Great Britain
London: Mayoral election results awaited
Sadiq Khan is considered the favorite. photo
© Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/dpa
Prime Minister Sunak’s Conservatives have resoundingly lost the local elections in England. Now it’s about damage control. But experts see bleak for the future.
After their clear success in the local elections in In England, the British opposition Labor Party is also expecting a victory in the London mayoral election. The result is expected to be announced later on Saturday.
Incumbent Sadiq Khan was considered the clear favorite in Thursday’s vote. However, rumors began circulating on Friday that conservative challenger Susan Hall could win in a completely unexpected way. The reasons cited were low turnout among Labor voters and discontent in the outskirts over the expansion of the low emission zone. As the broadcaster Sky News reported late in the evening, both camps assumed that Khan would take up a historic third term in office.
Sunak hopes for success in the West Midlands
The results of the mayoral election are also expected on Saturday in the West Midlands region around the megacity of Birmingham. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was hoping for a victory for the Conservative incumbent Andy Street after his Tory Party’s disastrous results in the local elections. Success would also reduce the pressure on Sunak from within his own group, experts emphasized.
However, the results so far have been catastrophic for Sunak. After almost all votes were counted, the Tories lost about half of the seats they had to defend. There were bitter defeats in strongholds such as Gloucester in the southwest, where the Conservatives had ruled for 20 years, and Thurrock, east of London. The Prime Minister was disappointed.
The opposition Labor party sees its success story confirmed. Party leader Keir Starmer called on Sunak to finally give a date for the general election. So far the Prime Minister has only indicated a date in the second half of the year.
“The Tories have lost their government mandate”
Election researcher John Curtice calculated for the BBC that the Conservatives would get just 25 percent of the vote if the results were repeated in a general election. “The Tories have lost their mandate to govern, and voters are unlikely to give them credit for improvements in the areas of greatest concern – the economy and migration,” said political scientist Mark Garnett of the German Press Agency.
It will now be exciting to see whether there is a major revolt against Sunak within the party – “in the hope that a new face could help voters forget the last 14 years,” said the expert from Lancaster University. The Tories have been in power since 2010.
Danger from the right
In addition, the pressure from the right continues to increase. The right-wing populist Reform UK party, founded five years ago by Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage as the Brexit Party, has strong appeal among disillusioned Conservative supporters and is likely to become a major threat to the party’s survival, Garnett said. Political scientist Tim Bale from Queen Mary University of London told dpa that reform would likely cost the Tories a lot of votes in the general election.