LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party avoided a wipe-out in London local elections and eked out gains in Brexit-supporting regions elsewhere, results yesterday showed, denting the opposition Labour Party’s hopes of a big win.
The polls are viewed as a gauge of public support for May as she faces a possible revolt in Parliament over her strategy for leaving the EU.
With two-thirds of results declared, May had avoided the kind of widespread losses that would have weakened her authority over Conservative lawmakers ahead of key tests of her plans to take Britain out of the EU customs union as it quits the bloc.
“These results are as good as any government party after eight years in power could expect,” said Tony Travers, a professor at the London School of Economics Department of Government.
“They’ll be a relief for May and the Conservative Party, because they’re suggestive that despite the fact the Conservatives are in an on-and-off civil war over Brexit, the Labour Party’s problems are possibly worse.”
Against a backdrop of heightened expectations for the Labour Party, the ballot also showed the limitations of its recent resurgence under veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn.
May’s party held on to control of Wandsworth council, which had been one of Labour’s more ambitious targets in Thursday’s vote.
“Labour will have to do far, far better than this in local elections in future to suggest they are convincing the electorate more generally,” Travers said.
Ruling parties typically suffer losses at local elections and opinion polls had predicted a bad night in London for the Conservatives after eight years in power. May was also negotiating an exit from the EU that 60% of the capital rejected at the 2016 Brexit referendum.