Local elections should not reflect UK politics
ONE of the more noticeable aspects of these postbrexit times is how unprecedented events in politics doggedly keep happening. Time was that a Prime Minister nicked for wrongdoing while in office would have stood down or at least announced an intention to leave.
That’s clearly not going to happen while Conservatives in Westminster keep dissembling as to what actually constitutes misconduct.
The latest prevarication used by backbenchers is to wait until next month’s local elections.
However, MPS using that approach could yet find themselves a hostage to misfortune – polls suggest the party could lose up to 800 councillors.
To put that in context, we’re talking about 5,000 council seats being contested in 197 councils across Britain, mainly in Labour-held areas.
I’m told that the privately-commissioned surveys conducted alongside the published versions don’t differ too much in terms of scenario.
You don’t have to be a political genius to work out what lies behind this level of disaffection. Be it the rising cost of living, Partygate or sleaze (or whatever takes your fancy), the likelihood is that the British public is gearing up to give Boris Johnson’s government a good kicking – albeit by proxy.
Of course, we’ve seen such forecasts to be spectacularly wrong in the past. This could turn out to be another one of those instances.
Nonetheless, a useful sign of things to come is how the respective parties attempt to manage expectations.
Big swings in local elections are just as likely to favour independents as much as the mainstream opponents.
Labour may be obliged to portray the outcome as a blow for the Conservatives rather than a victory for Keir Starmer.
No-one is talking about a Lib Dem resurgence, but you never know.
Either way, I can’t help but feel a tinge of empathy for hard-working and diligent representatives who get dumped at such times simply because they wear the wrong colour rosette.
You could argue that it’s hypocritical of voters to demand that politics is kept out of council business, only for them to use their vote as a means of reprimanding the government of the day. Then again, it’s also how democracy works and a part of the price paid by those who live by the political sword.
As long as we insist on regarding local councils as minor players in the scheme of things – and political parties do a lot to contribute to this perception – then elections will continue to be as much about collateral damage as local democracy.