MONTY PYTHON FARCE
THERESA May is on the way to a historic general election win with more Conservative MPs in the Commons than Margaret Thatcher had.
The prediction of a 400 seat win for the Prime Minister’s party came in stark contrast to Labour, who face the possibility of a slump to just 150 seats under leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Projections for next month’s snap poll were last night being based on the results of English local council votes.
And if the polls are an accurate indicator of how the UK votes on June 8, it will be a disaster for Britain and leave the Labour Party needing life support.
But you would not have thought Labour were in a fight for their very survival if you saw the party’s No2 in TV interviews.
In scenes that would not have been out of place in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell dismissed his party’s disastrous showing, insisting it was merely a flesh wound and that there was still all to play for in five weeks’ time.
The truth is, Labour had their arms and legs chopped off, losing some 40 per cent of the council seats they were defending in England and control of four councils there, too.
McDonnell acknowledged Labour had suffered a “tough” night but bizarrely tried to paint a gloss on it, saying the results were not “the wipeout that people expected”.
He admitted: “We have to get stuck in to the general election campaign and turn this around.”
Then he made another bizarre claim that where Corbyn had campaigned, there were signs that voters were developing more confidence in the party leader as he had the chance to get his message across.
McDonnell added: “What I’m saying is the unbalanced media reporting of Jeremy Corbyn for the last two years virtually has actually, I think, given a distorted view of what he is.
“I think the more people see of him, the more opportunity they get to think, ‘This is the leader I want’.”
Down south, the Tories won majorities in councils in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight and Monmouthshire,
They also gained a comprehensive grip on shire England, taking Derbyshire from Labour and gaining majority control of counties such as Northumberland and Lincolnshire as Labour lost ground and UKIP collapsed altogether.
Labour had pinned hopes on the new metro mayor elections but Tory candidate Tim Bowles drew the first blood, winning West of England ahead of Labour and the Lib Dems.
The Tories won in Tees Valley – a major blow in Labour’s former heartlands.
In the West Midlands, former John Lewis boss Andy Street defeated Labour rival Sion Simon in the mayoral race, adding a jewel to the Tory crown.
As expected, Labour’s Andy Burnham, a former minister and party leadership candidate, romped home as the first elected mayor of Manchester with 63 per cent of the vote.
Labour’s Steve Rotherham
The more people see him, the more think, ‘This is the leader I want’ McDONNELL
won in Liverpool in metro mayor elections that herald a different English devolution settlement.
Meanwhile, May said she is “taking nothing for granted” despite the emphatic local election victories which have put her on track to substantially increase her House of Commons majority.
The Prime Minister said she would be fighting every day of the next five weeks to “earn the support of the British people” to strengthen her hand in negotiations with the European Commission over Brexit.
But it was clear that May’s rebranding of the “nasty party” was working as Tories celebrated historic gains across the country.
They picked up more than 450 councillors and gained control of 10 authorities as they made deep inroads in parts of Scotland and Wales which had been no-go areas for a generation.
UKIP’s vote collapsed, as the Tory python swallowed the eurosceptic poodle and supporters defected in droves to the Conservatives. They were left with one councillor in England.
The Lib Dems said they were “pretty pleased” with the results, claiming it puts them on course to at least double their nine seats in Westminster. Carwyn Jones, Labour’s first minister in Cardiff, distanced himself from the UK party.
He said: “The Tories had been briefing that they’d be walking into power right across Wales this morning – that simply has not happened.
“People realise that only Welsh Labour will stand up for Wales and we thank them once again for that trust.
“Despite defying the doommongers in places like Cardiff and Flintshire, there is no question it was a mixed night for us and, as the true party of Wales, we are always more stretched than our opponents.”