UK Municipalities
elected local officials in 2019. This local election delivers a spinable
message. The Brits are extremely polite and that is a problem at times like
this. See below. Local elections:
Conservatives lose more than 1,300 councillors 5/3/19, BBC News.
The
Conservatives have lost 1,334 councillors, with Theresa May saying voters
wanted the main parties to "get on" with Brexit.
Labour also lost 82 seats
in the English local elections, in which it had been expected to make gains.
But the strongly pro-EU Lib Dems gained 703 seats, with leader
Sir Vince Cable calling every vote received "a vote for stopping
Brexit". The Greens and independents also made gains, as UKIP lost seats.
All 248 English councils
holding elections have now announced their full results.
While the scale of the
Conservative election losses is larger than expected, Labour had predicted it
would gain seats, having suffered losses the last time these council seats were
contested, in 2015.
The Green Party has added
194 councillors, while the number of independent councillors has risen by 612.
UKIP, which enjoyed large
gains in 2015, lost 145 seats.
Results
from Northern
Ireland's 11 councils are also being announced. No local elections are
taking place in Scotland and Wales.
After nine years
in government it's not surprising that the Conservatives have lost a
significant chunk of seats. But the sheer number that
have disappeared and the loss of control of authorities will hurt - especially
with so many activists identifying Theresa May's handling of Brexit as a root
of the problem, not just a general malaise.
The perceived personal
nature of the failure is more of an indignity than an encounter with a heckler
in tweeds. And for Jeremy Corbyn, it
is surprising and disappointing that Labour has simply failed to make any
significant capital from such a divided and chaotic government.
However ardently his
devotees swear loyalty, the party has fallen back - on this set of results at
least - seeming further, rather than closer, from winning power in a general
election he so often claims to crave.
MPs have yet to agree on a deal for leaving the European Union,
and, as a result, the
deadline of Brexit has been pushed back from 29 March to 31 October.
While local elections give
voters the chance to choose the decision-makers who affect their communities,
the national issue has loomed large on the doorstep.
Mrs May, appearing at the
Welsh Conservative conference, said voters had sent the "simple
message" that her party and Labour had to "get on" with
delivering Brexit.
"These were always
going to be difficult elections for us," the prime minister added,
"and there were some challenging results for us last night, but it was a
bad night for Labour, too."
A heckler shouted at the
prime minister: "Why don't you resign?" He was then ushered out of
the conference hall in Llangollen, North Wales, as the audience chanted:
"Out, out, out."
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said that while the
Conservatives had lost "more than 10 times as many councillors", it
was "remarkable" that Labour, "around the mid-term of a
not-very-popular government - has not made net gains".
Speaking in Greater Manchester, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said
he "wanted to do better" and conceded voters who disagreed with its
backing for Brexit had deserted the party.
But Lib Dem leader Sir Vince, attending a rally in Chelmsford,
Essex, where his party took control of the council, said it had been a
"brilliant" result and that "every vote for the Liberal
Democrats was a vote for stopping Brexit".
The BBC projects that, if the local election results it analysed
were replicated across Britain, both the Conservatives and Labour would get 28%
of the total vote.
The data, based on 650 wards in which detailed voting figures
were collected, suggests the Lib Dems would get 19% and other parties and
independents 25%.
England scoreboard
Conservative
3562
Labour
2023
Liberal
Democrat 1350
Green 265
UNIP 31
Other
1179
Total
8410 of 20,565 Local Councillor seats
The Parliament was as
dismayed by the Brexit vote as the Establishment Republicans were with the
Trump election.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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