UK Labour leader reshuffles team after poor local election results

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Labour Party leader Keir Starmer leaves his home after local elections in London, Britain May 7, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has reshuffled his team after disappointing results in local elections that further strengthened Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's grip on power.

Labour lost control of a number of local authorities and of the parliamentary seat of Hartlepool, a Labour bastion for many decades. It held on to city halls in London, Manchester and elsewhere, but those successes could not mask its retreat in areas that used to be party strongholds.