The Tories have lost more than 1,000 councillors and key strongholds such as Swindon and Medway, local election results on Friday showed, as Labour and the Lib Dems made significant gains.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the party is “going to bottle this feeling we have today” and “turn it into a General Election win next year”. Labour has become the largst party in local Government as it gained hundreds of seats.
The Lib Dems said that they are “exceeding all expectations in the capital’s commuter belt” but leader Sir Ed Davey would not be drawn on whether his party would seek to enter a coalition with Labour at the General Election.
With results still flooding in, the Tories had lost control of 48 councils, Labour gained 22 and the Lib Dems had gained 12. The Greens took overall control of their first council, Mid Suffolk. Labour has gained more than 500 councillors, and the Lib Dems more than 400.
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak said he was“disappointed” at losing some councillors but sought to highlight where his party was doing better.
Earlier, election analyst Professor Michael Thrashertold Sky News the Tories were suffering a “hammering by any standard”.
“The Conservatives have lost a third of their council seats so far – a hammering by any standard. If that trend continues the party is likely to post a final tally that rivals the debacle of 1995 that left them limping towards a massacre at the general election two years later”, he said.
The contests were the first to be fought under new rules requiring voters to carry photographic ID, and the elections watchdog said “regrettably” some people were turned away from polling stations as a result.
