What next? Starmer must decide whether to tack right or talk to core supporters

In a week of difficult local elections, there was a special guest in No 10 to give a pep talk to staff - Arsène Wenger, the former manager of Arsenal, beloved of the prime minister.

- Jessica Elgot

In a week of difficult local elections, there was a special guest in No 10 to give a pep talk to staff - Arsène Wenger, the former manager of Arsenal, beloved of the prime minister. Keir Starmer has sought his advice before, on the importance of building a team. And they have faced some common challenges, rebuilding their clubs and parties from low ebbs to extraordinary success.

Now Starmer may face a similar challenge - and criticism - to Wenger in his later years: whether he can adapt his tactical rigidity when results start to suffer. So far a successful strategy has been to win back Conservative switchers and working-class voters who the party was felt to have abandoned. That has morphed into a deep concern about the threat of Reform. In Runcorn and Helsby, lost by an agonising six votes having been one of the safest seats, Reform showed how it could turn out its machine.

But multiple cabinet ministers have told the Guardian they are concerned the pendulum has swung too far. In that same seat, Labour retained just 55% of its vote - suggesting many of its own voters had not turned out. The Greens, however, clung on to their vote from last July.

Nigel Farage may loom large as the biggest threat in some of the party's most vulnerable seats in the north and the Midlands. But MPs and ministers say that the threat in those seats of Labour losing votes to Greens, Lib Dems and independents could just as easily be the factor that would deliver seats to Reform as more Conservative voters switch to Farage.

An example of this double bind came as council results trickled in yesterday, with Labour losing two Lancashire council seats in adjoining wards in Accrington on massive swings - one to the Greens and one to Reform UK.