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The Conservative Party suffered heavy defeats in local elections, suggesting Labor remains on track to win power later this year.
Rishi Sunak has been boosted by the Conservative Party’s victory in the Tees Valley and the admission by rebels within his party that it is unlikely they will be able to force him to resign before the general election.
But pollsters, disgruntled Tory supporters and even some ministers say the prime minister has important work to do if he is to have any hope of overturning Labour’s significant poll lead. I warned you that
Labor lost the South Blackpool seat from the Conservatives in a by-election, with Reform UK on the verge of overtaking them into second place.
As of Friday night, the Conservative Party had lost more than 350 MPs, almost half of all the seats it held across England, while mayors in North Yorkshire and the East Midlands, former Conservative strongholds, had been lost. Labor won the election, gaining well over 100 members. The MPs lost support despite losing support in some quarters over the party’s stance on the Gaza war.
Ben Houchen’s victory in the Tees Valley is a rare bright spot for the Conservative Party, with party officials predicting Andy Street will be re-elected as West Midlands mayor when the region’s results are announced on Saturday. I’m optimistic that it will happen.
There was also speculation that Conservative challenger Susan Hall would mount a surprisingly strong challenge to London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The results of the London election are expected to be announced on Saturday afternoon.
The BBC’s predicted national share (an estimate of what the outcome would be if all of Britain voted) shows Labor at 34% and the Conservatives at 25%, with the Liberal Democrats in third place with at least 60 MPs. It became. 17%.
Polling expert Sir John Curtis said there was little difference to last year’s local elections, adding: “The big message from local polling stations is that the Conservatives remain in serious electoral difficulty. ” he concluded.
Mr Sunak insisted he was confident voters would “stick with” the Conservative Party, while Sir Keir Starmer said: “We need to turn the page and join a new Labor Party that has a positive plan for the country. We need to start.”
The Conservative rebels, who have been leading the effort to mount a challenge to the formal leadership, appeared to have conceded defeat, but Lord Houchen warned: , we can’t get rid of Liz, we can’t go through what we’ve gone through in the last few years, and to think, “Tell me what we’re going to do, we’re going to get kicked out.” We cannot have another Prime Minister with Mr Rishi and hope that the country will support the Conservative Party. ”
But some party figures warned that dissatisfaction with Mr Sunak remained strong, with one MP saying the Prime Minister was “very lucky Boris is not in Parliament”.
The former minister added: “We’ll get more letters from colleagues who think they have no other choice. But unless it’s Boris’s replacement and he’s not an option, it probably won’t bring any further improvement.”
In addition, one current minister warned, “Mr. Houchen’s victory is a positive thing for the prime minister, but I feel that many members of parliament are taking a wait-and-see attitude as to whether they will maintain their support for him.”
Another cabinet minister claimed that “people are in a pretty good mood right now”, adding: “If we can win at least one more mayoral election from the West Midlands or London, it would cheer the party up quite a bit given the predicted doom. ” he added.
After around 80% of the councils that had held elections announced their results, the Conservatives lost control of six local authorities, while Labor gained a majority in seven. Sir Keir’s party also won the north-east mayoral election over a challenge from left-leaning independent candidate Jamie Driscoll.