Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is heading for a historic defeat in local elections in England. As of Friday afternoon, the Tories had already lost some 250 seats in local councils and the opposition Labor Party was on track to become the country’s strongest force.
In several communities, such as Medway or Stoke-on-Trent, Labor managed to regain a majority – in some cases for the first time in decades. The result of the election has therefore been compared to the local elections of 1996, which preceded Labour’s landslide victory under former Prime Minister Tony Blair in the general election a year later.
The counting of the votes will probably continue until Friday night. “The clear message tonight is that the Conservatives have done a bad job and they could end up losing 1,000 seats,” election expert John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow told BBC 4 radio on Friday morning.
Beat even worse than expected?
Conservative politicians had already put the figure of 1,000 lost seats in play before the election – according to media observers, in the hope of being able to judge a not-so-bad result as a success afterwards. But now it can really get that bad. Whether the results point to a majority for Labor in the next general election remains to be seen, Curtice said.
Prime Minister Sunak said in an initial reaction to the result that it was “always disappointing to lose hard-working Conservative councillors”, but that it was too early to take stock. At the same time, Sunak spoke of good results in some districts.
But observers saw it differently: “Today’s local elections are a disaster for the conservatives,” the “Byline Times” portal stressed. A scene with Cabinet member Johnny Mercer reflected the mood almost symbolically: as the MP for Plymouth spoke live on the BBC about a “terrible night” for his party, it was announced in the background that Labor would be in charge of the port city in the future in southern England. Loud cheers silenced Mercer.
Election defeat puts Sunak under pressure
The heavy defeat puts pressure on Sunak, who had actually stabilized the party in his nearly 200 days in office. After the scandals of his predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, Sunak succeeded in making topics negotiable again and not just party members – and their transgressions. The election result could now destroy the good mood.
Critics within the party accuse the 42-year-old of lacking the campaign prowess of his predecessor Johnson. Sunak seems deliberately relaxed and smart. In conversations with citizens, however, the wealthy ex-investment banker does not come across as self-evident as the down-to-earth populist Johnson.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
