The Conservative Party has suffered a sharp drop in local elections in 230 town halls, in the first electoral test since Rishi Sunak's rise as "premier" last November. The 'Tories' could lose up to a thousand of the 8,000 councilors at stake (228 with 25% scrutinized) in a debacle comparable to the one they experienced in 2019 at the twilight of Theresa May's term.
The president of the Conservative Party, Greg Hands, admitted that the results are "disappointing", while the campaign manager of the Labor Party, Shabana Mahmood, assured that the vote on May 4 - in full countdown of the Coronation of King Carlos - certifies that the opposition party for the last 13 years "is on track to achieve a government with an absolute majority" with Keir Starmer as prime minister.
Starmer celebrated electoral success in Medway, after wresting from the Conservatives one of their strongholds of the last two decades. "Make no mistake: we are going to get a Labor majority in the next general election," he declared.
Mahmood interpreted the results as "a disaster for Sunak" and as "a vote to punish the Tory fiascos." Gavin Barwell, Theresa May's former chief of staff, warned: "The problem is not Sunak , but the damage caused by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. The "premier" is improving the situation, but he has a devilish job ahead of him to close the hole with Labor ".
Without waiting for the final results, Sunak himself tried to combat discouragement in his ranks with a message early in the morning, highlighting the "progress" of the Conservatives in cities such as Peterborough, Bassetlaw or Sandwell and reiterating his determination to fulfill his five promises with the British: "Halve inflation, grow the economy, reduce debt, cut public health waiting lists and stop boats (crossing the English Channel)."
Hopes in the so-called Rishi "revival", which would have allowed the conservative leader to face the final stretch towards the 2024 general elections with relative optimism, were diluted with the first official results in the early hours of Friday.
Labor took control of several key cities, from Plymouth to Medway, passing through Stoke-on-Trent, among clear signs of having reconquered the ground lost to Boris Johnson in the "red belt". Ed Davey's Liberal Democrat Party has also achieved significant unity in the south and east of England, wresting control of the highly symbolic Windsor town hall from the Tories outright.
"The Conservatives have a considerable electoral problem, and losing at this point a thousand councilors could be considered a calamity," analyst and electoral guru John Curtice told the BBC, who warned, however, that Labor's gains (119 councilors with the 25% counted) would be insufficient to guarantee an absolute majority if the results were projected on a national scale.
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