Tories prepare for disaster in local elections

Conservative councillors on course to lose 800 seats amid anger about Brexit and the party’s leadership

CONSERVATIVES are braced for their worst local election results since 1995 under John Major as forecasts suggest they will lose one in five seats amid the Brexit backlash.

Helen Whately, the party’s deputy chairman, yesterday admitted that the party faces a “difficult night” on Thursday after noting mounting anger on the doorstep.

It came as analysis by Lord Robert Hayward, a Tory peer and veteran pollster, found that the party was on course to lose more than 800 seats of their 4,628 seats.

In today’s Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, appeals to voters to set aside their frustrations over Brexit “and our current dismal failure to leave the EU” and to back “hard-working Tory councillors”.

He said: “I think [the voters] know how much good they do and how much we all rely on them. So much depends on their efficiency and responsiveness and capacity of those councillors. They can make all the difference for many families between misery and contentment.

“That is why it matters so much who we elect on Thursday – and that is why I hope people will vote for the councils that deliver the best services for the best value; and that means the Conservatives.”

However, Ms Whately told Sky News there was a strong chance voters would “kick the Government” over the delay to Brexit. “People will see it as a chance to send a protest,” she said.

“There is a lot of anger about … there is more anger in politics than there was before.”

But Ms Whately struggled to give examples of new Government policies and ideas, acknowledging that the focus on Brexit had taken up too much “bandwidth”.

Lord Hayward said concerns about Brexit and party leadership were likely to see the Tories punished at the ballot box.

He believed that the number of councils where the Tories may lose control would run into double digits. “The public don’t like governments or parties that are split,” he said.

He predicted Labour would have an “adequate” night and win about 300 seats while the Liberal Democrats would gain around 500 seats.

Brandon Lewis, Conservative Party chairman, yesterday backed away from threats to expel Tory MPS and councillors who had endorsed Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party at the European elections.

Lucy Allan, a Eurosceptic Tory MP, appeared to endorse Mr Farage’s party for fielding some “strong candidates”, adding that “tribal party politics will be eclipsed” by Brexit.

However, Mr Lewis declined to say that Ms Allan would not be expelled and suggested that she had not broken any party rules. He added that he understood the “huge frustration” among grass-roots Tories.

He told the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One: “I fully appreciate the huge frustration that particularly our members and councillors have that we haven’t left the EU yet and we might have to fight these elections at all.

“But if we do, I hope they’ll vote Conservative.”