The opposition Labour Party in Britain gained control of several municipalities and a parliamentary seat in northern England on Friday, severely hurting the governing Conservatives and increasing pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
With a resounding win, the stage was set for two days of intensely anticipated local elections this year, which according to polls might bring an end to 14 years of Conservative rule under Labour leader Keir Starmer.
On Thursday, voters in England cast ballots for almost 2,000 local authority seats as well as a few well-known mayoral elections, one of which was held in the nation’s capital, London.
The sole parliamentary seat up for grabs following the Conservative lawmaker’s resignation due to a lobbying scandal was Blackpool South.
Chris Webb, a Labour candidate, received 10,825 votes to win the Blackpool election. With 3,218 points, the Conservative candidate finished in second. According to polling expert John Curtice, the 26% swing to Labour from the 2019 outcome was the third largest in the history of post-war by-elections.
Labour’s prospects of defeating Sunak’s Conservatives in the national election will be enhanced by the loss in Blackpool and early indications of significant losses at the local level.
“This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today,” Starmer stated.
“This is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.”
It was described as “a tough night” by the Conservative Party chairman.
“These are definitely not the best results,” Richard Holden said to Times Radio.
In most opinion surveys, Sunak’s Conservatives are trailing Labour by about 20 percentage points for the national election, which Sunak has stated he plans to call in the second half of the year.
The British prime minister had hoped to win over voters with his pledge of more defense spending and the approval of his controversial proposal to deport unlawful asylum seekers to Rwanda, but the defeats might reignite calls for his resignation.
According to Curtice, the Conservatives might be facing their worst local election results in forty years and were headed for defeat in the national election based on the results thus far.
As predicted by finance minister Jeremy Hunt prior to the poll, the Conservatives would suffer heavy losses in the first 500 of the more than 2,600 local council results, with Labour emerging victorious.
The Conservatives capitalized on Starmer’s inability to take over a single southeast council that they had set their sights on.
Labour stated that while certain council results had been tempered by anger over the party’s attitude on Gaza, where Palestinian health authorities claim over 34,500 people have died in Israeli military offensives, the overall message from the polls was that voters wanted change.
“There will be a national election on this evening. The general consensus is that a change is needed,” stated Pat McFadden, national campaign coordinator for Labour.
While local elections may not always accurately predict national voting patterns, a significant loss would incite the Conservative Party to resent Sunak leadership once more.
The outcome of two mayoral elections, in which the Conservatives want to demonstrate that they can still maintain footing in central and northeast England, might determine the scope of that upheaval.
The West Midlands mayor will be revealed on Saturday, while the results of the Tees Valley mayoral contest are due on Friday. On Saturday, there will also be an election in London, where incumbent Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is anticipated to win reelection.
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