Rishi Sunak’s troubles have deepened after another 48 hours he’ll want to forget with a local election drubbing.
The under-pressure Prime Minister has seen the Tories shed hundreds of council seats as he faces renewed threats from angry plotters. A catastrophic by-election result in Blackpool South saw the Conservatives narrowly avoid finishing third, as they tried to defend a seat won in 2019.
In a grim day for the PM Labour gained control of several councils – including Nuneaton & Bedworth, Redditch and Rushmoor – from the Tories, while taking Hartlepool and Thurrock which were in no overall control. The results have led to fresh calls for Mr Sunak to accept his fate and finally call a general election. As the map below shows, Tory victories were few and far between.
And to make matters worse Labour won in the PM’s backyard, with David Skaith becoming the first ever York and North Yorkshire Mayor. A delighted Keir Starmer, visiting Northallerton in Mr Sunak’s constituency, said: “People are fed up with a failed government and they’ve registered that here.”
Referring to the Prime Minister he said: “We’re in his constituency now celebrating this victory and that sends its own message.” Mr Starmer added: “I’m very, very proud to stand here as leader of the Labour Party to celebrate this historic victory. This is a historic victory. These are places where we would not normally have had a Labour Party success.”
Meanwhile Tory HQ has pleaded with disgruntled Tory MPs not to rock the boat with a fresh leadership challenge. But former Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman, who chairs the Conservative Democratic Organisation, warned the party is “finished” if it doesn’t dump Mr Sunak.
He told The Telegraph: “The lesson is clear: enough of this disastrous, visionless, vacuous leadership. Rishi must go and go now.” He branded it a “reality check” for Tory MPs as he warned: “If you don’t dump Sunak now the party is finished for at least a decade or more and the country is in danger under a hard left woke Labour. Do the necessary and do it quickly!”
Labour won the newly-created East Midlands and North East mayoralties. It also gained police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives in Avon & Somerset, Bedfordshire, Cumbria Norfolk, Northamptonshire and Lancashire.
Even the victory of Ben Houchen as mayor of Tees Valley is unlikely to ease the pressure on the PM. Lord Houchen retained the post despite his majority falling from 73% to 53%, and it is widely seen to have been due to his personal popularity rather than Mr Sunak’s.
The dire results pile pressure on the PM to finally call a general election. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey appeared in Winchester alongside activists dressed in dinosaur costumes wearing blue rosettes.
He said: “These results show what we all know: we need a general election now. No matter how long Rishi Sunak stays squatting in Downing Street, the Liberal Democrat general election campaign starts today to make this Conservative Government history.”
