What do the disastrous Tory local election results mean for Rishi Sunak?

Sunak’s party has lost ground to Labour in traditional ‘red wall’ and bellwether seats as well as to the Lib Dems in the ‘blue wall’ south. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

“What I’m hearing on the doorstep is that people are giving Rishi Sunak a chance,” the Conservative party’s chair, Greg Hands, insisted in the face of a disastrous night for his party.

Among Conservative MPs, this positive spin on the loss of hundreds and possibly as much as 1,000 Tory seats was not going down well on Friday. Some have even bluntly admitted the terribleness of the results. Johnny Mercer, the MP for Plymouth Moor View, where Labour gained the council, gave the most direct admonishment to his party that it would need to “learn from this” and “make a material difference to the quality of people’s lives”.