The Conservative Party has lost key London authorities to Labour as Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces a backlash from local Tory leaders. Sir Keir Starmer’s party has strengthened its grip on the capital, taking the totemic Tory authority in Wandsworth, winning Westminster for the first time since its creation in 1964 and clinching victory in Barnet.
As dozens of Tory councillors lost their seats against a backdrop of the row about lockdown-busting parties in No 10 and the cost-of-living crisis, local Conservative leaders criticised the Prime Minister. John Mallinson, leader of Carlisle City Council hit out after Labour took control of the new Cumberland authority which will replace it.
He told the BBC: “I think it is not just partygate, there is the integrity issue. Basically I just don’t feel people any longer have the confidence that the Prime Minister can be relied upon to tell the truth.”
Below, we'll bring you an at-a-glance guide to the evolving situation in all four nations of the UK. This story will be updated throughout the day.
England
- Labour lost Hull to the Liberal Democrats.
- Labour gained Southampton from the Conservatives.
- The Tories lost Worcester to no overall control.
- The Conservatives lost West Oxfordshire, which contains David Cameron’s former Witney constituency, to no overall control.
- Voters in Bristol decided to abolish the post of mayor in a referendum.
- In Rutland, where there was not even an election, council leader Oliver Hemsley quit the Conservative group.
- Votes will start to be counted later in more counties in England, Scotland and Wales.
Boris Johnson said the Government is “absolutely determined” to help people through the “economic aftershocks” of Covid with “every ounce of compassion and ingenuity”. Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to a school in his constituency, the Prime Minister admitted that the UK had “failed to invest sufficiency” in domestic energy security for “decades”.
“We let our nuclear energy completely collapse. We haven’t done enough to put in renewables in the way that we can, put in more wind at the scale and the pace that we can. So that is where we want to go,” he said. “Now, I’m not going to pretend to you… that… there isn’t going to be a difficult period as we come through the aftershocks of Covid. There is.
“But what I’m going to tell you is that this Government is absolutely determined to keep going with every ounce of compassion and ingenuity that we have, get people through the economic aftershocks, help people with the costs, but make sure that we address the supply side issues, particularly energy, in order for the economy to keep growing.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer proclaimed clear evidence of a Labour revival following its crushing defeat in the 2019 general election. “This is a big turning point for us,” he told cheering supporters in Barnet. “We’ve sent a message to the Prime Minister: Britain deserves better.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey celebrated his party’s “big gains” in the local elections which he said were due to voters seeking an alternative to the Conservatives amid cost-of-living concerns.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’re making big gains from the Conservatives, gains that I think we can turn into seats in the next election…
“I said that people could use their vote to send a message to Boris Johnson that he’s not providing the leadership on the cost-of-living emergency, which is really the issue on the doorsteps that I found, and I think the real situation here is the economy is in a real mess, the Conservatives have failed to provide that leadership and people are turning to the Liberal Democrats for an alternative party”.
He also said: “The dissatisfaction amongst lifelong Conservatives with the Prime Minister was really palpable, they don’t think he’s a decent man”.
Sir Ed dismissed calls for a pact with the Labour Party to defeat the Tories at the next general election.
Wales
Counting is set to start on Friday morning, March 6, for Wales' local elections 2022. Voters across the nation went to the polls on Thursday to elect councillors and ruling groups in all of Wales' 22 councils, WalesOnline reports.
In Wales, changes have been made to the boundaries and how many councillors stand in some wards. It means there is now a total of 1,234 councillors who represent Wales, however, more than 70 have already been elected because no-one stood against them.
Scotland
The first results in Scotland’s local council elections have been announced. The SNP, Tories and the Liberal Democrats have returned councillors in the Tweeddale West ward of Scottish Borders Council.
The Tories’ vote share dropped by 15.7% based on the 2017 election in the ward. The result in Tweeddale East, the neighbouring ward, was announced soon after, with an SNP, Tory and independent councillor elected.
Unlike in some places in the rest of the UK where votes were counted overnight, ballots are being tallied up in Scotland throughout Friday and the final results are due to be announced in the early evening.
Senior figures in the Scottish Conservatives have told The Times they are expecting “heavy losses” due to the partygate saga, which saw the Prime Minister, his wife and Chancellor Rishi Sunak fined by police.
Early results for the Scottish Conservatives in local elections have been “really disappointing”, one of the party’s frontbenchers at Holyrood said, adding the Tories will “lick our wounds and move on”.
Speaking to the PA news agency from the Edinburgh count, Miles Briggs said the party has suffered from protest votes – with some supporters choosing to stay at home rather than back the Tories at the ballot box.
Northern Ireland
The counting of votes is continuing following elections to the Stormont Assembly. The verification of ballots began early on Friday morning.
The first of the 90 MLAs are expected to be returned by Friday afternoon but the counting is set to continue into the early hours of Saturday. Some 239 candidates are running across 18 constituencies.
The first stage of the counts, taking place at centres in Belfast, Jordanstown and Magherafelt, will include an announcement on total votes polled and percentage turnout. An indicative voter turnout of around 54% was given by the Electoral Office of Northern Ireland at 9pm on Thursday.
They said the figure was based on the average of returns from polling stations which remained open until 10pm. The indicative turnout ranged from 60% in West Belfast to 47% in the South Antrim constituency.
The turnout at the last Assembly election in 2017 was 64.8%. The DUP and Sinn Fein are vying for top spot, which comes with the entitlement to nominate the next first minister.
A unionist party has always been the biggest in the Assembly, and previously the Stormont Parliament, since the formation of the state in 1921. While the office of the first and deputy first minister is an equal one with joint power, the allocation of the titles is regarded as symbolically important.
The Northern Ireland Protocol has cast a long shadow over the election campaign following the resignation of First Minister Paul Givan in February in an effort to force the UK Government to act over the post-Brexit trading arrangements. This action left the Executive unable to fully function.
While ministers remained in post, they were restricted in the actions they could take. Unionists object to the additional checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain as a border in the Irish Sea.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson warned on Friday that his party would not re-enter the Executive without government action over the protocol. He told the BBC: “I’ll tell you one thing, if there’s no legislation in the Queen’s speech and no plans to deal with the protocol then we’ve made it very clear the assembly can’t function if the poison of the protocol is still there.”
But Sinn Fein MP John Finucane said people were more concerned about bread and butter issues. He said: “I believe the DUP during the campaign outlined a five-point plan as to how they were going to grow our economy, fix our health service and help working families.
“I don’t see how that is possible without an executive – in fact, it’s not possible without an executive.
Five Assembly seats are up for grabs in 18 constituencies. Northern Ireland uses the single transferable vote (STV) proportional representation electoral system.
The DUP won 28 seats at the last Assembly elections in 2017, just ahead of Sinn Fein which returned 27 MLAs.
Next was the SDLP with 12 seats, the Ulster Unionist Party with 10 seats, Alliance with eight seats, the Green Party with two seats while People Before Profit and the TUV had one MLA each.
This year, the DUP has been regarded as playing it safe, running 30 candidates, while Sinn Fein is running 34.
Meanwhile, the UUP is running 27 candidates, the Alliance Party is running 24, the SDLP is fielding 22, TUV is putting up 19 candidates, the Green Party is running 18 and People Before Profit 12, as is Aontu, while the Workers Party is running six candidates and the PUP three.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) and the Socialist Party are each fielding two candidates while the Northern Ireland Conservatives, Cross Community Labour Alliance (CCLA), Resume NI and Heritage Party are each running one candidate.
There are 24 independent candidates,
