Labour left limited as Tories hold ground

SCOREBOARD	Councils	+/-	Seats	+/-	Share
Labour	74	-	2350	+77	35%
Conservative	46	-2	1332	-33	35%
Liberal Democrats	9	+4	536	+75	16%
Independent	-	-	97	-	-
Residents' Association	-	-	46	-2	-
Green	-	-	39	+8	-
UKIP	-	-	3	-123	-
Liberal	-	-	1	-1	-
No Overall Control	21	-2	-	-	-

LABOUR struggled to make much headway on a mixed night for the two major parties in the English local elections held on Thursday.

Jeremy Corbyn's party gained a net total of 77 seats and took control of three more councils - but also lost control of three local authorities and failed to get near to taking many of its targets.

The Conservatives - as a governing party - had some unexpectedly bright results, taking Redditch directly from Labour as well as Barnet, Basildon, and Peterborough from no overall control.

However, the Tories lost control of Plymouth directly to Labour and lost three councils directly to the Liberal Democrats - including Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames in London.

Labour's own anticpated London surge never really materialised - there were gains in Wandsworth and four seats changed hands in Westminster.

But, in Hillingdon and in Barnet, Labour actually lost ground to the Conservatives - and, in Barnet, where there is a significant Jewish population, it was enough for the Tories to take control.

Prime Minister Theresa May thus emerged relatively unscathed in what was her first electoral test since her botched attempt to increase her majority in last year's early general election.

It did not seem to matter that, in the intervening 12 months, there have been no fewer than four major ministerial resignations with the most recent of them occurring less than a week ago.

Amber Rudd's decision to step down as Home Secretary over the Windrush scandal was not a surprise.

Indeed, it became inevitable once she had admitted to “inadvertently” misleading Parliament over the existence of deportation targets.

Out of all the resignations from this ramshackle government, however, the departure of Ms Rudd will have hit Mrs May hardest.

After all, many of the problems at the Home Office are historic in their nature and date back to when the current PM was Home Secretary herself.

Meanwhile, the Brexit negotiations continue to be a mess. As it stands, Britain is still no closer to knowing what relationship it will have with the customs union or indeed what will happen with the border in Ireland.

Time is running short. There are now just 328 days until Britain formally leaves the European Union on 29 March 2019 - although even this does not appear as black-and-white as it seems.

One thing which can be said for certain as a result of these elections - UKIP, having already achieved its aim of removing Britain from the EU, is now finished as a political force.

Four years ago, when the vast majority of these seats were last contested, UKIP was riding high and in fact took the most votes in the European elections held on the same day.

On Thursday, however, the Eurosceptic party took only three seats - including two in Derby - but it also lost 123 councillors, a year after having lost 145.

In a remarkable interview, the near-wipeout led Paul Oakley, the general secretary of UKIP, to liken the party to the Black Death, a pandemic which claimed millions of lives in the 14th century.

And there certainly can be no more definitive end than that.

Of course, the Conservatives have been the main beneficiaries of the collapse in the UKIP vote - but this is effectively just the right-wing of the Tory party returning to the fold.

Indeed, neither major political party seems able to break outside of its comfort zone.

For instance, there are still no Conservative councillors in Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester, Liverpool, or Sheffield.

And, within the capital, Labour now holds all the seats in the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Lewisham, and Newham, and all-but-one of the councillors in Islington.

Outside of the big cities, though, Labour continues to struggle to break through.

There was little progress, if any, in the likes of Dudley, Swindon, Carlisle, or Walsall - and Mr Corbyn admitted he was "disappointed at any places where we lost a bit of ground".

But, if anything, Mrs May should be more worried. For, even with the support of the voters returning from UKIP, the Conservatives' lack of appeal in London and the big cities appears to leave them without a clear path to a majority.

It was quite appropriate that, after all the votes were counted, the national projected share of the vote calculated both parties to be sat on 35%.

Yes, these elections were the definition of political stalemate.

  

Results in full

Labour Conservatives Liberal Democrats No overall control

  

LONDON

Barking and Dagenham	Barnet	Bexley
Brent	Bromley	Camden
Croydon	Ealing	Enfield
Greenwich	Hackney	Hammersmith and Fulham
Haringey	Harrow	Havering
Hillingdon	Hounslow	Islington
Kensington and Chelsea	Kingston upon Thames	Lambeth
Lewisham	Merton	Newham
Redbridge	Richmond upon Thames	Southwark
Sutton	Tower Hamlets	Waltham Forest
Wandsworth	Westminster

Note: Bolded areas show party has gained control

METROPOLITAN AND UNITARY COUNCILS

Barnsley	Birmingham	Blackburn with Darwen
Bolton	Bradford	Bury
Calderdale	Coventry	Derby
Dudley	Gateshead	Halton
Hartlepool	Kingston upon Hull	Kirklees
Knowsley	Leeds	Liverpool
Manchester	Milton Keynes	Newcastle upon Tyne
North East Lincolnshire	North Tyneside	Oldham
Peterborough	Plymouth	Portsmouth
Reading	Rochdale	St Helens
Salford	Sandwell	Sefton
Sheffield	Slough	Solihull
Southampton	Southend-on-Sea	South Tyneside
Stockport	Sunderland	Swindon
Tameside	Thurrock	Trafford
Wakefield	Walsall	Wigan
Wirral	Wokingham	Wolverhampton

Note: Bolded areas show party has gained control

NON-METROPOLITAN DISTRICT COUNCILS

Adur	Amber Valley	Basildon
Basingstoke and Deane	Brentwood	Broxbourne
Burnley	Cambridge	Cannock Chase
Carlisle	Castle Point	Cheltenham
Cherwell	Chorley	Colchester
Craven	Crawley	Daventry
Eastleigh	Elmbridge	Epping Forest
Exeter	Fareham	Gosport
Great Yarmouth	Harlow	Harrogate
Hart	Hastings	Havant
Huntingdonshire	Hyndburn	Ipswich
Lincoln	Maidstone	Mole Valley
Newcastle-under-Lyme	North Hertfordshire	Norwich
Nuneaton and Bedworth	Oxford	Pendle
Preston	Redditch	Reigate and Banstead
Rochford	Rossendale	Rugby
Runnymede	Rushmoor	St Albans
South Cambridgeshire	South Lakeland	Stevenage
Tamworth	Tandridge	Three Rivers
Tunbridge Wells	Watford	Welwyn Hatfield
West Lancashire	West Oxfordshire	Winchester
Woking	Worcester	Worthing
Wyre Forest

Note: Bolded areas show party has gained control

MAYORAL ELECTIONS

Hackney	Lewisham	Newham
South Yorkshire	Tower Hamlets	Watford