‘not really dramatic’
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.
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 in effect it looks as though we’re talking about Labour doing more or less as well as they did last year which is not bad, and roughly what the opinion polls were saying.
“But it’s still the case that Labour are not heading for the kind of really dramatic local election performances that they managed to achieve under Tony Blair before the 1997 General Election.”
Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden been able to create that success and persuade people to vote for us.”
Further results are expected over the weekend, including key mayoral contests in London and the West Midlands. Labour’s Sadiq Khan is attempting to secure re-election in London, while Conservative Andy Street is defending his position in the West Midlands.
Appearing alongside Lord Houchen at a victory rally, Sunak said: “I’ve got a message for the Labour Party too because they know that they have to win here in order to win a general election – they know that. “They assumed that Tees Valley would stroll back to them – but it didn’t.” acknowledged the crisis in Gaza had been “a factor in some places”, saying that with “so many innocent people being killed I’m not surprised people have strong feelings about that”.
But he added that “very local factors” had also played a role in Oldham, while council leader Arooj Shah blamed “13 years of austerity” and a “divisive toxic politics” in the town that pre-dated the latest outbreak of conflict in Gaza.