Grassroots Johnson as have ‘tough

BORIS Johnson is facing a Tory backlash after the party suffered a string of losses in the local elections amid voter anger over lockdown parties in Downing Street.

The Prime Minister admitted it had been a "tough night" as the Conservatives lost more than 300 councillors, Labour strengthened its grip on London and the Liberal Democrats made gains in Tory heartlands.

He insisted however that he would not be deflected from the task of dealing with the "economic aftershocks" of Covid, despite renewed calls from some Tories for him to stand down.

An analysis for the BBC by Professor Sir John Curtice calculated that if the whole country had been voting Labour would have gained 35% of the vote - five points ahead of the Tories on 30% - the party's biggest lead in local elections for a decade.

However, allies of Mr Johnson argued that it would still not translate into a Labour victory at a general election.

Labour also suffered a blow with the announcement that police are going to investigate whether a party event last year in Durham attended by Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner breached Covid regulations.

The party insisted no rules had been broken after Durham Police said an inquiry was under way after it received "significant new information".

Labour's most striking gains came in London where it took the totemic Tory authority in Wandsworth, won Westminster for the first time since its creation in 1964 and clinched victory in Barnet.

It also took Southampton from the Conservatives and Worthing in traditionally Tory West Sussex from no overall control.

The Liberal Democrats took the new unitary authorities of Somerset - also traditional Conservative territory - and Westmorland and Furness and dislodged the Tories in West Oxfordshire, pushing the council into no overall control.

Sir Keir said the results were a "turning point" while Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said they would send an "almighty shockwave" through the Government.

Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to a school in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, Mr Johnson said it had been a "mixed set of results" for the Tories.

"It is mid-term," he said.

"We had a tough night in some parts of the country but on the other hand in other parts of the country you are still seeing Conservatives going forward and making quite remarkable gains in places that haven't voted Conservative for a long time, if ever."

He said the "message from voters" was that they wanted the Government to focus on getting the country through the economic aftermath of Covid.

"This Government is absolutely determined to keep going with every ounce of compassion and ingenuity that we have, get people through the economic aftershocks," he said.

However David Simmonds, the