LONDON: Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives faced steep losses in local election results on Friday, undermining the British prime minister’s efforts to revive their fortunes and emboldening the opposition Labour Party ahead of a national vote expected next year.

Sunak came to power in October following a year of political scandals, surging inflation and stagnant economic growth. In office he has faced a cost-of-living crisis, mounting concern about healthcare and widespread industrial action.

While governing parties often struggle at mid-term elections, the council results in England are the largest, and possibly last, test of voter sentiment before the next national election due by January 2025.

After a majority of councils had counted their votes, which do not affect the government’s majority in parliament, the Conservatives had a net loss of 460 seats while Labour added 260 seats and the Liberal Democrats gained 143.

Labour said they were now on track for power at the next general election. A Sky News projection based on the vote share of the early results said Labour could garner 36-38 per cent of the vote at the next national election, making them the biggest party, with the Conservatives at 28-30pc.

The projection said Labour might fall short of a majority, though that could depend on how it fares in Scotland, where it is competing to take seats from the Scottish National Party and which did not hold local polls.

A similar BBC projection said Labour would get 35pc at a national election and the Conservatives 26pc, and some in Sunak’s party voiced their disquiet over the results.

Labour won control of Swindon borough council, a town in southwest England where Labour leader Keir Starmer launched his election campaign, and which has always voted for lawmakers for the governing party since 1983.

“No spin, no gloss. This is a dreadful set of results,” said Justin Tomlinson, Conservative lawmaker in parliament for Swindon North. “The party collectively needs to take this as a wake-up call to refresh and renew.”

The votes were to elect around 8,000 councillors to local government authorities which have responsibility for the day-to-day provision of services such as bin collections and schools.

Sunak’s party suffered losses to Labour in key target seats in the north and southern England, while the Liberal Democrats advanced in wealthier parts of the south.

Sunak told reporters the results so far showed that people wanted his ruling party to deliver on their priorities, but that it was still too early in the process of announcing results to draw firm conclusions as counts continue.

Sunak admitted results looked “disappointing” but claimed he was “not detecting any massive groundswell of movement” towards the main Labour opposition or “excitement for its agenda”.

John Curtice, Britain’s best-known pollster, said the results were an “unambiguous” rebuff to the Conservatives but there was still an open question over how popular Labour were.

“(Labour) might achieve winning an overall majority, not because of any great enthusiasm of the electorate for Labour, but rather simply because the Conserva­tives are doing so badly,” he told BBC radio.

Sunak has tried to restore the Conservatives’ credibility since he took over as prime minister and as his party’s third leader in the past year following the scandal-ridden premiership of Boris Johnson and the chaotic economic policies that brought down Liz Truss within two months.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2023