Local elections bring cheer for Theresa May

Cllr Truelove wondered if, with a general election around the corner, voters would be less inclined to vote “politically” in the local elections, instead focusing more on the quality of the local candidate than they perhaps would have done had Theresa May not called a snap vote for June 8.

The figure is based on a study of all the parties’ performance by Sky’s election analyst, Professor Michael Thrasher.

Scottish Conservative Candidate Thomas Kerr is announced as winning the former Labour stronghold seat of Shettleston, Glasgow, as the results of the local elections are announced at the Emirates Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, Fr.

Welsh Labour will try to distance itself from the national party during the general election campaign after it did better than activists and experts anticipated in the local elections.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), which campaigned for remaining in the European Union and is committed to independence from the United Kingdom, took a majority of votes north of the English border to remain the biggest party in the council elections with a total of 431 seats.

Ukip was nearly completely wiped off the map, gaining just one seat – from Labour – in Padiham and Burnley West.

No party previously had overall control of Warwickshire County Council, but the Conservatives now have an overall majority of seats.

Theresa May’s Tories secured more than 550 council seats, significant victories in mayoralty contests in West Midlands and Tees Valley, and control of 11 extra councils.

One seat in Northumberland, northeast England, had to be decided by drawing straws, following a tie.

Liberal Democrats had a mixed election. In its actual council races, the party lost a handful of seats in each of England, Wales, and Scotland.

The divisions in the Labour ranks were underlined when former shadow home secretary Andy Burnham – the party’s newly-elected metro mayor for Manchester – failed to show up for a visit to the city by Mr Corbyn to celebrate his triumph.

The Conservatives were on 46 percent, up four points from last week’s ORB poll, while Labour was unchanged on 31 percent ahead of a June 8 national election, the poll said.

Nuttall claimed the party, which did well in 2013 council elections and won 3.8 million votes in the 2015 general election, was a “victim of its own success”.

But Labour’s private polling also suggested that numerous party’s individual policies in 2015 were popular – and that didn’t guarantee success at the ballot box.

So it’s hard to say whether today’s results, which saw Labour lose control of three councils, and lose 100 councillors, mean much.

Ms Sturgeon said: “What we’ve seen across Scotland today of course is the SNP vote holding firm”.

He said: “It’s simply not good enough for a party that has been in opposition for seven years. What we’ve seen is the collapse of Labour and that’s the reason for the increase in the Conservative vote”.

At the time of writing, the Tories had gained an extra 560 councillors.

Labour lost over 100 seats and three councils, but retained control in the key cities of Cardiff and Swansea.