Cable hails ‘best result for 15 years’

THE Liberal Democrats hailed the local election results as “equivalent to our best strides forward ever in our history”, as the party gained hundreds of seats across England at the expense of Labour and the Tories.

The pro-european Union party claimed it was “back in business” after picking up Winchester and Cotswold councils from the Conservatives and North Norfolk from no overall control.

The Lib Dems also gained control of Bath and North East Somerset and Vale of White Horse from the Tories. In all the party had gained more than 600 seats, with dozens of councils still to return their results.

Experts hailed the resurgent Lib Dems as a return to three-party politics after the near collapse of support for the party at the 2015 and 2017 general elections that left it with just 11 MPS.

The BBC forecast that, if results were replicated across Britain, the Lib Dems would get 19 per cent of the vote, gaining on both the Conservatives and Labour with 28 per cent of the total vote.

The question for the party will be whether it can carry through the local election results to the European Parliament elections in less than three weeks’ time, when its candidates will battle with rivals fighting for the pro-remain Change UK party for the first time.

Speaking in Chelmsford, Essex, where the Lib Dems took overall control from the Tories, Sir Vince Cable, the party’s leader, said that “every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for stopping Brexit”.

Sir Vince said his Lib Dems were “the big winners of this year’s elections, with already our best result for over 15 years”, adding that they would be a springboard to the forthcoming European elections.

He added: “Voters have sent a clear message that they no longer have confidence in the Conservatives, but they are also refusing to reward Labour while the party prevaricates on the big issue of the day: Brexit.”

Sir Ed Davey, the party’s home affairs spokesman, compared the gains to surges in support after the 2003 Iraq war and the late Nineties.

Prof Sir John Curtice, the political expert, said the results showed that it was “the return of at least three party politics”.