Western Morning News (Saturday)
Losses pile up for shattered Labour
Left and right attack Starmer; Party soundly beaten in Plymouth
ONE of Labour’s South West strongholds collapsed yesterday as votes from across Britain following Thursday’s elections showed the party in freefall.
Keir Starmer’s party lost control of Plymouth City Council and saw councillors ousted in wards across the country on a disastrous night described by one front-bencher as
“shattering.” The first blow came at breakfast time when results from the Hartlepool by-election, held by Labour for almost half a century, fell to Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer with a majority of almost 7,000.
By the end of the day Sir Keir, who took over from Jeremy Corbyn after Labour’s worst election results since 1935 in December 2019, admitted the party had “lost the trust of working people.”
He came under fire from left-wingers, including his predecessor Mr Corbyn, as well as those on the right of the party. But he pledged to stay on and “do whatever is necessary” to rebuild Labour’s fortunes.
The Conservatives celebrated good results in Cornwall, where the Lib-Dem-Independent Alliance that has run the council looked set to be pushed out by a Tory administration in time for the G7 Summit next month.
The Tories held Devon while Labour, in one bright spot for the party, kept control of Exeter City.
LABOUR has lost control of Plymouth City Council as the Conservatives made shock gains in a dramatic election fight.
The Conservative Party secured new seats in Ham, Honicknowle, St Budeaux, Southway and Budshead wards as the results of the local election came flooding in late yesterday afternoon.
In Southway, Conservative Richard Bingley took the Labour-held seat by more than 766 votes with a total of 1,750, compared to opponent Liz Nicolls, Labour, with 984.
It was a similar scene in the Ham ward with Tory councillor Stephen Hulme securing the seat by 285 votes with a total of 1,502 compared to Labour opponent Tina Tuohy with 1,217.
Labour deputy leader Pete Smith also lost his position as Honicknowle and St Budeaux turned blue with a majority of 500.
The Greens came extremely close over in Chaddlewood, with candidate Ian Poyser almost beating Tory Dan Collins with just 101 votes in it.
It means no single party has overall control of the council. Labour have 25 seats, the Tories are now on 22 and the independents have 10. A total of 29 is needed for a single party to run the chamber or else they will need to strike a deal with others to lead.
Tory Moor View MP Johnny Mercer, who was present at the Life Centre watching the events unfold, said: “I think there’s clearly been a shift in the country at the moment and I look forward to that being reflected here in Plymouth.”
Plymouth Labour leader Tudor Evans meanwhile decided to play things cautiously prior to the votes being counted, saying he’d rather “wait to see what happens”.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the total turnout this year was almost 36 per cent, surprisingly higher than in 2019 when just short of 34 per cent of the Plymouth electorate voted.
Compton was the ward with the highest turnout at almost 43 per cent, and Honicknowle the lowest at nearly 28 per cent.
One third of the council’s seats were up for election this year.
The elections include 19 seats on Plymouth City Council, with candidates standing in every ward across the city, except for Drake.
Before polling day on Thursday, Labour held control of the council with 30 of the 57 seats. They took over from the Conservatives in 2018 in a city that is divided, with two Conservative MPs and one Labour.
The Conservatives had had a difficult run-up to this election, after eight Conservative councillors left the group last year to become Independents.
But the Tories had a theoretical chance of seizing control, or creating a majority in an alliance with councillors who left the group last year. Talks will now begin to form a new administration. Eleven of the 19 seats being contested were held by Labour, the Tories had five, and there were three Independents who left the Tory group.