It doesn't. It doesn't. always work, but sometimes it works. Absolutely. Okay. Stom or Labor, they miss the boat on them that one. But now it's time for them to hand the decision to the people. Well, absolutely, but they're not going to do that.

And that's, I mean, you're absolutely correct in this. From every conceivable, moral, legal, political perspective, from a patriotic perspective, that is exactly what they should do. But these people are not going to do that. They have the terrible example. of Rishi Sunak calling an election in 2024. I've always said, by the way, that in my opinion, the reason he called that election, when he did, was precisely in order to stop reform gaining more support in Britain. He could see that the bottom had not been reached for the Conservatives and that reform

was still forming. So that's why he caught the election when he did. But the accepted conventional wisdom in Britain today was that he made a terrible mistake calling the election at that particular time. The Conservatives still had a year to go. They had another year of power than it would have been better for them

if they held on to it because they'd have managed to do even better for themselves than they eventually did. I mean, better for themselves personally. So that's the conventional wisdom on the part of the political class in Britain. And it's going to shape attitudes towards Stama. Labour MPs do not want an election tomorrow.

Yeah. Well, I'm sure they also want to take it to 2029 because that's the magic date, right? Yeah, absolutely. 2029, 2030. That's when something big is going to go down in Europe. That's when the war with Russia is going to kick off. Well, exactly. Well, exactly.

And, you know, you say to yourself, you know, between, now in 2029, three years, anything can happen. We can come up with all kinds of things. I mean, this is the outlook of these people. They do not want an election now. I don't think there's any prospect of a snap election any time soon. Well, I mean, if they're not compelled to hold that election constitutionally, then I guess you're right. Why hold it? Why hold it? Even if, even even if your popularity goes down to 2%. Yeah. You know, if you're Stamer, you've been put in that position to complete a certain job.

I imagine the first task that Stommer still needs to complete. The first objective is to reverse Brexit, and he's doing good on that. Yeah. Right? So, you know, his globalist masters are probably pretty happy with him as to what he's doing with Brexit and reversing all of that, integrating the UK back into the European Union. And then his second goal is the conflict with Russia. or at least enrich the military industrial complex, keep Project Ukraine moving and keep it going,

and then to get into some sort of a conflict, whether real or not real. I mean, maybe it doesn't happen, but at least keep the appearance of an eventual war with Russia. And everyone profits greatly from all of this. Absolutely. I just want to say a few things about that, because you're absolutely right about the European Union. He's gradually moving to Britain closer and closer and eventually once it clearly take it into the European Union. You can see that every day. Importantly, though, one thing that this vote, I think this has buried the theory that's been

circulating around, that there's been so massive buyer's remorse by the, well, certainly the English people who voted for Brexit, that they've decided that that was all a big mistake and that they would vote for Brexit now. If you look at where reform was strongest, it's in all the Brexit, pro-Brexit regions. There is no sign there, none whatsoever, of any buyer's remorse at all. They still remain committed to Brexit. They're still furious with the political class for seeking to reverse it. And that explains a lot about this current vote and about the support for reform and about the contempt and anger towards the political class in London. Now, on the other issue on Ukraine, I mean, it's actually even worse than you say,

because in the middle of a financial crisis with British bond, you know, yields on British bonds spiking with increasing talk again of Britain perhaps needing a bailout soon from the IMF. I mean, that's again out there in the media. What does Stama do? He contacts the European Union. He says to them, look, I think you're having some trouble raising this 90 billion euros that you're going to give to Ukraine. Let us join and contribute to some of that money. Let's give you five or 10 billion euros so that you can give that money to Zelensky.

That tells you how obsessive for the political class here this issue continues to be. And that's obviously another reason to keep Starr-Marin because he's absolutely loyal to them in terms of this strategy. It's a moneymaker. Absolutely. Not for the people of Britain. the country. It's a moneymaker for... It's going to buy lots of golden toilets. Exactly. Exactly. Why give that up?

Okay. Interesting results in the elections in the UK. We will end the video there. The durand.locos.com. We are on X and rumble and telegram. We are also on substack and go to the Durant shop. Pick up some merch. We have a special 30% off all t-shirts. So definitely check that out. The link to the Duran Shop is in scripture box down below. Take care.