Starmer: We’re back on track
LABOUR is “back on track” to win at the next general election, Keir Starmer claimed yesterday.
The leader was delighted after the party made huge gains in London and other parts of the country in English local elections.
Starmer hailed results south of the Border as a “turning point” in Labour’s fortunes as it swept the boards in London, winning longstanding Tory fortresses in Wandsworth and Westminster.
Labour also won Barnet council, an area which is home to a large Jewish community previously alienated by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the party.
While 40 per cent of the seats being contested in England were in the capital, Labour’s performance in other parts of England was patchy.
It was a good night for the Lib Dems, seizing Hull City Council from Labour as they gained more than 150 councillors across England.
The Conservatives lost control of 10 councils, including Southampton to Labour and Hartlepool in the north-east, where Labour lost a Westminster by-election last year.
The Tories lost more than 280 councillors in England, with Labour up by nearly 60.
The BBC projected Labour would take 35 per cent of the votes and the Tories 30 cent in a general election with the Lib Dems on 19 per cent.
That would leave Labour as the biggest party at Westminster but short of an overall majority.
Starmer said: “We’ve changed Labour and now we’re seeing the results of that.”
Tory MPs and council leaders said Boris Johnson has “questions to answer” on Partygate but the Prime Minister dismissed resignation calls while he conceded the Tories had a “tough” time in some areas.
David Simmonds, the Tory MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, said: “Clearly the Prime Minister has difficult questions to answer.
“People were broadly positive about the Government’s policies but they’re not happy with what they’ve been hearing about Partygate.”
Speaking in Ruislip, north-west London, Johnson: “It is mid-term.
“We had a tough night in some parts of the country but, on the other hand, in other parts of the country you are still seeing Conservatives going forward and making quite remarkable gains in places that haven’t voted Conservative for a long time, if ever.”