‘Resign, we don’t want you’: activist leads attack on May after humiliation
She has ‘lost the plot’, say voters as Prime Minister hails results as a clear message to deliver Brexit
THERESA MAY was confronted by a furious activist after disastrous local election results that she admitted were “very difficult” for the Conservatives.
The party lost more than 1,200 seats – its worst showing in local elections since 1995 when it lost 2,108 seats in the wake of the sex and sleaze scandals besetting John Major’s government.
Backbench MPS and critics called for the Prime Minister’s removal and warned the party would be “toast” if it did not change direction and deliver a clean exit from the European Union.
With most results declared, the Conservatives had shed 1,212 councillors and lost control of 44 authorities – far worse than observers expected – with councils including Bath, Chelmsford, and Winchester falling to the Liberal Democrats. They lost control of Peterborough, Basildon, Southend, Warwick and Worcester, while Somerset West and Taunton, Mole Valley, Cotswold, Vale of White Horse, and Hinckley and Bosworth also fell to the Lib Dems. North Kesteven council went independent.
However, the party held on to bellwether council
Swindon, seen as a possible Labour gain, and took Walsall and North East Lincolnshire from no overall control.
The losses were felt personally by Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, whose mother-in-law Gillian Brown, the Tory leader of Arun council in Sussex, lost her seat to an independent. Mrs May tried to put on a brave face, saying: “I think there was a simple message from yesterday’s elections to both us and the Labour Party – ‘Just get on and deliver Brexit’.” But Stuart Davies, a 71-year-old party member, interrupted her speech at the Welsh Conservative conference, shouting: “Why don’t you resign? We don’t want you.”
The former county councillor from Llangollen said later: “I am furious at what she has done to our party. To put it bluntly, she is telling lies – ‘We will be out by March 29’. I think I share the views of a lot of people. I did what I did because I know it was the right thing to do.” As the scale of the losses became clear, Sir Bernard Jenkin, a Brexiteer MP, said the party would be “toast” unless it “mends its ways pretty quickly”. Voters overwhelmingly believed Mrs May had “lost the plot” and that the time had come for a change of leader, he said.
Andrew Mitchell, the former chief whip, said: “I am so sorry at the loss of so many excellent Tory councillors – but frankly, given the performance of the Government, it’s amazing that anyone turned out to vote Conservative.”
Mark Francois MP, vice chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptics, said the results were a grim portent for Tories at the European Parliament elections in three weeks, warning that May 23 “will be a tsunami”.
Priti Patel, a former Cabinet minister, said voters saw Mrs May as “part of the problem”, adding: “We need change. Perhaps the time has come for that.”
David Cameron, leader when the seats were fought in 2015, offered “heartfelt commiserations to those who have lost their seats”. He said on social media: “Politics is tough business but you are dedicated public servants who can be proud to have represented your local community.”
Brandon Lewis, the party chairman, said: “It’s a stark reminder to everybody in the House of Commons that we need to deliver on what people voted for.”