Not all the votes in the local elections in England and Wales have been counted yet – but there are already signs of defeat for the governing Tories. This increases Prime Minister Sunak's concerns about the upcoming general election.
The Tories in government in Great Britain suffered heavy losses in the local elections in England and Wales. This puts pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of the upcoming general election.
More than 2,600 mandates are awarded in the local elections – from city and municipal councils to mayors and other local representatives. Not all results are available yet, they are not expected until Saturday.
Labor victories in the Tory heartland
However, as the AP news agency reported, after counting around a quarter of all votes cast, the Tories have already lost more than 120 seats, while the opposition Labor Party has gained around 50. In the 2021 local elections, the Conservatives received 40 percent of the vote, while Labor received 30 percent.
In some cases, Labor won a majority of votes in city councils where it had formed the opposition for decades. In the Rushmoor district, the party even won local elections for the first time. Labor also won in, among other places, Hartlepool in the north-east of England and Thurrock in the south-east – both regions in which a majority voted for Brexit in 2016, which actually reflects a closer connection to the conservative Tories.
“A vote for change”
In a by-election in the Blackpool South constituency in northern England, the Tories also lost a parliamentary seat in the House of Commons to Labor. The previous MP had to resign due to a lobbying scandal.
With regard to Labour's majority, party leader Keir Starmer even spoke of a “landslide victory”. The result speaks for the entire country. People have had enough after “14 years of failure, 14 years of decline.” They wanted a new beginning under the Labor Party.
Starmer further stressed: “This is the only election where voters have had the chance to send a direct message to Rishi Sunak's Conservatives, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.”
Conservative Party Chairman Richard Holden, however, spoke of “a tough night” and admitted that the Tories “obviously couldn't achieve great results”.
Tories are in the polls
The local elections are seen as setting the mood for the upcoming general elections in Great Britain, which must be held by January of next year at the latest. Prime Minister Sunak had announced the election would probably take place in the second half of this year.
But in current polls his Tories are around 20 percentage points behind Labor, as the Reuters news agency reported. The Conservative Party is threatened with an end to government after 14 years.
