Tories suffer worst council poll results in 40 years

Labour gains key councils as mayoral elections in London, Greater Manchester and the Tees Valley also take place.

Chris Webb, the new Labour MP for Blackpool South, with his wife Portia and baby Cillian. Picture: Getty Images

Britain’s Conservatives were on Friday night facing their worst local election result in 40 years, and have lost the Blackpool South by-election with a huge swing to Labour.

The by-election in the northwest England seat, triggered by a lobbying scandal that forced the resignation of the local Tory MP, took place as voters cast ballots on Thursday in a mix of council, mayoral and other local contests across England.

After the overnight results with 35 councils out of 107 in ­England declaring, the picture was not a good one for the Conservatives. The Tories had lost a total of 122 councillors, with bruising defeats in Peterborough and Lincolnshire, although they held on to Harlow Council.

Labour gained an additional 52 councillors, taking control in Redditch, Rushmoor and Thurrock. The Liberal Democrats have gained 18 councillors and the Green Party 13. Independent candidates gained 39 seats, most ­notably in Oldham where independent candidates won eight seats to prevent Labour securing a majority.

In the latest by-election defeat for the Tories as it appears on course to lose an upcoming general election, Labour’s Chris Webb won Blackpool South with a 26.3 per cent swing – the third-largest margin from the Conservatives to Labour at a by-election since World War II.

“This seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today,” said Labour leader Keir Starmer, tipped to be Britain’s next prime minister.

The polls represent the last major ballot box test before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak goes to the country in a nationwide vote expected in the second half of the year. His ruling Tories, in power nationally since 2010 and defending hundreds of seats secured the last time local elections were held in 2021, had been tipped to suffer heavy losses.

The capital’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win a record third term easily, but ­mayoral contests in the West Midlands and Tees Valley, in northeast England, are predicted to be tight. A victory for Labour in either of the regions, home to bellwether constituencies, would be hailed as further evidence voters are ready to return the party to power nationally.

Speculation is rife in the British parliament at Westminster that a bad showing may lead some restive Tory MPs to try to replace Mr Sunak, who has been in charge since October 2022. Conservative MPs ousted Mr Sunak’s predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, and the party has had five prime ministers since the 2016 referendum to leave the EU.

Wins for the incumbent Tory mayors in the West Midlands and Tees Valley, Andy Street and Ben Houchen, would boost their hopes that the beleaguered leader can still revive their fortunes.

But with the Tories under fire nationally, on issues from water pollution to transport and inflation, Mr Street and Mr Houchen have distanced themselves from the party during the campaign.

Pollsters forecast that the Conservatives could lose about half of the nearly 1000 council seats they are defending in cities, towns and districts across England.

“We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years,” polling expert John Curtice told BBC radio.

The defeat in Blackpool South was its 11th by-election loss since Mr Johnson won a landslide ­victory at the last general election in 2019.

That is the most by any government in a single parliament since the late 1960s. Mr Sunak has been in charge for seven of them.

Worryingly for him, the Conservatives only scraped into second place in Blackpool South ahead of the fringe Reform UK party, which threatens to squeeze the right-wing vote at the general election.

The party linked to arch-Eurosceptic Nigel Farage won 17 per cent of the vote, its best performance in a by-election.

AFP