The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Sunak: We have everything to fight for
PM defiant as local election results see Tories fare better than expected
RISHI SUNAK has said the Conservatives have “everything to fight for”, as key mayoral contests offered the Tories a glimmer of hope.
Writing for The Telegraph, the Prime Minister issued a rallying cry after Labour and Tory sources said Conservative Andy Street would win in the West Midlands today and predicted that Sadiq Khan’s London race would be closer than expected.
The Tories suffered a bruising set of losses in councils in England yesterday, with the party predicted to lose as many as half of their councillors up for reelection once all all results are declared.
The BBC estimated that, if replicated across the UK at a general election, the Tory vote share would be 25 per cent, a record low, with Labour on 34 per cent. Sky News analysis suggested that could lead to a hung parliament, while other analysts said it would give Labour a 100seat majority.
The Conservatives were also almost pushed into third place by Reform in the Blackpool South by-election, where a Labour MP was elected thanks to a vast vote swing from the Tories.
But Ben Houchen’s re-election as the Tory mayor of Tees Valley was seized upon by Downing Street as proof that the results had not been as catastrophic as had been feared. It meant that a group of Tory rebels who for weeks had been talking up an attempt to oust the Prime Minister after the local elections had admitted defeat by yesterday afternoon.
Writing for The Telegraph, Mr Sunak pointed to the positives in the results: “Thursday’s results showed that voters are frustrated and wondering why they should vote. The fact Labour is not winning in places that they admit themselves they need for a majority, shows that Keir Starmer’s lack of plan and vision is hurting them.
“We Conservatives have everything to fight for – and we will because we are fighting for our values and our country’s future.” Elsewhere the Prime Minister writes that “across the board we are taking a truly Conservative approach”, in an apparent response to critics demanding more right-wing policies in the wake of the council losses.
By yesterday evening, the Tories were down 249 councillors and Labour was up 145 councillors. The Liberal Democrats were up 39 seats, the Greens 32 seats, while Reform, which had only stood in a sixth of seats, was down two councillors.
Labour seized overall control of a number of notable councils including Rushmoor – dubbed the home of the British Army because it includes Aldershot Garrison – and Hartlepool, which saw a historic Tory by-election victory under Boris Johnson in 2021 which led Sir Keir, the Labour leader, to consider quitting.
‘We are fighting for our country’s future... Starmer’s lack of plan and vision is hurting Labour’
Yesterday, Sir Keir said the country had voted for “change”.
In Blackpool South, a vote prompted by former Tory MP Scott Benton resign- ing over a lobbying scandal, the Conservative vote share dropped from 50 per cent at the last election to 18 per cent. The Reform candidate came within 117 votes of beating the Tories into second.
Sir Keir visited the seat for a victory speech, saying: “Here in Blackpool a message has been sent directly to the Prime Minister… to say we are fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division and we want change.”
However, there were signs of a backlash against Labour from Muslim voters over Sir Keir’s Gaza stance, with Labour losing control of Oldham council and
Labour’s win at Rushmoor, which includes Aldershot Garrison, ends a quarter of a century of Tory control
LABOUR won in the home of the British Army for the first time on Thursday as it clinched four key councils in the local elections.
In a landmark result, Sir Keir Starmer’s party clinched Rushmoor council, overturning a quarter of a century of Tory control to secure its first-ever majority.
It also scored significant wins in Hartlepool, Thurrock and Redditch, indicating that the Tories are haemorrhaging votes among their traditional supporters.
Rushmoor district includes Aldershot Garrison, a military town considered the spiritual home of the British Army since it was built in 1854.
Labour said its historic victory there proved that the party has moved on since its days under Jeremy Corbyn and was now trusted by voters on defence.
The party scooped nine of the 13 seats being contested on Rushmoor borough council, with the Tories winning three and the Liberal Democrats taking the other.
The Conservatives’ share in Rushmoor (38.5 per cent) is now the party’s lowest since 1998 and it is the first time they have lost control since 2000.
Thursday night’s result will prompt alarm in No 10 as it suggests even the safest of Conservative seats will be under threat at the general election.
Labour branded it a “historic” and said the win in the home of the Army “demonstrates just how much” the party has changed under Sir Keir.
“A Labour gain for Rushmoor is a result Rishi Sunak cannot ignore. It’s time for a general election,” a party spokesman said.
The result suggests the parliamentary constituency of Aldershot, which has been Tory ever since its creation in 1918, could be in play at the election.
The Rushmoor result came on another dire night for the Tories which saw Labour romp home to victory in three other traditionally blue councils.
Sir Keir was delighted when his party clinched Hartlepool overnight, taking back the town that had become a poster for Boris Johnson’s Red Wall revolution. Three years agom the former prime minister was triumphant as he visited Hartlepool after routing Labour in a by-election to turn the seat Tory for the first time.
A giant inflatable of Mr Johnson was put up in the town as he celebrated what he called an emphatic mandate for the Tories’ policies.
The Conservatives had scored their largest-ever swing against Labour whilst in government in a by-election at 16 per cent.
Sir Keir recently revealed that he considered resigning in the wake of the result.
In this year’s council elections though Labour won nine of the 12 seats up for grabs, suggesting Hartlepool will turn red again at the next election.
At the opposite end of the country, Labour also seized Thurrock in Essex in a further sign that it is on track to secure a 1997-style landslide at the next election.
The party secured its biggest jump in the East of England to take control of the council for the first time since 2013 when Brexit began to dominate British politics.
Thurrock had the fourth highest level of support for Leave in the country at the 2016 referendum, so taking it back represents a significant victory for Sir Keir.
In the early years of his leadership Sir Keir, who called for a second referendum, struggled to convince voters in many Brexit-backing constituencies.
The Tories won Thurrock council in 2023 although the party subsequently lost it to no overall control because of defections.
The area’s seat in Parliament is held by Tory MP Dame Jackie Doyle-Price and has been blue since 2010, though it was Labour under Sir Tony Blair.
In signs that the Tories are facing a national rout later this year, Labour also secured a morale-boosting victory in a bellwether Midlands seat.
Sir Keir’s party took control of Redditch, near Birmingham, as the Tories suffered their heaviest losses of the night, being reduced to just a fifth of councillors.
The town’s parliamentary constituency is considered to be a key signpost for general election results, meaning the result is a bad omen for Mr Sunak.