The uncertainty over the direction of Brexit and an ongoing scandal over the treatment of Britons from the Commonwealth by Britain’s Home Office failed to wreak the damage that many had predicted in local elections held this week, the results of which emerged on Friday.
High expectations of the Labour Party’s performance, particularly in the London area, were not met, as the party made a number of gains but failed to take control of Conservative areas that had been touted as potentially vulnerable to upsets. In local elections up and down the country, in which it would be hard to pick an overall winner, the most noteworthy development was, perhaps, the collapse of support for the UK Independence Party, which lost over 900 seats.
“Certainly neither of the main parties has done uniformly well or badly,” says Matt Singh, of Number Cruncher Politics. “Having said that, the expectation in mid-term local elections is always that it’s the opposition party making progress, and Labour hasn’t really done that,” he added.
The results are likely to be welcomed by the Conservatives and Prime Minister Theresa May. It is the first test of the government since the June general election last year, when the Conservatives lost majority and are forced to rely on the support of allies in Northern Ireland, the DUP.
Direction of Brexit
The government has been plagued by difficulties since that election, resulting in four Cabinet Ministers resigning, including Amber Rudd, who stepped down as Home Secretary on Sunday night, just days before the elections. Uncertainty also persists over the direction of Brexit.
However, the Labour party, also beset by a controversy over its strategy for dealing with anti-Semitism within its ranks, failed to gain much ground. In the north London council of Barnet, the party failed to take control from the Conservatives, which increased their presence there. In the London councils of Wandsworth and Westminster, Labour gained seats but failed to take control. There were a number of successes, including in Trafford in Greater Manchester, where it became the largest party (though without a majority).
The results suggested that while local issues certainly came into play, national issues also played a key role. In Barnet, where the Labour underperformed, the wards with high Jewish populations went particularly poorly for the party, suggesting the anti-Semitism row hit sentiment. In Richmond, in south-east London, which voted heavily in favour of remaining in the EU, the pro-Remain Liberal Democrats wrested control from the Conservatives.
UKIP, the rightwing, anti-immigrant Eurosceptic party that performed strongly in the 2014 local elections, saw its vote share collapse in line with its poor performance in the May 2017 general election.
