UK parties face test of public mood in key local elections
LABOUR PARTY IS HOPING TO WREST CONTROL OF SEVERAL COUNCILS FROM THE TORIES
British voters cast ballots yesterday in local elections considered a test of the public mood less than a year before the UK leaves the European Union.
Voting was taking place to fill more than 4,000 seats on 150 local councils in towns and cities across England, including all of London’s 32 boroughs. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not hold elections yesterday.
The Conservatives, who have been in power nationally since 2010, braced for losses amid anger over unsteady Brexit negotiations, an explosive immigration scandal and years of public spending cuts. The local elections come less than a year after a snap election delivered a divided Parliament and a minority government for Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May.
Muted hopes
The main opposition Labour Party was hoping to pick up hundreds of seats and wrest control of several councils from the Tories. But it has been tarnished by allegations that its leaders have failed to clamp down on antiSemitism in Labour ranks.
Tony Travers, professor of government at the London School of Economics, said voters often punish governing parties in midterm elections, so “other things being equal, you would expect the Conservatives to do badly and Labour to do well.”
But with Labour divided between centrists and supporters of left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn, “it doesn’t look like Labour’s going to make a great leap forward, which is what an opposition party really needs to do.”
Polls were open until 10pm (2100GMT), with results expected today.
The elections will determine who controls the councils that collect garbage, fix potholes and run schools, and many voters will choose firmly on local issues. In London, many residents fret about the lack of affordable housing. Campaigning in the northern English city of Sheffield has been dominated by a controversial decision to cut down thousands of trees as part of road-improvement plans.
But the results will also be viewed partly as a verdict on Brexit. The UK voted by 52 per cent to 48 per cent in 2016 to leave the EU, and the country remains split down the middle over the decision.
Brexit matters
Both the Conservatives and Labour say they will deliver on the decision to leave, but Labour wants to seek softer terms and retain closer ties with the bloc. The party hopes anti-Brexit feeling will help it win in pro-EU Tory areas such as the affluent London boroughs of Wandsworth and Westminster.
Labour could pick up votes from some of the 3 million EU citizens living in UK, who could not vote in the referendum but can cast ballots in local elections.
The third-party Liberal Democrats, who are firmly against Brexit, also hope to sweep up votes from “remain” supporters.
The last time these elections were held, in 2014, the euroskeptic UK Independence Party won 17 per cent of the vote. But it is likely to see its share of the vote plummet this time around.