It will be late on Saturday before we get the full picture of the results from yesterday’s elections in England and Wales. Voters have become used to long waits. It took five days to form David Cameron’s coalition in 2010 and even longer to confirm Joe Biden as President in 2020.
These elections are set to be the appetiser for the General Election due in the second half of this year. These results have not changed expectations about what will happen then. With around a third of the results in from the 2,600 seats in contention on 107 councils and the all-important parliamentary by-election in Blackpool South, the Conservatives must already be feeling sick.
This morning Sir Keir Starmer hailed the Blackpool victory as “seismic”, with a swing of 26 per cent from the Tories to Labour. It is the record-breaking seventh Westminster constituency which Labour has snatched directly from the Tories, with the biggest swing so far at 28.5 per cent. The new MP Chris Webb took 58.9 per cent of the votes, declaring: “Blackpool South has spoken for Britain… Blackpool has had enough of this government.”
That looks like the broad picture across the council elections. The Conservatives are losing half the seats they were defending putting them on course perhaps for the party’s worst local election performance for 40 years. Labour is making gains and taking control of some councils across England including Rushmoor in Hertfordshire, Redditch in Worcestershire and Thurrock in Essex. The Conservatives are making much of staying in control in nearby Harlow – visited by Starmer twice during this campaign – but the electoral maths there........