The Conservatives suffered a net loss of nearly 400 councilors when a day’s counting of votes yielded a series of local election results for Prime Minister.
Ministers acknowledged it had been “tough” on the ruling party, particularly in the south of England, where it lost ground to Labor in London and the Liberal Democrats in the heart of the “blue wall”, but cautioned against extrapolating results at the national level.
As losses piled up throughout the day, Tory figures continued to publicly raise the possibility of Boris Johnson being replaced as party leader, as a senior pollster suggested middle-class and upper-class voters they had distanced themselves from the PM after his fixed penalty notice for breaking Covid laws
Labor, facing difficulties of its own after police announced an investigation into whether leader Sir Keir Starmer broke lockdown rules last year, said the result had been “shattering” for the Conservatives.
A Labor spokeswoman said: “Boris Johnson was on the ballot paper and the British public has rejected him.
“The question every decent Conservative will ask is how much more are they prepared to fall in love with a man who never fails to put his own interest above his councilors, his MPs, his party and his country.”
Tory Peer Lord Hayward said there had been an “upper and middle class revolt” against Johnson’s leadership.
Speaking to TalkTV, the election analyst said it was the “college, managerial and stay-oriented groups that defected,” while long-term Conservative supporters stayed home during local elections.
The former MP said the losses were likely to “increase unease” over allegations of parties breaking coronavirus rules in Downing Street, with the potential for tough by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton yet to come.
“There are a number of hurdles that Boris Johnson has to deal with, and there is no doubt that it was a problem, and a big problem, at the gates, in some parts of the country more than others,” added Lord Hayward.
Earlier on Friday, David Simmonds, the Conservative MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, said “a change of leader” could be a way to restore public confidence in the government after admitting voters had brought up so-called partygate.
But Agriculture Minister Victoria Prentis said Johnson had developed a strong reputation as a winner and argued it was “too early” to say he had hampered the party’s performance in Thursday’s poll.
Admitting that the results in some areas have been “harsh”, he told the BBC’s Newsnight: “I think it’s important that we keep remembering that these are local elections… and we shouldn’t try to extrapolate too many national trends.
“I know it’s very tempting, but there’s very low turnout in a lot of these elections and I think it’s very difficult to make any concrete guesses about what (the results would look like in a general election).”
An analysis for the BBC by Professor Sir John Curtice calculated that if the whole country had been voting, Labor would have won 35% of the vote, five points ahead of the Tories on 30%, the party’s biggest lead. in local elections for a decade. .
Labour’s most striking achievements came in London, where they seized Tory totemic authority at Wandsworth, won Westminster for the first time since its creation in 1964, and achieved victory at Barnet.
The Conservatives, however, managed to wrest Harrow away from their red rivals, providing a silver lining to their troubles in the capital.
Sir Keir’s side also wrested Southampton from the Conservatives and Worthing in traditionally Tory West Sussex without any overall control.
Monmouthshire, the only council controlled by a Conservative majority in Wales before the polls opened, had no overall control and Labor became the largest party.
The Conservatives also fell to third place in Scotland behind the dominant SNP and a resurgent Scottish Labour.
But despite the celebrations, Labor found the outcome overshadowed by Durham Police’s announcement that officers will investigate whether a beer and curry event last year in Durham attended by Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner broke covid rules.
Sir Keir again insisted that no rule had been broken after the force declared an investigation was underway after receiving “significant new information”.
The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party enjoyed a strong electoral performance, ending Friday’s count with a net 189 and 81 council seats, respectively.
Sir Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats seized the new Unitary authorities of Somerset, also traditional Conservative territory, and Westmorland and Furness, and evicted the Conservatives in West Oxfordshire, leaving the council with no overall control.
After the full results of 196 councils in England, Scotland and Wales were declared, the Tories lost control of 12 authorities and suffered a net loss of 398 councillors.
Labor had a net gain of eight councils and over 250 seats and the Liberal Democrats had won five councils.
In Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein is on course for a historic victory in the Assembly elections, after receiving the most first preference votes.
The Republican party won 29% of the first preference vote, compared to 21.3% for the DUP, 13.5% for the Alliance, 11.2% for the Ulster Unionists and 9.1% for the SDLP.
It raises the possibility of Sinn Fein becoming Prime Minister and is sure to revive the debate on a united Ireland.
Mary Lou McDonald, the party’s president and leader, told TalkTV that she believed a border survey would be “possible within five years.”
Reference-www.thenational.scot