May posts big gains in local British elections

BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives made sweeping gains on Friday in local elections, handing her a big boost going into next month’s Brexit-dominated parliamentary vote.

Final results showed the ruling centre-right party gaining ground across the country, with the main opposition Labour party taking a pounding and Brexit cheerleaders UKIP all but wiped out.

Despite the thumping victory, May said there was no room for complacency ahead of the June 8 general election and the negotiations that follow on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.

“It’s encouraging that we’ve won support across the whole of the UK but I will not take anything for granted,” she said, “because there is too much at stake. This is not about who wins and who loses in the local elections: it is about continuing to fight for the best Brexit deal.

“Despite the evident will of the British people, we have bureaucrats in Europe who are questioning our resolve to get the right deal.”

On the eve of the vote, May lashed out at Brussels over the Brexit talks, accusing officials of hardening their position to affect the outcome of next month’s election.

Eric Kaufmann, a professor of politics at the University of London, said that May’s tough stance seemed to be paying off with a realignment towards her party.

“The Conservatives have managed to pull in people who voted Leave [in last year’s EU membership referendum] while retaining Remainers,” he said.

After votes were counted in all 88 local authorities being contested, the Conservatives had made a net gain of 558 seats to 1,900. Labour lost 320 to end up with 1,151 – prompting leader Jeremy Corbyn to acknowledge that winning next month’s general election would be a “challenge on a historic scale”.

The smaller, centrist Liberal Democrats, who had been hoping to soak up anti-Brexit votes with their pro-EU stance, failed to make their hoped-for gains, losing 37 seats to end up with 441. And it was a disastrous day for the anti-EU, anti-immigration UK Independence Party, which lost all 114 seats it was defending, and won only one new one.

UKIP’s vote was “bleeding off to the Conservatives”, Kaufmann said – an analysis shared by party leader Paul Nuttall.

He said it had fallen “victim to its own success”.

The result spells bad news for Nuttall’s hopes to secure a seat in parliament next month.