Conservatives take a kicking in local elections

SCOREBOARD	Councils	+/-	Seats	+/-	PNS%
Labour	60	-6	2023	-82	28% (-1%)
Conservative	93	-44	3562	-1334	28% (-7%)
Liberal Democrats	18	+10	1350	+703	19% (+8%)
Green	-	-	265	+194
UKIP	-	-	31	-145
Others including	4	+3	1179	+662
Independent	2	+2	1045	+606
Residents' Association	2	+1	119	+49
No Overall Control	73	+37	-	-

Turnout 36.3%  ▪️  PNS% Projected national share  ▪️  Changes (+/-) compared with 2015

PRIME MINISTER Theresa May vowed to "get on and deliver Brexit" as Conservatives across England attempted to come to terms with heavy losses in the local elections.

With all 248 authorities now accounted for, the Tories are confirmed to have lost a massive 1,334 seats and ceded control in a net total of no fewer than 45 councils.

It is the Conservatives' worst result in local elections since 1995 when John Major's divided governing party was hammered by Tony Blair's New Labour.

Unsurprisingly, the appalling results have caused some dismay among the Conservatives rank and file.

Mrs May was heckled as she delivered a speech to the Welsh Conservative conference in Llangollen, with a former councillor shouting: “Why don’t you resign? We don’t want you.”

Nevertheless, the Prime Minister has suffered far darker days in her premiership than this one.

For, while Labour did not sustain anywhere near the same level of losses as the Tories, it would be fair to say it did not have a particularly good night either.

In all, Jeremy Corbyn's party lost 63 seats across the country - and also lost its majority on 11 councils while gaining only five.

Instead, the main beneficiaries were the resurgent Liberal Democrats who enjoyed easily their best result in local elections since 2004.

Otherwise, it was a far better night than usual to stand as an independent, something which was amply demonstrated in Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, where the group of independents won 30 out of the 35 seats.

Undoubtedly, the result of the night, though, went to the Lib Dems in Bath and North East Somerset, where they gained 23 seats as the Conservatives lost 24.

As such, the Lib Dems overturned a comfortable Tory majority in an area in which ardent Brexit supporter Jacob Rees-Mogg is the MP.

Of course, this election was held in perhaps the most favourable circumstances for Vince Cable's Lib Dems for many years.

The two main parties appear to be in disarray about the main political issue of the day whereas the Lib Dems, in fairness, have been rewarded for their straight-forward pro-Remain positioning on Brexit.

Attention now switches to the European elections on 23 May, a rather bizarre visit to the polling booth which will come over a thousand days since the UK voted to leave the European Union.

But, unlike in the elections held this week, two brand-spanking new parties will both stand a slate of candidates in each of the 12 regions.

The awkwardly-named Change UK – The Independent Group will fish for votes in the same Remain-supporting waters as the Lib Dems who can therefore expect their support to become significantly diluted. 

However, that does not mean things are due to get any easier for either the Conservatives or Labour as the other newly-registered party is Nigel Farage's latest vehicle - the Brexit Party.

The Brexit Party decided not to stand candidates in the local elections and that left Leave supporters in many areas with nowhere to go.

UKIP is truly a shadow of its former self - it stood candidates in just one in six wards, and even then its sharp decline was neatly demonstrated by a net loss of 36 seats.

Instead, it has emerged on Twitter that - given the paucity of options available to them - some pro-Brexit voters simply spoiled their ballot papers.

On 23 May, though, there will be a Brexit Party candidate against which Leave voters can mark a cross.

Indeed, the latest polling from Yougov shows the Brexit Party hitting 30% and stretching their lead to nine points over Labour, with the Conservatives trailing badly on just 13%.

For sure, it already looks like being another bad night for Mrs May.

ENGLISH LOCAL ELECTIONS

THE FULL RESULTS

METROPOLITAN BOROUGHS
Third of council

Barnsley	Bolton	Bradford	Bury	Calderdale	Coventry
Dudley	Gateshead	Kirklees	Knowsley	Leeds	Liverpool
Manchester	Newcastle upon Tyne	North Tyneside	Oldham	Rochdale	Salford
Sandwell	Sefton	Sheffield	Solihull	South Tyneside	St Helens
Stockport	Sunderland	Tameside	Trafford	Wakefield	Walsall
Wigan	Wirral	Wolverhampton

UNITARY AUTHORITIES
Whole council, unless marked with (+) which denotes a third of the council up for election 

Bath and NE Somerset	Bedford	Blackburn with Darwen (+)
Blackpool	Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole	Bracknell Forest
Brighton and Hove	Central Bedfordshire	Cheshire East
Cheshire West and Chester	Darlington	Derby (+)
Dorset	East Riding of Yorkshire	Halton (+)
Hartlepool (+)	Herefordshire	Hull (+)
Leicester	Luton	Medway
Middlesbrough	Milton Keynes (+)	North East Lincolnshire (+)
North Lincolnshire	North Somerset	Nottingham
Peterborough (+)	Plymouth (+)	Portsmouth (+)
Reading (+)	Redcar and Cleveland	Rutland
Slough (+)	Southampton (+)	Southend-on-Sea (+)
South Gloucestershire	Stockton-on-Tees	Stoke-on-Trent
Swindon (+)	Telford & Wrekin	Thurrock (+)
Torbay	West Berkshire	Windsor & Maidenhead
Wokingham (+)	York

NON-METROPOLITAN DISTRICTS

Whole council
Allerdale	Arun	Ashfield	Ashford
Babergh	Barrow-in-Furness	Bassetlaw	Blaby
Bolsover	Boston	Braintree	Breckland
Broadland	Bromsgrove	Broxtowe	Canterbury
Carlisle	Charnwood	Chelmsford	Chesterfield
Chichester	Copeland	Cotswold	Crawley
Dacorum	Dartford	Derbyshire Dales	Dover
Eastbourne	East Cambridgeshire	East Devon	East Hampshire
East Hertfordshire	East Lindsey	East Staffordshire	East Suffolk
Eden	Epsom and Ewell	Erewash	Fenland
Folkstone & Hythe	Forest of Dean	Fylde	Gedling
Gravesham	Great Yarmouth	Guildford	Hambleton
Harborough	Hertsmere	High Peak	Hinckley and Bosworth
Horsham	King's Lynn & W Norfolk	Lancaster	Lewes
Lichfield	Maldon	Malvern Hills	Mansfield
Melton	Mendip	Mid Devon	Mid Suffolk
Mid Sussex	New Forest	Newark and Sherwood	North Devon
NE Derbyshire	North Kesteven	North Norfolk	North Warwickshire
NW Leicestershire	Norwich	Oadby and Wigston	Preston
Reigate and Banstead	Ribble Valley	Richmondshire	Rother
Runnymede	Rushcliffe	Ryedale	Scarborough
Sedgemoor	Selby	Sevenoaks	Somerset W & Taunton
South Derbyshire	South Hams	South Holland	South Kesteven
South Norfolk	South Oxfordshire	South Ribble	South Somerset
South Staffordshire	Spelthorne	Stafford	Staffordshire Moorlands
Stratford-on-Avon	Surrey Heath	Swale	Teignbridge
Tendring	Test Valley	Tewkesbury	Thanet
Tonbridge and Malling	Torridge	Uttlesford	Vale of the White Horse
Warwick	Waverley	Wealden	West Devon
West Lindsey	West Suffolk	Wychavon	Wyre
Wyre Forest
Third of council
Amber Valley	Basildon	Basingstoke and Deane	Brentwood
Broxbourne	Burnley	Cambridge	Cannock Chase
Castle Point	Cherwell	Chorley	Colchester
Craven	Eastleigh	Elmbridge	Epping Forest
Exeter	Harlow	Hart	Havant
Hyndburn	Ipswich	Lincoln	Maidstone
Mole Valley	North Hertfordshire	Pendle	Redditch
Rochford	Rossendale	Rugby	Rushmoor
St Albans	South Lakeland	Stevenage	Tamworth
Tandridge	Three Rivers	Tunbridge Wells	Watford
Welwyn Hatfield	West Lancashire	West Oxfordshire	Winchester
Woking	Worcester	Worthing

MAYORAL ELECTIONS

Bedford

Copeland

Leicester

Mansfield

Middlesbrough

North of Tyne

Bolded areas indicate change of control

Fighting talk from the Lib Dems has come too late

ONE by one, leading Liberal Democrats have taken to the platform at their annual party conference to attack their coalition partners.

In a bid to put some clear water - though it is probably best not to say some clear, blue water - between themselves and the Conservatives, this was Bash A Tory week in Birmingham.

The party's deputy leader Simon Hughes got his joust in early, referring to the Tories as "ruthless" in an interview with the Guardian on the eve of the conference.

But it was party president Tim Farron who ramped up the rhetoric in a speech on Sunday which suggested that a Conservative-majority government would be "an absolute nightmare".

Mr Farron, who - like Mr Hughes - is not a minister, also determined that "divorce is inevitable" after three or four years.

This time-frame caused a bit of consternation as the coalition partners have always stated they would serve a full five-year term in office together until 2015.

But, nothing too much should be read into it as, three years from now, the parties will be just about going their separate ways at their last major conference before the next general election.

Perhaps more pertinently, there was some dissent from the frontbench, too.

Chris Huhne, who was an avid supporter of the Alternative Vote, is clearly still feeling a little sore over the perception that Prime Minister David Cameron campaigned vigorously for a 'No' vote having previously stated he would stay out of the debate.

Energy minister Mr Huhne compared the Tory hard right with the "madcap" Tea Party movement in the United States, and he criticised Conservatives for "slavering over tax cuts for the rich".

And then Business secretary Vince Cable took a swipe at Mr Cameron's policy advisor Steve Hilton and others on the Tory right who have suggested that Britain should abolish maternity leave.

"What I will not do though is provide cover for ideological descendants of those who sent children up chimneys," Mr Cable said.

Party leader Nick Clegg was noticeably more careful with his words in his 42-minute keynote speech - stating only that his party was "in nobody's pocket" - but then, as Mr Cameron's deputy, he probably has to be.

Instead, Mr Clegg has used the past few days to try and emphasise the Lib Dems' achievements in government.

There were several mentions of their strong opposition to the removal of the 50p tax rate, and a repeated highlighting of the doubling of the pupil premium.

The Lib Dems also launched an almost continual PR effort in seeking to demonstrate which concessions they had won in the Health and Social Care Bill.

But, on the NHS bill in particular, the attempt at positive spin has been disputed internally, most notably by Lib Dem peer Baroness Williams.

All this after activists were unable to force a vote on the controversial changes, failing to get the two thirds majority needed for it to be considered.

Meanwhile, there has been a general discomfort about the changing nature of the party and its conference with the necessity of extra security on the venue entrances coming in for questioning.

And former MP Evan Harris cautioned over the 'Toryisation' of the event whereby it becomes just a series of stage-managed speeches by the frontbench rather than a genuine forum for debate.

Of course, some delegates think that it has already happened and indeed that the very presence of the Lib Dems in coalition with the Conservatives is a byword for betrayal.

The broken promises over tuition fees and the VAT bombshell - as well as the comprehensive failure to win the argument over electoral reform - have left scars which cannot be healed by a few concessions here and there.

The really bad news for Mr Clegg and his party is that a large proportion of voters remain of this same opinion.

A poll released this week by Comres in the Sunday Mirror showed that 47% of people who voted Lib Dem in the 2010 general election would not vote for the party again.

This is largely in line with the recent polling averages on the UK Polling Report website which show their support hovering at around 11% as compared to 23% at the election.

Quite simply, it seems that, for many people, this fighting talk has come too little and too late.

Such a hopeless circumstance would usually put Mr Clegg in a vulnerable position as party leader but a lack of a credible challenger still leaves him in situ.

Mr Farron came closest to casting aspersions on Mr Clegg's authority this week - saying "there is no ruling it [a bid for the leadership] out in the future" - but he quickly backtracked once he had realised his mistake.

It all means the Lib Dems will struggle on for now with the electoral albatross that is Mr Clegg.

This has been a week in which the Lib Dems have talked tough but the general public has already seen through their self-aggrandizing bluster.

And now they are just waiting to deliver the knockout blow at the next major visit to the polls - whether that is in 2015 or sooner.

Cameron furious at Cable leaks

SENIOR Liberal Democrat Vince Cable caused profound embarrassment to the coalition government yesterday after telling undercover reporters he had "declared war" on media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Mr Cable, who is the Business Secretary, was due to rule on Mr Murdoch's bid to incorporate BSkyB fully into the NewsCorp organisation.

But Mr Cable has now had this decision taken out of his remit after the revelations to Daily Telegraph journalists posing as members of the public.

The ruling on whether Mr Murdoch can increase his current 39% share will instead be made by Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt following a recommendation by Ofcom.

Mr Cable's comments [full transcript here] clearly showed his fears that giving Mr Murdoch full control would affect the output of Sky News and its associated channels.

He has a point - Mr Murdoch's Fox News in the US has increasingly become a platform for little more than propaganda shows of right-wing buffoons.

But Mr Cable has also shown naivety in revealing his opposition so readily when he was meant to be impartial and decide the case upon its merits.

Prime Minister David Cameron was furious and said Mr Cable's comments were "totally unacceptable and inappropriate". The PM has consequently seriously weakened the Business Secretary's portfolio.

Indeed, the decision to strip the Business Secretary of the power to rule on Mr Murdoch was described by BBC political editor Nick Robinson as a "humiliating slap in the face".

However, it could have been a lot worse for the Twickenham MP. He is fortunate still to be on the front bench at all.

For Mr Cable also revealed to the reporters that he could "bring the government down" if he resigned but that this was a "nuclear option" which he was keeping as a last resort.

Certainly, Mr Cameron's decision to retain Mr Cable in the Cabinet caused murmurs of consternation among Conservative MPs who feel they would have faced harsher treatment.

Labour leader Ed Miliband also agreed Mr Cameron had copped out by confirming that he would have sacked the Business Secretary.

But Mr Cameron is well aware of the importance of keeping dissenting Lib Dems on side in the coalition especially in the wake of last week's narrow tuition fee vote victory.

In fact, the Prime Minister may have played a clever political game by removing media regulation from Mr Cable's portfolio, leaving him effectively as the glorified Secretary for Tuition Fees.

Of course, it is the rise in tuition fees which has had the Lib Dems in all sorts of bother. At odds with the public after their pre-election pledge to the contrary, the party has sunk to single figures in most of the polls.

Inside the House of Commons, Mr Cable lost the support of 21 Lib Dems while another six abstained.

It is unclear whether Mr Cable was in fact closer to those grassroots than you would believe given that the tuition fee rise was a measure tabled by himself.

Some of his comments on government policy certainly suggest he is closer to the backbenches than the Cabinet.

For example, the Daily Telegraph also report he criticised the way in which Child Benefit was withdrawn from higher earners as "cack-handed".

For now, though, Mr Cable, as a minister, must continue to toe the coalition line publicly under the constitutional convention of collective responsibility.

But you can only imagine the frosty reception he may receive in the first Cabinet meeting back after the Christmas break.

The breaking point has never been closer but, following Mr Cable's apology, it seems as if the government will stagger on for a few months yet.

However, if the Lib Dems perform as badly as expected in May's local elections and/or if the referendum on the alternative vote is lost, the coalition will be back under serious pressure.

Will Mr Cable, surely aggrieved at his effective demotion, choose that moment to deploy his "nuclear option"? If it came to it, Mr Cable would be wise to be bold and trust his instincts.

Better to make a serious attempt to bring down the government and fail than make a pathetic attempt like Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt's undermining of Gordon Brown.

For now, Mr Cable has opted to sit tight - or, more accurately, he has been allowed to remain in situ by the PM.

But, in a weakened position, this coalition appears to be some sort of political purgatory for him and he seems to be an unhappy man, despite his denials at the Lib Dem conference in September.

It feels only a matter of time until he cracks again and hits his own big red button to send the government spiralling into panic.

Darling sets the dividing line

CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling gave a prelude to the election battleground in his Pre-Budget report to the Commons today.

Mr Darling backed up Prime Minister Gordon Brown's attacks on the Tories' inheritance tax plans by freezing the threshold at £325,000. He stated that raising it was simply not a priority at present.

In one of the more surprising moves of the day, Mr Darling announced an increase to National Insurance Contributions by 0.5% but this will not apply to those on salaries of £20,000 or less.

The policy does not come into effect for anyone until April 2011, however.

A much more regressive tax increase was the restoration of VAT to 17.5% from January 1 though at least it was not put up to 20% as feared in some quarters.

In an undoubtedly popular move with the electorate, Mr Darling announced the widely expected windfall tax of 50% on bankers' bonuses of more than £25,000.

To prevent the government from having to chase up hundreds of individuals, the tax will be charged to the company but it currently only lasts until April.

Nevertheless, this is still a further hit to high earners after last April's announcement that an income tax band of 50% will be applied from 2010-11 on salaries over £100,000.

Other attempts at winning over the electorate include a postponement of the 1p increase in corporation tax to help small businesses and a 2.5% increase in the state pension.

Liberal Democrats treasury spokesman Vince Cable said the budget was "good for bingo and boilers" after a seemingly random cut in bingo duty from 22% to 20% and the introduction of a boiler scrappage scheme.

But Mr Cable also joked that Mr Darling must have forgotten to print several pages of his report as no specific spending figures were given for any department.

Mr Darling vowed to maintain spending on frontline public services such as schools, hospitals and the police but seems to be hiding the true scale of the pain until after a general election.

The chancellor was unable to cover up Britain's black hole, however. He admitted that the economy had shrunk by 4.75% in the last year, a worse result than expected.

He was also forced to concede that government borrowing in the past year was an eye-watering £178bn, £3bn more than expected.

It was announced that borrowing in the next year will also be £3bn more than forecast in April's budget, further increasing Britain's massive deficit.

Unsurprisingly, the deficit will form the basis for the Tories' attacks in the run-up to the election.

Shadow chancellor George Osborne described the state of the economy as "a catastrophe", arguing that spending needs to be cut immediately. Mr Darling defended Labour's spending plans.

Welcome to the great debate that will form the centrepiece of the coming election coverage.