The Conservatives are on track to lose more than 1,000 seats and dozens of councils after a disastrous local election that showed Labor becoming the largest party in local government.
By 2.30am on Saturday morning, the Conservatives had lost 960 councilors and lost control of 48 councils, while Labor had won 635 seats and 22 councils. The Liberal Democrats won 12 councils and 416 councillors.
With all but two seats declared, the Conservatives sat a total of 2,287 councilors and 33 councils, while Labor sat 2,652 councilors and 71 councils, and the Liberal Democrats sat 1,615 councilors and 29 councils.
The results mean that Sir Keir Starmer’s party has surpassed the Tories at council level for the first time since 2002.
Sir Keir said he was on track to win a majority in the next general election after the party made gains and the Tories suffered heavy losses in local elections across England.
Labor gained control of Plymouth from the Tories, then did the same in Stoke-on-Trent and Medway, securing overall control of the latter for the first time since 1998.
Addressing Labor activists in Medway, Sir Keir said: “What a fantastic result here in Medway. And we are having fantastic results across the country.
“Plymouth. What a night they’ve had at Plymouth and then Stoke and on to Middlesbrough – all the places we need to win, the battlefields, and make no mistake we’re on course for a Labor majority at the next general election.”
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats said they had gained control of the Surrey Heath Council, which includes the constituency of Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove.
The BBC predicted that if all of Britain were given the chance to vote in local elections and behaved in the same way as those who voted yesterday, Labor would have a nine-point lead over the Conservatives, at 35 per cent for. their 26 percent.
Electoral Calculus data suggests that would likely translate to a 56-seat majority.
However, Sir John Curtice, Britain’s leading polling expert, said: “While Labor has met the minimum threshold they have set for themselves, the party will be disappointed not to have been more successful this year than last.”
A defiant Rishi Sunak told broadcasters he did not believe there had been a “massive tidal wave of movement towards the Labor Party” as he called Tory’s losses “disappointing”.
(TagsToTranslate)Rishi Sunak
