Tories are overtaken by Labour in Scotland
Ross blames Downing Street as PM under fire for heavy losses
BORIS Johnson is facing the wrath of his MPS after the Conservatives suffered a wave of election defeats across the UK, including being overtaken by Labour in Scotland.
The Prime Minister lost hundreds of councillors south of the Border as Labour toppled Tory bastions in London and Wales and the Liberal Democrats made big gains across traditionally blue parts of England.
Tory activists reported electors turning away over the Partygate scandal and questions over the Prime Minister’s integrity.
In Scotland, the SNP won comfortably, increasing its grip on local government, with 453 of the country’s 1,227 councillors.
Even after 15 years in power, the party emerged as the largest in 21 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was an “astonishing” result and a “brutal rejection of Boris Johnson and the Conservatives”.
She said the SNP was willing to work “with other parties who share our progressive principles”, which excluded the Conservatives.
The battle for second place was won by Scottish Labour after it made modest gains while the Scottish Tories suffered heavy losses.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said it had been a good day for Scottish Labour, and that after almost a decade in the wilderness it was “firmly back on the pitch”.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, who called for Mr Johnson to quit in January over Partygate then U-turned to back him when Russia invaded Ukraine, laid the blame at the door of Downing Street.
He said people were “unhappy with the Prime Minister, they’re unhappy with Partygate, and many of them have just stayed at home”.
Labour won the local elections in England and Wales, although Sir Keir Starmer’s celebrations were shaken by news Durham Police launched an investigation into the so-called “Beergate” affair, the
accusation Sir Keir broke Covid lockdown rules at a Labour event last year.
The force said it had received “significant new information” about the meeting of activists, which also included deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner.
The Labour leader, who has repeatedly called for Mr Johnson to quit after being fined for a rules breach, later insisted he was “confident no rules were broken”.
The Tories lost around 350 seats in England, as well as 63 in Scotland, far worse than predicted. The party also lost control of Westminster and Wandsworth in London, which went to Labour for the first time in around 50 years.
Addressing cheering supporters in Barnet, another Labour gain from the Tories in London, Sir
Keir said of the election: “This is a big turning point for us. We’ve sent a message to the Prime Minister:
Britain deserves better.”
The Prime Minister conceded it had been a “tough night” but blamed “mid-term” blues.
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.”
Labour failed to do as well as it hoped in the northern “red wall” seats won by Tories at the 2019 election largely because of Brexit.
The Liberal Democrats were the biggest winners in terms of new councillors, beating the Tories in “blue wall” areas such as Somerset, Westmorland and West Oxfordshire .
UK Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said “an almighty shockwave” was running through British politics and would “bring this Conservative Government tumbling down”.
If his parliamentary party feels the same way, Mr Johnson could soon face a leadership challenge.
Although many Tory MPS had backed away from the idea because of the war in Ukraine, the fear of losing the next General Election under Mr Johnson will now return to the fore.
The lack of an obvious successor now that Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s popularity has plummeted over his domestic tax affairs remains Mr Johnson’s best chance of clinging on.
However the veteran Tory backbencher Sir Roger Gale yesterday said the strength of feeling against Mr Johnson may become an “unstoppable tide”, with only 53 Tory MPS needed to trigger a contest.
In potentially the most historic election result, Sinn Fein appeared set to become the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the first time a Nationalist party has led the polls in the province’s 101 years.
If the final result later today confirms early voting returns, it would give Sinn Fein the right to fill the First Minister’s position at Stormont, in a huge symbolic blow to Unionism.
However the Democratic Unionist Party, which lost support, has said it will not enter power-sharing unless the post-brexit Northern Ireland protocol is scrapped, and even then the party could baulk at taking the deputy FM’S role, even though the two jobs are technically of equal status.
Sinn Fein received 250,388 first preference votes under the STV voting system used for the Assembly, compared with 184,002 for the DUP, down 40,000 on 2017.
The Alliance Party saw its first preference vote rise by about 44,000 to 116,681.
The DUP won 28 seats at the last Assembly elections, just ahead of Sinn Fein’s 27.
There were few dramatic changes in Scotland. Five years ago, no Scottish council had a single party in overall control.
Now, Labour has a majority in West Dunbartonshire and the SNP has one in Dundee City.
In Glasgow, where leader Susan Aitken had been under pressure over the state of the city, the SNP saw their lead over Labour cut to one councillor, leaving the Greens as kingmakers.
Alex Salmond’s Alba Party failed to get any of its 111 candidates elected, repeating the wipe out it suffered in last year’s Holyrood election.
The former First Minister blamed the SNP for telling its supporters not to back other pro-independence parties with their preferential votes.
But he also admitted that Alba, which he founded last spring, still lacked the credibility to win elections.