LONDON (AP) – Britain's ruling Conservative Party suffered a crushing defeat in local election results Friday, further reinforcing hopes that Labor will return to power for the first time in 14 years in Britain's general election in the coming months.
Labor has won a special parliamentary by-election, taking control of England's parliament, which the party has not held for decades. If this election were repeated in the general election, it would lead to one of the biggest defeats in Conservative Party history.
Although the overall result is harsh, Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the Conservative mayor of the Tees Valley in north-east England breathed a sigh of relief when he was re-elected despite a low turnout. Ben Houchen's victory, which ran a deeply personal campaign, may be enough to cushion Sunak from a revolt by Tory MPs.
More than 50 countries will go to the polls in 2024
for keir starmerAlthough the Labor Party leadership has generally performed well, candidates in some areas with large Muslim populations, such as Blackburn and Oldham in north-west England, have struggled due to strong pro-Israel leadership. It seems like it is. Position on the Gaza conflict.
Perhaps most important in the context of the general election, which must be held by January but could be held as early as next month, Labor regained a parliamentary seat in Blackpool South in northwest England. Thing. This seat went to the Conservative Party in the last general election in 2019, but at that time the Prime Minister boris johnson It has penetrated significantly into Brexit-supporting areas of the country.
In the election, which was sparked by the resignation of a Conservative MP following a lobbying scandal, Labor's Chris Webb received 10,825 votes, beating the second-place Conservative candidate's 3,218 votes. The 26% swing from the Conservatives to Labor was the third largest since World War II and more than enough to return the party to power for the first time since it was ousted in 2010.
Mr Starmer traveled to Blackpool to celebrate Mr Webb's success and urged Mr Sunak to call a general election. Mr Sunak has the power to decide when this will happen, saying he expects it to be in the second half of 2024.
“This is a direct statement to Rishi Sunak saying we are tired of your decline, your confusion and your division and we want change,” he said.
thursday election Elections in much of England are important in their own right, with voters deciding who will be in charge of many aspects of daily life, such as garbage collection, road maintenance and local crime prevention, for years to come. But with general elections approaching, they are being viewed from a national perspective.
John Curtis, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said results so far showed the Conservatives were losing about half of the seats they were trying to protect.
“The Conservative Party's performance in local government elections is probably one of the worst, if not the worst, in the last 40 years,” he told BBC radio.
By mid-afternoon Friday, about half of the 2,661 seats had been counted, with the Conservatives losing 213 seats and Labor gaining 92. Other parties, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and the Greens, also gained seats. Reform UK, which is trying to wrest the Conservative Party from the right, also had some successes, particularly in south Blackpool, where it came within 200 votes of coming second.
The Labor Party is in areas such as Hartlepool in northeastern England and Thurrock in southeastern England, which voted strongly in favor of Brexit in 2016 and where Brexiteer Johnson lost a crushing defeat. I won. He also seized control of Rushmoor, a leafy, military-heavy parliament in southern England that he had never won before.
One bright spot for the Conservatives was the result in Tees Valley, a traditional Labor stronghold before Brexit. However, Mr. Houchen's vote share decreased by nearly 20 points from 2021 to 54%.
Sunak sounded a defiant note at Teesside, congratulating Houchen on their win but elsewhere admitting it was a “disappointing” result.
“Labour has a message too, because they know and they know they have to win here to win the general election.” “They thought Tees Valley would walk back, but that wasn't the case.”
Mr Sunak hopes Andy Street will remain mayor of the West Midlands when the results are announced on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Labor's Sadiq Khan is expected to remain mayor of London, but there are concerns that low turnout could mean he will lose to Conservative challenger Susan Hall. There is.
Sunak took over as prime minister in October 2022, following the short-lived tenure of his predecessor. Liz TrussHe resigned after 49 days after failing to fund a tax-cut budget that roiled financial markets and raised borrowing costs for homeowners.
Her chaotic and traumatic leadership follows the uproar over her predecessor, Mr Johnson, who was forced to resign after being found to have lied to parliament over coronavirus lockdown breaches in his Downing Street office. It made the Conservative Party's difficulties even worse.
Nothing Mr Sunak has tried to do will change the course of politics, with Labor consistently leading by 20 points in opinion polls. Whether anyone else can deliver better policy than Mr Sunak is a question that may be preoccupying the minds of Conservative members of parliament as they look ahead to the weekend.