Questions for both parties

Council polls raise concerns

THERE IS much to be concerned about for both the Conservatives and Labour in the wake of the council election results, which means that neither of them are able to look forward with confidence to the next national poll.

For Boris Johnson, the scale of Tory losses must tell a story of disaffection with the Government and public anger at his own conduct over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street, which activists all over the country reported as an issue on voters’ doorsteps.

And for Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s failure to make great strides in winning council seats must suggest that his party has a considerable way to go in rebuilding an electoral base big enough to defeat the Conservatives.

In particular, the level of support for Labour in its traditional red wall seats in Yorkshire and the wider North that were lost to the Tories in 2019 makes it far from certain that they can be recaptured at the next general election, which the party must do if it is to form a Government.

The strength of the vote for independent candidates, and smaller parties such as the Lib Dems and Greens, can be seen as reflecting a lack of confidence that the two biggest parties are sufficiently in touch with local concerns, which is a further headache for both of them.

Nationally, Sinn Fein’s victory in the Northern Ireland assembly elections will inevitably mean that a constitutional crisis for the UK lies ahead, with calls for Irish unification adding to the clamour for Scottish independence from the SNP, which held firm in the polls.

Whilst local elections cannot be taken as the sole reliable indicator of which way the country will go the next time it chooses a Government, the results pose uncomfortable questions for both the Conservatives and Labour about voter confidence in them, to which there are no straightforward answers to offer.