LONDON – Britain's ruling Conservative Party suffered heavy losses in local election results on Friday, further cementing expectations that the Labor Party will return to power after 14 years in Britain's general election in the approaching months.
Labor gained control of councils in England, which the party has not held for a long time, and was successful in a special election for a seat in Parliament.
If these results are repeated in the overall election, it will end in one in all the Conservatives' worst ever defeats.
Although the general results, admittedly with a low turnout, represent a dismal consequence for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he was in a position to breathe a sigh of relief when the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley in north-east England was re-elected, albeit with a muted results of the vote. The victory of Ben Houchen, who ran a really personal campaign, might be enough to guard Sunak from a revolt by Conservative MPs.
For Labor leader Keir Starmer, the outcomes were generally excellent, although the party's candidates in some areas with large Muslim populations, resembling Blackburn and Oldham in northwest England, appear to have suffered from the leadership's strongly pro-Israel stance within the war in Gaza.
Perhaps most vital within the context of the overall election, which must happen by January but could happen next month, is Labor retaking the parliamentary seat of Blackpool South in northwest England. The seat passed to the Conservatives on the last general election in 2019, when then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson made major inroads in pro-Brexit parts of the country.
In the competition, which was triggered by the resignation of a Conservative MP following a lobbying scandal, Labor's Chris Webb secured 10,825 votes in comparison with 3,218 votes for his second-placed Conservative opponent. The 26% swing from Conservatives to Labor was one in all the biggest because the Second World War – good enough to bring the party back to power for the primary time since its expulsion in 2010.
Starmer traveled to Blackpool, a coastal town, to congratulate Webb and called on Sunak to call a general election. Sunak has the facility to come to a decision the date and has indicated it is going to be within the second half of 2024.
“This was aimed directly at Rishi Sunak to say we are fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division and we want change,” Starmer said.
Thursday's election across much of England was vital in itself, as voters decided who would take over many elements of their day by day lives in the approaching years, resembling rubbish collection, road maintenance and native crime prevention. However, with a national election approaching, they can be viewed through a national prism.
John Curtice, professor of politics on the University of Strathclyde, said the Conservatives are losing about half of the seats they’re defending.
“We are probably looking at one of the worst, if not the worst, performance of the Conservatives in local elections in the last 40 years,” he said on BBC radio.
Late on Friday evening, with greater than half of the two,661 seats up for grabs counted, the Conservatives lost greater than 410 seats while Labor gained almost 170 seats. Other parties, resembling the centrist Liberal Democrats and the Greens, also saw gains. Reform UK, which is attempting to usurp the Conservatives from the appropriate, also had some success, particularly in Blackpool South, where it needed lower than 200 votes to secure second place.
Labor won in areas that voted for Britain to depart the European Union in 2016 and where it was defeated by Brexiteer Johnson, resembling Hartlepool in northeast England and Thurrock in southeast England. It also took control of Rushmoor, a green and heavily military council within the south of England, where it had never won.
A brilliant spot for Sunak was the end in Tees Valley, which had been a standard Labor stronghold before Brexit.
Sunak struck a defiant tone on Teesside as he congratulated Houchen, whose share fell almost 20 percentage points from 2021 to 54%, while admitting “disappointing” results elsewhere.
Sunak hopes Andy Street will remain mayor of the West Midlands when the result’s announced on Saturday. Labour's Sadiq Khan is anticipated to stay London's mayor, despite some concerns being raised that he could lose to Conservative rival Susan Hall resulting from low turnout.
Sunak became prime minister in October 2022, following the short term of his predecessor Liz Truss, who left office after 49 days after a Budget containing unfunded tax cuts roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs soaring for homeowners.
Her chaotic – and traumatic – leadership compounded the Conservatives' difficulties after the circus surrounding her predecessor Johnson, who was forced to resign after being accused of lying to Parliament about breaches of the coronavirus lockdown in his Downing Street offices .
Nothing Sunak has tried to do has modified the political trajectory, with Labor consistently leading by 20 percentage points in opinion polls. Whether anyone else can do higher than Sunak is a matter that would concern nervous Conservative MPs in Parliament ahead of the weekend.
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