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LONDON — Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have lost control of key councils in London and the south of England as the Labour Party claimed the local elections represented a “turning point.”
The local polls will be seen as a litmus test of Johnson’s leadership midway through the parliamentary term as he grapples with a cost of living crisis and the partygate scandal.
Labour took control of Wandsworth and Westminster — traditional Conservative strongholds in the capital — while the Liberal Democrats took control of Hull in the north-west of England, and picked up a clutch of seats in the south-west.
With dozens of local authorities yet to declare, Labour’s national campaign coordinator Shabana Mahmood hailed “a turning point” which showed “voters have put their trust in the change Keir Starmer’s Labour represents.”
However, it was not all rosy for the opposition as they lost vote share compared with 2018 in the North and Midlands, where they will need to make big gains at the next general election if they are to win power at a national level.
A Conservative Party official admitted the Tories had faced a “difficult” contest in London but insisted it was “a bad night for Labour across the rest of the country.”
Voters also went to the polls in a pivotal Northern Ireland Assembly election and Scottish local elections, but these results will not be known until later on Friday.
Local Conservative leaders attributed their losses both to the cost of living crisis and to the stewardship of Johnson, who has faced persistent questions over his integrity as a result of the long-running partygate scandal.
Ravi Govindia, leader of the Tories in Wandsworth, said “inevitably other events have clouded the judgment of people in Wandsworth” and admitted people raised “the issue of Boris Johnson” during the campaign.
Royston Smith, a Conservative MP in Southampton where the party also lost control of the local council to Labour, urged the prime minister and the chancellor to do more to help people deal with pressure on household budgets created by rising inflation and energy bills.
Conservatives were more positive about their fortunes in the North East and the Midlands, with a party official pointing out Labour had “gone backwards” in places such as Sunderland, Hartlepool, Nuneaton and Sandwell.
Robert Jenrick, a former Cabinet minister, said the results did not suggest “people are flocking to Keir Starmer’s banner” or that Labour is on course to win the next general election.
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper claimed her party was making “progress all over the country,” citing good results in Colchester in Essex, south-west London and Gosport in Hampshire, as well as taking control of Hull.
The Green Party made inroads, gaining seats in South Tyneside in the North East and the Wirral in the North West.
The city of Bristol voted to scrap its directly elected mayor, a position introduced ten years ago.
Turnout was on average down 2.5 percent on last year’s local elections, but John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said there was no evidence this had disproportionately hurt the Tories.
Source: Politico
