Reform UK’s slogan for the 2026 elections – “Get Starmer out” – is a curious one.
Start with the obvious: it’s simply not true in any direct sense. A vote in May, in a set of devolved and local elections, will not remove the Prime Minister. That’s not how the system works. However emphatically Reform UK performs, Keir Starmer will still be in Downing Street the morning after.
There is, of course, a more charitable interpretation. In a broader political sense, strong election results can create pressure. A bad set of local results has historically unsettled leaders, spooked backbenchers, and occasionally accelerated political decline. It is conceivable that a poor showing could weaken Starmer to the point where his position becomes untenable.
But that’s a long chain of hypotheticals. It relies on multiple contingencies: the scale of losses, the reaction of Labour MPs, the media narrative, and Starmer’s own resilience. To build your central campaign message around something so indirect and uncertain feels a bit, well, small.
Local and devolved elections are, by their nature, fragmented. They are about councils, mayors, regional priorities, public services, planning decisions: the granular, everyday realities of governance. Voters are often motivated by highly specific, local concerns. Collapsing all of that into a single, nationalised message about the Prime Minister is not credible.
Of course, there is a long tradition in British politics of using local elections as proxy battles for national sentiment. Protest votes, mid-term punishments, and message-sending are all part of the democratic rhythm. But even by those standards, “Get Starmer out” feels like an overreach. An attempt to impose a general election frame on contests that simply don’t operate that way.
I can imagine the discussion about the slogan and those in favour highlighting that it speaks to the broad discontent around the PM. That it’s clear. And punchy. And that it will generate attention.
But it is also oddly detached from the actual stakes of the elections it is meant to win. And that disconnect matters more than all the points in its favour.
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