Tories storm home for shock win in Labour stronghold

The Super Thursday regional and local elections could reshape the UK as pro-independence forces in Scotland bid to break away.

Ballot papers are verified for the Hartlepool by-election on Friday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives secured an upset victory in a northern opposition stronghold on Friday, after Britain held its first major electoral test since Brexit and the coronavirus crisis.

The “Super Thursday” regional and local elections could reshape the UK as pro-independence forces in Scotland bid to break away.

Results for the Scottish parliament are due on Saturday.

But early results from England on Friday showed that the Conservatives had won the parliamentary seat of Hartlepool, a deep blow to the Labour Party and its leader Keir Starmer ahead of the next general election due in 2024. Hartlepool is a rust-belt port constituency that has never voted Conservative since its creation in 1974.

Jill Mortimer, the Tory candidate, overturned a Labour majority of 3600 . The Tories picked up 15,529 votes to Labour’s 8589.

The strongly pro-Brexit constituency’s by-election was called alongside the local polls after its Labour incumbent quit over allegations of sexual harassment.

“It’s quite clear when we see the ballots land on the table today that we haven’t been able to catch enough of those numbers to get us over the line today,” shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon despondently told the BBC.

“That’s clearly very disappointing.”

As observers waited for confirmation from the official results, a giant inflatable Johnson appeared outside the count, towering above the two-storey building. The balloon Boris, complete with trademark scruffy blond hair, stood giving two thumbs up as ballots continued to be counted inside.

The loss of Hartlepool come despite attacks by Sir Keir on Mr Johnson’s personal integrity, and suggest the Prime Minister has enjoyed a “vaccine bounce” even while Britain has suffered one of the world’s worst death tolls from COVID-19.

Underlining Hartlepool’s importance in the national battle, both leaders paid repeat campaign visits there, and the Conservatives were also banking on a strong showing in mayoral races for the English regions of Tees Valley and the West Midlands.

Mr Johnson, after shrugging off questions about who paid initially for costly renovations to his Downing Street flat, has also campaigned on his record as the leader who finally “got Brexit done” following Britain’s full withdrawal from the EU this year.

“It’s the Conservatives who are delivering on your priorities, better taxpayer value, other parties (are) just playing political games,” the Prime Minister said in a Twitter video clip on Thursday.

Retaining Hartlepool was seen as pivotal for Sir Keir after the Conservatives grabbed a string of seats across Labour’s so-called Red Wall heartland in northern England at the last general election in December 2019, when Brexit was the dominant issue.

Some 250 jobs at the city’s Liberty Steel plant are at risk after the collapse of finance firm Greensill Capital, whose failure has dragged in former Conservative prime minister David Cameron and drawn ­Labour accusations of Tory “sleaze”. But one of the last opinion surveys before Thursday had given Mr Johnson’s party a double-digit lead in the seat.

And Sir Keir had played down expectations for Labour, stressing “I never thought we would climb the mountain we have to climb in just one year”.

“We’ve got to rebuild into the next general election — that is the task in hand,” he said, after hard-left predecessor Jeremy Corbyn led Labour in 2019 to its worst election drubbing since 1935.

Voting also took place on Thursday for local councils in England, regional mayors including in London, and for the devolved assemblies in Wales and Scotland.

In Edinburgh, the Scottish ­National Party is seeking a pro-independence majority to put pressure on Mr Johnson to permit another referendum on splitting from the UK, after most Scots voted in 2014 to stay in.

“It really is on a knife edge,” SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted on Thursday, appealing for turnout as she campaigns to hold a second plebiscite once the pandemic subsides.

AFP