English local elections suggest voter slapping for Rishi Sunak’s pari

It looks bleak for the Conservative Party in Great Britain after local elections were held across England on Thursday.

This is acknowledged by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is himself a conservative, to the British media Sky News.

– It is always disappointing to lose hard-working conservative city councillors, says Sunak.

The final election results are not yet available on Friday morning. But preliminary calculations point to a significant decline for the conservative candidates in the English city councils.

More than 8,000 seats must be filled in 230 local constituencies – or districts – in England.

At 09:20 on Friday, 62 constituencies had published their results, writes the AFP news agency. Here, the Conservative Party loses 228 mandates. This corresponds to one third of the party’s seats in the constituencies in question.

At the same time, the opposition party Labor has won 119 seats in the city councils.

And the smaller opposition party the Liberal Democrats advance with 61 seats across England in the preliminary tally.

At Labour, campaign coordinator Shabana Mahmoud declares the election a Conservative defeat.

– These results are a failure for Rishi Sunak, with voters punishing him for the Tories’ (Conservative Party, ed.) failure, she says according to Sky News.

The result of the local elections is seen as an indication of how the parties will fare in the next British general election. It is expected to be held next year.

Labour’s political leader, Keir Starmer, believes that Labor can regain government after 13 years of Conservative governments. He calls the preliminary results from the local elections “fantastic”.

– Make no mistake. We are heading for a Labor majority at the next general election, says Starmer, according to Reuters.

The final results from the local elections are expected later on Friday.

/ritzau/