UK Conservatives take battering in key local elections

As a national election looms, Britain’s Conservative Party lost significantly in early municipal election results. Labour and Liberal Democrats gained significantly.

The Conservatives called it “a disappointing night” as ballots from Thursday’s voting were counted.

“Not a resounding result for Labour,” said Conservative chairman Greg Hands. The left-wing opposition party expects the results will reaffirm its lead in a 2024 general election.

With 25% of results in, the Conservatives had lost almost 200 seats in elections for more than 8,000 seats on 230 local councils across England. The right-of-center party lost control of numerous councils, including Medway in southeast England and Plymouth in the southwest.

At least three new councils were won by Labour, and Windsor, home to Windsor Castle, was won by the centrist Liberal Democrats from the Conservatives.
While many contests focused on local issues like potholes and garbage collection, voters appeared to punish the Conservatives for the turmoil under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He resigned amid various scandals and was replaced by Liz Truss, whose hasty tax-cutting plans startled financial markets, crushed the pound, and roiled the British economy.

The party chose Sunak, a polished former banker, to stabilize the economy and government.

“It’s always disappointing to lose hard-working Conservative councilors,” Sunak remarked Friday. “In terms of the results, it’s still early,” he insisted.

Since 2010, the Conservatives have led the country through austerity, a global pandemic, Britain’s controversial decision to exit the EU, and a European conflict that caused the biggest cost-of-living crisis in decades.

Labour says voters want change. Shabana Mahmood, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, claimed the results placed Labour on track to win a general election majority.

“Rishi Sunak has been a disaster as voters punish him for the Tories’ failure,” she said.

UK findings are incomplete. London, Scotland, and Wales did not vote, but Northern Ireland will on May 18.

The first election since the government mandated picture ID at all UK polling sites was held.

The government claims that requiring ID to vote in many democracies will reduce voter fraud. Critics claim Britain has little electoral fraud.

Passports, driver’s licenses, and senior citizens’ travelcards are accepted, but not youth transit passes. Unlike other transit passes, the government needs evidence of age for older travelcards. The difference has raised concerns that the shift will disenfranchise young people, who are least inclined to vote Conservative. Poor people also have fewer photo IDs.

The official elections watchdog, the Electoral Commission, stated after polls closed Thursday night that “overall, the elections were well-run,” but “some people were regrettably unable to vote today as a result” of the new restrictions.

“It will be essential to understand the extent of this impact, and the reasons behind it, before a final view can be taken on how the policy has worked in practice and what can be learnt for future elections,” the commission stated.