Tories battered in council elections

THE prime minister has looked to the Tees Valley for consolation as his party suffered a drubbing in the local elections.

Lord Ben Houchen’s re-election on Teesside was one of the few bright spots for the Conservatives as the party lost around 50% of its councillors across England just months away from a general election.

Meanwhile, Labour hailed a “truly historic” result in Rishi Sunak’s own backyard of York and North Yorkshire, where David Skaith defeated Tory Keane Duncan by almost 15,000 votes.

The region, which was electing a mayor for the first time, covers Mr Sunak’s Richmond constituency and Labour has historically struggled to compete there in parliamentary elections.

Speaking at Northallerton Town Football Club, Sir Keir Starmer said the result was a “historic victory” for Labour in “the heart of Tory territory”.

He said: “We’ve had a positive campaign here and I am very, very proud to stand here as leader of the Labour Party to celebrate this historic victory.

“And it is a historic victory – these are places where we would not have usually had a Labour Party success but we’ve been able to create that success and persuade people to vote for us.”

Labour also avoided potential embarrassment in the North East mayoral contest, where its candidate, Kim Mcguinness, overcame independent Jamie Driscoll, who had quit Labour after being barred from running as the party’s candidate himself.

In the East Midlands, Labour’s Claire Ward became the region’s first elected mayor with a majority of more than 50,000 votes over Tory MP Ben Bradley.

Some 228 out of 515 Tory councillors lost their seats as the party lost control of six councils.

VICTORY: Lord Ben Houchen with PM Rishi Sunak in Teesside following his re-election as Tees Valley Mayor.