JEZZA’S LABOUR PAINS
Local election results a major blow for Corbyn UKIP is wiped out as its supporters turn blue
THERESA May looks on course for an emphatic general election victory after Labour suffered a mauling at the local polls.
Tory candidates swept to victory across the country as UKIP’s support collapsed and Jeremy Corbyn’s party haemorrhaged votes.
BBC elections guru Professor John Curtice said: “If the Labour Party’s objective on June 8 is to be elected as the Government, then the evidence of these local elections is it is an awful long way from that.”
The Tories gained more than 550 seats and control of 11 councils. Labour lost more than 380 seats and control of five councils.
UKIP lost every single seat it was defending, more than 140 in total, as right-wing voters flocked back to Mrs May’s Conservatives.
The only consolation for Labour came in city mayoral contests which they were widely expected to win, with former MPs Andy Burnham elected Mayor of Greater Manchester and Steve Rotheram Mayor of Liverpool City Region. But Tory candidate and former John Lewis boss Andy Street became the first Metro Mayor for the West Midlands. No10 policy chief George Freeman said the result showed the Tories “can break into Labour strongholds”.
Even more surprising was a Tory victory in the Tees Valley mayoral election, deep in Labour’s North East heartland. Tory Ben Houchen described his win as a “political earthquake”. In Scotland Labour lost control of Glasgow City Council to the SNP after 40 years in power. And in Wales the party lost control of heartland areas like Blaenau Gwent, Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil, while hanging on in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. Mrs May tried to play down the Tory successes. She said: “It’s encouraging that we have won support across the whole of the United Kingdom.
“But I will not taking anything for granted and neither will the team I lead... there is too much at stake.”
In a statement last night Mr Corbyn remained defiant. He said: “The results were mixed. We lost seats but we are closing the gap on the Conservatives. We have five weeks to win the general election so
We lost seats but we are closing the gap on the Tories JEREMY CORBYN ON YESTERDAY’S RESULTS
we can fundamentally transform Britain for the many not the few.
“We know this is no small task – it is a challenge on an historic scale.”
But defeated Labour councillors and angry MPs blamed the leader for lost votes. Stephen Kinnock MP said: “We shouldn’t sugar-coat the pill.
“Jeremy Corbyn has come up very regularly on the doorstep... they [voters] feel there has been a shift to the hard left.”
Philip Johnson, a defeated Labour councillor who is running to be MP for Nuneaton, Warks, next month, added: “Jeremy Corbyn isn’t coming across well with the public and I think that’s fairly well known.”
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell admitted the results were “tough” but claimed it was “not the wipe-out some people predicted”. One of the biggest problems Labour faces is the collapse of UKIP, with its right-wing supporters flocking back to the Tories in their droves.
Leader Paul Nuttall now faces an uphill struggle to get elected as MP for Boston and Skegness, Lincolnshire.
In a statement he claimed UKIP were “victims of our own success” and voters were backing Mrs May’s plan for Brexit.
But former UKIP MP Douglas Carswell said the party is “over” and donor Arron Banks said Mr Nuttall had “crashed the car at the first bend of the race”.
The Liberal Democrats failed to break through against the Tories in the South West of England but made advances in some target seats like Eastleigh and Wells.
A BBC projection of the vote share put the Tories on 38%, up 13 points since 2013, Labour 27%, down two, Lib Dems 18%, up four, and UKIP 5%, down 18.