Election crisis for Sunak, Labor celebrates – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

On Thursday 2 May, millions of voters in England went to vote for new municipal councils and mayors.

Although the counting is still ongoing, the election looks set to be an upturn for the opposition parties, especially for the British Labor Party. And a corresponding downturn for the conservative government party.

Even before all the results are out, it has been established that this will be the worst local election in 40 years for the Tories. And that on top of a miserable local election last year. And – within nine months, parliamentary elections must be held.

That is why election results and trends are now being studied closely, by both party strategists and political commentators.

107 of England’s 317 municipalities held elections on Thursday.

When 103 out of 107 municipalities are counted, the conservative government party has lost a whopping 497 seats. Labour, on the other hand, has secured 205 new seats. The Liberal Democrats can gain 94 seats, according to the tally overview at The Guardian.

Labor gains power in 48 of the 107 municipalities that have had elections.

Who will win London?

There are also direct elections for 11 mayors, several of them in important and symbolic areas, such as Greater London, Greater Manchester and Greater Liverpool.

The British capital has occasionally been known for its prominent front figures.

The outspoken socialist Ken Livingstone, who went by the nickname “Red Ken”, and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who became public domain as “Boris”, were the first two in London to be directly elected by voters.

Now the question was whether the somewhat quieter Labor man Sadiq Khan manages to secure his third term.

British media reported on Saturday morning that there could be an election surprise, but when the results started to tick in, the nail-biting was called off. And in the afternoon, Khan was officially declared the winner.

He managed to increase the margin of victory from the previous election and won with close to 44 percent of the vote.

The conservative challenger gets just under 33 percent and party colleagues have already started the cackle about what went wrong.

Two issues helped to increase the tension:

• In the capital’s outer districts, an environmental tax has caused outrage, causing many to turn against the party that governs the city and many of the districts.
• In inner city districts, the Gaza war causes anger among many voters, who believe that the party leadership is too critical of Israel and the war in Gaza. Although London mayor Khan belongs to the more anti-war wing of the party, many Muslim voters have turned their backs on the party.

Opted for green and not blue

Another exciting moment is the West Midlands, where Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city, is located.

Conservative Andy Street has been a popular mayor in an area that has traditionally belonged to the opposition Labor party, but which Street managed to win in 2017.

Andy Street tells NRK that it will probably be extremely even.

Street has distinguished himself as a critic of his own party in matters that affect West Midlands. The party is also not mentioned on Street’s website. And in the election campaign materials the color is not blue, the color of the Tories, but green.

NRK asks if he is doing this to distance himself from the unpopular ruling party and the prime minister and thereby increase his own chances of winning.

– Dere understand this in Norway: A mayoral election is more about choosing people to govern locally. There is no party competition. I did exactly the same as now in 2017. Then the party was doing well in the opinion polls, says Street.

Disappointed prime minister

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has largely struggled against the odds since he took over as Conservative Prime Minister and party leader in October 2022.

The former finance minister became the third party leader and prime minister in less than two months, after months of chaos and bickering.

– It is of course disappointing to lose good, hard-working, conservative municipal councillors, said Prime Minister Sunak to The Guardian when commenting on the election.

Many are excited about whether Sunak’s internal critics will now sharpen their knives and force another change.

At the moment, the Tories are 20 percentage points behind Labor in the national opinion polls.

NOK asks Andy Street, who hahas been a popular mayor, if he loses his election what chances will the party have in the parliamentary election?

– An interesting question, he replies disarmingly.

– If I lose, it’s solely my fault. If I and we win, it’s because we prove that we deliver. So if the government can demonstrate that it too can deliver, it is possible that the party can win, says Street.

– A message to Sunak

On top of the losses in the local elections, the conservative party had to see that a parliamentary seat was also lost.

Labour’s Chris Webb won the by-election in Blackpool South in northern England, after Conservative Scott Loyd Benton resigned over a corruption scandal.

– Here from Blackpool, a message has been sent directly to the Prime Minister, said Labor party leader Keir Starmer, according to Reuters.

– This was directly to Rishi Sunak, to say that we are tired of their downturns, their chaos, their division. We want change. We will move forward with Labour, the Labor leader claimed, as now is on a “victory tour” around the country.

An additional feather in Labour’s cap is that the party secured the new mayoral mandate in York and North Yorkshire, which includes Prime Minister Sunak’s constituency. This is “the rich countryside” where the conservatives normally stand strong.

Labor also retains the mayor in the areas of Liverpool and Manchester, in addition to several others.

The Conservatives were able to retain the directly elected mayor of Tees Valley, which Labor was also looking for.

It is referred to as a bright spot in a conservative electoral darkness.

The Liberal Democrats in progress

The Conservative Party is also being squeezed out The Liberal Democrats, who managed to win in several conservative bastions in southern England.

Liberal Democrat party leader Ed Davey celebrated the progress in Winchester. He demands that Prime Minister Sunak call a general election now, instead of waiting for better polls for himself and the party.

– These results shows what we all know. We need a general election now, Davey said, promising to start the election campaign.

According to British law, the parliamentary election must be held by 28 January 2025. This means that the pressure is constantly increasing against Sunak.

The Conservative Party has been in power in the UK for 14 years.

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