LONDON – Emboldened in a widespread scandal over Downing Street parties violating lockdown rules, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced a succession of setbacks in local elections on Friday as voters across the country left his Conservative party.
But at the end of the day, Mr Johnson appeared to have survived the storm — for now, at least — and to have turned the tables on opposition Labor Party leader Keir Starmer, who learned Friday that police will investigate whether he broke. the lockdown laws.
That news made headlines and took away the election results that had been good — but unspectacular — for Labour, while boosting the smaller, centrist Liberal Democrats.
With most votes in England now, the Conservatives had lost more than 280 races to elect “councillors” – representatives in councils. in what Mr Johnson acknowledged it was a “tough night in some parts of the country”.
The results were closely watched as, after Mr Johnson was fined for breaking lockdown rules, some of his fellow Conservatives considered pushing for a no-confidence vote that would see him out of Downing Street. can put.
While his party avoided the sort of electoral collapse that could have propelled that threat to Mr Johnson’s future, the results were nonetheless unnerving for a ruling party facing strong economic headwinds.
In addition to the party’s problems, the Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, was well on its way to becoming the largest party in Northern Ireland after the parliamentary elections. power-sharing arrangements have kept the peace for two decades.
The Conservative losses of two London boroughs – Westminster, which has been in the party’s hands since its founding nearly 60 years ago, and Wandsworth – were serious symbolic blows.
“Waking up to catastrophic results for the party in London,” Gavin Barwell, chief of staff to former Prime Minister Theresa May, wrote on Twitter.
These flagship councils were held by Conservatives even when Tony Blair came to power in a landslide election victory for Labor in 1997, and when Conservatives imposed austerity measures after 2010 and under Ms May, he noted.
“Losing them should be a wake-up call for the Conservative Party,” Barwell wrote.
There was more bad news for the party in Scotland, where the Conservatives suffered losses and a BBC analysis suggested the results expected nationally would bring Labor 35 per cent of the vote, the Conservatives 30 per cent and the Liberal Democrats 19 per cent.
With 124 of England’s 146 councils having announced their results, the Conservatives had lost more than 280 seats, meaning they lost control of several boroughs. Labor won about 60 council seats, fewer than the Liberal Democrats, who won more than 150. The Greens, another smaller party, also made progress, winning about 50 seats.
The setback for the Conservatives comes as Britain’s economic picture deteriorates the financial pressure on the British. Britain’s growth is expected to be its lowest in the G7 next year and domestic energy bills are rising just as the government has raised taxes. On Thursday, the Bank of England raised interest rates, warning that inflation could hit 10 percent.
With voters in a troubled mood, a good performance by the centrist Liberal Democrats and the smaller Greens was another warning sign for Mr Johnson. The risk for him is that Labor’s progress could come in big cities if Liberals or Greens make gains in parts of the south of England that are traditionally conservative heartlands.
But Labor’s progress outside London has been mixed, with most analysts skeptical of Mr Starmer’s claims that the results marked a “major turning point” for his party.
Labour’s challenge is to reclaim the so-called ‘red wall’ regions in the north and center of the country that it once dominated, but which turned en masse to the Conservatives in the 2019 general election.
James Johnson, who led the polls for Ms May, wrote on Twitter that the results do not herald a dramatic recovery for the Labor Party “but they do show that Labor is doing just as well in the Red Wall as when it was last the Red Wall – and that would worry conservatives.”
In London’s Wandsworth some voters expressed anger at Mr Johnson’s lockdown scandals when they went to vote.
“I would always have labeled myself a conservative, but today’s vote was a vote to show that I disagree with the government,” said Marcel Aramburo, 62, who has lived in the area for decades.
While he said he was pleased with the way local issues have been handled under the Conservative council, he felt it was time to vote for Labor after becoming increasingly disillusioned with Conservatives.
“I am not satisfied with the people who run this country,” he said. “Everything that comes out of their mouth is a lie.”
But Mr Starmer, who has taken to Mr Johnson’s concerns over the Downing Street parties, now has his own problem with the news that police will re-investigate allegations that he himself broke lockdown rules.
The finding that Mr Starmer has broken the law would put significant pressure on the Labor leader to quit as he has called on Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to resign for briefly attending an illegal gathering in Downing Street to celebrate Mr Starmer. Johnson’s birthday. Mr Starmer has been even more damning about Mr Johnson’s leadership after news of the Downing Street parties broke.
The allegations against Mr Starmer revolve around a rally last April where he was pictured drinking beer with other party members during a campaign visit to Durham. That has led to tabloid newspapers calling the case “beergate.”
Police had already investigated the matter and decided not to take any action, but on Friday they released a statement saying they were now investigating possible violations of the coronavirus rules in light of “important new evidence”.
But Labor has come under pressure in recent days after admitting that, despite previous denials, the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner was also present at the meeting in Durham.
Megan Special contributed reporting from London.
