On the back foot, British PM braces for election test

Amber Rudd’s departure for misleading parliament also deprives May of a key ally

With Prime Minister Theresa May on the ropes over her Brexit strategy and immigration policy, Britain’s main opposition Labour Party hopes to deliver a further blow in local elections tomorrow.

Labour is targeting traditional strongholds for May’s Conservatives such as Wandsworth, south London, just days after the resignation of top ally Amber Rudd as interior minister.

“We need a change,” Beverley Shillingford, a 54-year-old social worker living in a tower block in Wandsworth, told journalists as Labour Party supporters went canvassing door-todoor one evening in April.

Shillingford accused the borough’s Conservative leaders of “letting this place fall down” and fellow residents in the 16-storey building complained about everything from a lack of services to a mouse problem.

Defeat in the local council polls would pile further pressure on May, who is struggling to keep her party united on Brexit and whose leadership has been on borrowed time ever since she lost her party’s parliamentary majority in a general election last year.

Rudd’s departure for misleading parliament over migrant deportation targets also deprives May of a key ally at a difficult time.

“The big attention will be on London and the Tories are going to do badly,” said Robert Hayward, a Conservative peer and polling expert.

“Although essentially people are supposed to be voting on local issues, the reality is that turnout is often driven by perceptions of national politics.”

Paul Scully, the Conservatives’ vice-chairman for London, told AFP: “It’s going to be really tough.

“We are trying to hold on to what we’ve got,” he said.

The elections are set to highlight Britain’s burgeoning divides between urban and rural areas, and Euro-sceptic and pro-European voters, according to analysts.

John Curtice, politics professor at Strathclyde University and one of Britain’s top polling experts, believes May will make gains outside the big cities, cementing her party’s move away from the more cosmopolitan conservatism of predecessor David Cameron.

When results come out, expect to see Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn celebrating in London and the prime minister in England’s provincial heartlands, agreed Hayward.

Nonetheless, losing Wandsworth would be a stinging and symbolic Conservative defeat.

The big attention will be on London and the Tories are going to do badly. Although essentially people are supposed to be voting on local issues, the reality is that turnout is often driven by perceptions of national politics.”

Robert Hayward | A Conservative peer