Tories ‘losing trust’
Tories lose 1,300 seats in worst results for 24 years Labour humiliated too And as 39,000 voters spoil ballot papers amid protests against Brexit betrayal... SO NOW WILL THEY LISTEN?
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn were nursing huge local election losses yesterday after a Brexit backlash.
In their worst showing in 24 years, the Tories were stripped of 1,300 seats and lost control of more than 40 town halls.
Labour also had a disastrous night. The party predicted it would gain hundreds of councillors but instead shed dozens of seats and councils in heartland Leave-voting areas such as Darlington and Middlesbrough.
The two main parties each managed just 28 per cent of the vote, with the Lib Dems, Greens and independents all gaining ground.
Returning officers reported that at least 39,000 ballot papers were spoiled. Angry voters had scrawled messages on them about Brexit in protest at the parliamentary shambles. The
losses came despite the fact that neither Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party nor the pro-EU Change UK party were taking part.
Last night there were signs that the public’s damning verdict on the performance of the two main parties could jolt cross-party Brexit talks into life next week.
Mrs May said the message from voters was one of ‘just get on and deliver Brexit’.
Mr Corbyn, whose party performed even worse than in the 2015 election defeat, admitted: ‘It means there is a huge impetus on every MP – they have all got that message, whether they are Leave or Remain – that an arrangement has to be made, a deal has to be done. Parliament has to resolve this issue.’
A senior Government source added: ‘Hopefully these results will sharpen minds on Labour’s side and persuade them that we have just got to get this bloody thing done.’
The results left the two-party system at breaking point. John Curtice, a politics professor at Strathclyde University, said the verdict on the Brexit chaos amounted to ‘ a plague on both your houses’.
Sir John added: ‘Even without the challenge of the Brexit Party or Change UK, the electoral hold of the Conservative and Labour parties on the electorate is looking now as weak as it has done at any point in post-war British politics.’
With the Tories and Labour both fearing even worse results when Mr Farage’s party enters the fray at the European Parliament elections on May 23:
Home Secretary Sajid Javid suggested Mrs May had lost the trust of the voters;
The PM was heckled at the Conservatives’ Welsh conference, with a former councillor shouting ‘ Why don’t you resign?’;
Eurosceptic MPs warned of a ‘tsunami’ of protest at the European elections;
A BBC projection suggested yesterday’s results would translate into another hung parliament;
Labour was plunged into a fresh civil war over the party’s Brexit policy after losing seats in Leave-supporting areas;
Blackadder star Sir Tony Robinson announced he was quitting the Labour Party after 45 years because of Mr Corbyn’s leadership;
The Liberal Democrats were on course to gain 700 seats, the Greens 200 and independents more than 650;
Ukip were routed, with the anti-EU party losing more than 80 per cent of seats following a series of racism rows.
As the results poured in yesterday, Mrs May told the Welsh Conservative conference in Llangollen that the local elections were ‘very difficult for our party’. She added: ‘Councillors who’ve given years of hard work in their local communities have lost through no fault of their own. I think there was a simple message from yesterday’s elections to both us and the Labour Party – just get on and deliver Brexit.’
Downing Street last night said cross-party talks with Labour would resume next week in the hope of striking a Brexit deal that might get through Parliament. But sources cautioned that the two sides remain ‘ some distance apart’ on the critical issue of whether to remain in a customs union after Brexit.
Former Tory MP Nick Boles said a compromise was now the only way to leave the EU.
He added: ‘ Conservative MPs will be toast if they do not deliver Brexit soon.
‘But I and a majority of MPs will never allow the UK to leave the EU without a deal. So Conservative MPs who want to survive the next election need to vote for a compromise deal with Labour.’
Eurosceptic MPs opposed to a deal with Labour stepped up calls for Mrs May to resign.
Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel said voters saw Mrs May as ‘part of the problem’.
She added: ‘I just don’t think we can continue like this. We need change, we need a change of leadership. Perhaps the time has now come for that.’
Fellow Brexiteer Sir Bernard Jenkin said voters thought Mrs May had ‘lost the plot’ by talking to Labour’s hard- Left leader. He said it was time for her to quit and the party would be ‘toast’ unless it ‘mends its ways pretty quickly’.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt offered only lukewarm support for the PM. Speaking in Kenya during a tour of Africa, Mr Hunt said voters had delivered ‘a slap in the face for both the main parties’.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who had made a ‘really cautious’ prediction of at least 400 Labour gains as the polls closed on Thursday, said on Twitter: ‘Message from the local elections – “Brexit – sort it”. Message received.’