Johnson blamed as Tories lose seats in UK council elections

Bloomberg

Boris Johnson’s Conservatives shed seats across England and lost control of three London strongholds in the local elections, leading to a backlash against the from local party leaders.
The Tories lost control of Wandsworth Council — an iconic local government which has been Tory-run since 1978 — as well as in Westminster, where the Houses of Parliament are based. They also also ceded power to the main opposition Labour Party in Barnet, and in the southern city of Southampton.
With about half of councils reporting results, the governing party had lost about one in six of its seats up for grabs this time around.
Still, that is far from the disaster for Johnson that some had predicted before the local
elections, which typically give voters the chance to lodge a mid-term protest against the government. Electoral Calculus had projected the Tories would lose about a third of their seats.
Coming into the votes, the stakes were higher for Johnson than would normally be the case, given it’s just weeks since the prime minister was forced to fend off efforts by some of his own lawmakers to oust him over a succession of scandals, including rule-breaking during the pandemic.
Despite the results in London, Johnson will be able to take some solace because in the rest of England, where — so far — the results don’t show an emphatic shift to Keir Starmer’s Labour.
In fact, the opposition party has made a “slight net loss” outside the capital, according to John Curtice, professor of
politics at the University of Strathclyde. “Labour can’t win Westminster Parliament by simply winning Westminster council,” he told the BBC.
“There are challenging results, but we have made progress in lots of places,” Tory Party Co-Chairman Oliver Dowden told Sky News, pointing to Conservative gains in Thurrock, Nuneaton and Hartlepool. “I do not accept that Labour have the momentum to form the next government.”
Council seats were being counted in Scotland, Wales and many parts of England, while there are also elections to Stormont Assembly in Northern Ireland. The unionist DUP and republican Sinn Fein are vying for the chance to nominate the next first minister.
The elections took place against a backdrop of missteps by Johnson, including the “partygate” scandal in which he became the first sitting premier to be fined for breaking the law, after celebrating his birthday in breach of pandemic rules.
That’s on top of voter concerns about a cost-of-living crisis underlined by gloomy Bank of England forecasts the polling day.
“It is not just partygate, there is the integrity issue,” John Mallinson, the outgoing Tory leader of Carlisle City Council told BBC News. “I just don’t feel people any longer have the confidence that the prime minister can be relied upon to tell the truth.”
The losses of Wandsworth and Westminster, which has always voted Tory, are likely to be felt most keenly by the Conservatives. Wandsworth was former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s favourite council for having the lowest rate of local taxes. “Consistently on the doorstep, the issue of Boris Johnson was raised” by voters during campaigning, outgoing Tory leader Ravi Govindia told BBC News.
Even Labour’s leader in Barnet Council agreed that his party’s success in London was partly due to anger directed at the Conservative Party. “I’ll be honest, it’s not us being wonderful,” Barry Rawlings told
the BBC.