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London's burning: Conservative councils collapse in capital as voters turn on Johnson
Updated 21:16, 07-May-2022
CGTN
Two Conservatives during the counting process at the Westminster City Council local elections, at Lindley Hall in Westminster, London. /Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Two Conservatives during the counting process at the Westminster City Council local elections, at Lindley Hall in Westminster, London. /Henry Nicholls/Reuters

UK voters punished Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives in local elections, with the ruling parliamentary party losing control at council level of traditional strongholds in London.

Johnson, a former London mayor, lost support in southeastern England – leading to speculation that the prime minister, long regarded as a vote-winner by his party, may have lost his popular appeal amid ongoing investigations into parties held during COVID-19 lockdown.

Johnson's supporters moved quickly on Friday to insist it was not time to oust a leader they said could still "get things done" to help the embattled economy.

The Conservatives were ousted in Wandsworth, a low-tax stronghold since 1978. For the first time, the opposition Labour Party won the council of Westminster, a district where most government institutions are located. The Conservatives also lost control of the borough of Barnet, which the party has held in all but two elections since 1964.

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Between a half and a third of the electorate went to the polls amid growing anger over a cost-of-living crisis and fines imposed on the prime minister for breaking his own COVID-19 lockdown rules.

"Fantastic result, absolutely fantastic. Believe you me, this is a big turning point for us from the depths of 2019 general election," Labour leader Keir Starmer told party supporters in London.

Due later on Friday, the overall tally will offer the most important snapshot of public opinion since Johnson won the Conservative Party's biggest majority in more than 30 years in the 2019 national vote.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour party MP Rosena Allin-Khan react during local elections at Wandsworth Town Hall. /Hannah McKay/Reuters

London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour party MP Rosena Allin-Khan react during local elections at Wandsworth Town Hall. /Hannah McKay/Reuters

The ballot was an electoral test for Johnson since he became the first British prime minister to have been found to have broken the law while in office. Last month, he was fined by police for attending a birthday gathering in his office in 2020, breaking social distancing rules then in place to curb COVID-19's spread.

The loss of critical councils in London, where the Conservatives were almost wiped out, will increase pressure on Johnson, who has been fighting for his political survival for months and faces the possibility of more police fines over his attendance at other lockdown-breaking gatherings.

But with indications support for his party has held up in areas of central and northern England that backed leaving the European Union in 2016, some Conservatives said Johnson's critics were unlikely to have the numbers to trigger a coup for now.

 

Outside the capital

The elections held on Thursday will decide almost 7,000 council seats, including all those in London, Scotland and Wales, and a third of the seats in most of the rest of England.

The Conservatives lost overall control of councils outside the capital in Southampton, Worcester and West Oxfordshire.

But the party has not done as poorly as some polls had predicted. One poll in the run-up to the elections said the Conservatives could lose about 800 council seats.

John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said early trends suggested the Conservatives were on course to lose about 250 seats. He said the results suggested Labour may not emerge as the largest party at the next election.

Speaking on the BBC, Curtice said, "outside of London, Labour's vote is a little lower than in 2018. It hasn't done quite as well as Jeremy Corbyn did."

Oliver Dowden, the chairman of the Conservatives, said the party "had some difficult results" after weeks of what he described as "challenging headlines," but that Labour was not on course to win the next general election.

"What you see in the Prime Minister is somebody who gets things done, a change maker," Dowden said. "We need that kind of bold leadership precisely at a time when we're facing these big challenges, whether it's cost of living, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's the economic situation around the world."

Source(s): Reuters

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