UK local elections boost for Theresa May

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party scored a landslide victory in local government elections. It’s a prelude to a massive victory for May in the UK’s June 8 poll.
The Tories won 1,882 of the 4,851 council seats contested in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a net gain of 556, which brought under control 11 counties and districts. Labour had 1,137 seats, a net loss of 385, and lost control of seven councils. The result has a major dent to the Labour Party and Scottish National Party. It has dealt a heavy blow to Labour’s hopes of preventing a Tory landslide in the general election. And UK Independence Party has been annihilated.
With ballots in all of Scotland’s 32 regions counted, the Scottish National Party lost seven council seats and the Conservatives gained 164. The SNP also lost control of the city of Dundee, one of the few places that backed breaking away from the UK in a 2014 plebiscite. It has weakened SNP’s stand for another independence referendum. The vote in Scotland was seen as a chance to protest Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s plan for another independence referendum following the UK’s decision to leave the EU. People right across Scotland have been looking for this fight back against the SNP.
Despite losing council seats, Sturgeon claimed “clear and emphatic victory” for the SNP, which won the largest number of seats overall. “It’s not the SNP losing ground to the Tories. The real soul-searching in Scotland has to be done by the Labour Party,” Sturgeon said. For Sturgeon, the real challenge lies ahead. Her nationalist party will now try to defend its position rather than strengthening in general elections. The party took 56 of Scotland’s 59 districts in the UK Parliament in 2015.
The Conservatives posted some surprising wins. The party won seats for new regional mayors in Tees Valley and the West Midlands, traditionally Labour areas. Labour lost about a fifth of its seats in its heartland of Wales as well as overall control of the city of Glasgow in Scotland. Since local elections are fought on local policies and personalities, the results cannot be translated directly to the campaign for parliamentary seats and there is no room for complacency ahead of the June 8 general election. Still, the Conservatives excellent showing in the local elections will be a huge morale boost to the party and its supporters.
May’s Brexit policy is the dominant issue in the general election and she has projected herself as the national leader needed to deal with UK’s exit from EU. May’s Conservatives took votes from across the whole of the political spectrum. What is most astonishing is the fact that she succeeded in consolidating the Brexit vote. It’s a preview of May’s Conservatives winning national elections by a landslide slated for June 8. The huge majority would allow May to sell the kind of Brexit deal she wants and to implement whatever domestic policies she chooses.