The Prime Minister has reacted to a bruising set of local election results for the Conservative Party by saying he has ‘heard a message’.
The Tories suffered heavy defeats up and down the country. In Greater Manchester, the Tories lost seven seats in Bolton overnight.
They lost the same number in Tameside, and couldn’t dent Labour’s huge majority in Salford. Further afield, Medway Council has slipped from the Conservatives’ grasp for the first time since 1998, and the leader of Thurrock Council has been ousted.
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It means that, despite switching Prime Minister twice since the last local election, the Conservatives are heading towards a general election year with work to do. This morning (May 5), Rishi Sunak said the results were ‘a message’.
Mr Sunak told Sky News: “It’s always disappointing to lose hard-working Conservative councillors, they’re friends, they’re colleagues and I’m so grateful to them for everything they’ve done.
“In terms of the results, it’s still early, we’ve just had a quarter of the results in, but what I am going to carry on doing is delivering on the people’s priorities – halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting waiting lists and stopping the boats.
“That’s what people want us to do, that’s what I’m going to keep hard at doing.”
“Actually we’re making progress in key electoral battlegrounds like Peterborough, Bassetlaw, Sandwell. The message I am hearing tonight is that people want us to focus on their priorities, and they want us to deliver for them.”
Labour have one of the big winners this year — with the Lib Dems scoring notable wins, too — and believe the party is on for their best local election result in a generation. Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator, said: “These results show that we are on course for a majority Labour government.
“We have spent the whole campaign talking about Labour’s plan to tackle the Tory cost of living crisis which is the number one issue for voters. Rishi Sunak can’t talk about it because the Tories crashed the economy and they don’t know how to fix it.
“These results have been a disaster for Rishi Sunak as voters punish him for the Tories’ failure.”
Greater Manchester local election results 2023
Here are all the local election results where you live in Greater Manchester:
- Manchester: Full local election results
- Bolton: Full local elections results
- Bury: Full local election results
- Stockport: Full local election results
- Trafford: Full local election results
- Oldham: Full local election results
- Salford: Full local election results
- Rochdale: Full local election results
- Tameside: Full local election results
- Wigan: Full local election results
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