Two main parties punished in UK local elections

Esta é uma tremenda derrota para os dois grandes partidos que dominaram a Política do Reino Unido a seguir à Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Esta derrota é consequência de uma indefinição e incompetência de posicionamento perante o Brexit, entre Leave and Remain. É uma inesperada victória para o Partido Liberal Democrático que sempre se definiu como anti-Brexit.

O que é realmente preocupante é a confirmação de uma profunda crise de credibilidade na Democarcia Representativa e confirmação do terrível efeito erosivo do processo do Brexit e da forma como tem sido conduzido pelos Partidos.

Corbyn, apesar do 'bluff', deve estar verdadeiramente preocupado.

A sua estratégia falhou e foi fortemente castigada pelo Eleitorado.

OVOODOCORVO

Two main parties punished in UK local elections

Liberal Democrats emerge as the big winners.

By           CHARLIE COOPER AND ANNABELLE DICKSON     5/3/19, 8:03 AM CET Updated 5/3/19, 2:30 PM CET

https://www.politico.eu/article/two-main-parties-punished-in-uk-local-elections/

LONDON — Voters punished Theresa May's Conservatives at the ballot box at town hall elections across England, but it was also a disappointing night for the opposition Labour Party.

With more than half of the votes declared, and amid widespread frustration with both of the main Westminster parties' handling of Brexit, the Conservatives lost control of 20 councils and more than 550 council seats. Labour, despite topping national polls, lost three councils and more than 70 seats.

The losses were a “symptom” of the Conservative Party’s struggles over Brexit, May said at the Welsh Conservative Party’s spring conference in Llangollen, north Wales. The prime minister was heckled before her speech by one party activist who asked: “Why don’t you resign?”

“Those elections were very difficult for our party … councillors who have given years of hard work in their local communities have lost through no fault of their own,” May said. "This is a difficult time for our party and these election results are a symptom of that.”

The big winners so far are the pro-Remain Liberal Democrats, who have gained control of nine councils and more than 350 council seats, albeit from a low bar. The last time this set of councils were contested was 2015, at a particularly low point in the party's support.

But in a sign of disillusion with Westminster politics, local independent parties also made significant inroads in many areas, gaining overall control of two councils and nationally winning 215 new council seats between them. The Green Party also had a positive night, making 34 council seat gains.

Elections have been held for 248 councils in England, and 11 in Northern Ireland.

Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party, which according to polls has been winning significant support from former Tory voters, did not contest the local elections, suggesting the Conservatives’ performance in the European election due to be held later this month could be even worse.

Conservative councillors blamed the national political situation for local losses. While losses in Leave voting areas have not been as great as feared — its main pro-Brexit rival UKIP has so far lost 54 seats nationally — the Tories saw major losses to the pro-EU Lib Dems.

Tim Warren, former council leader of Bath and North East Somerset, who lost his own seat to the Liberal Democrats, which won control of the council, said his campaigners had been "told on the streets that they couldn’t trust the Conservatives any more" and wouldn’t vote for the party because of Brexit.

The Conservative leadership will seek to portray the results as a wake-up call for MPs — both Tory and Labour — that they must back a Brexit deal or see an even greater backlash against the main parties.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the results looked like “a slap in the face for both the main parties.”

Party chairman Brandon Lewis told Sky News: “People are frustrated with where they see parliamentarians are … it’s a stark reminder to everybody in the House of Commons that we need to get past that impasse [and] deliver on what people voted for.”

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable said the results were the party’s best in 15 years and called the vote a “springboard to the European elections.” As well as taking several councils in Remain-voting areas the party also scored an impressive win in Leave-voting Chelmsford in Essex.

Labour's vote appears to have suffered in heavily Brexit-voting areas. In Sunderland, a Labour stronghold where 61 percent of people voted to quit the EU, the party retained control of the council but lost 10 seats, seven of them to the Tories and UKIP. Council leader Graeme Miller said Labour's Brexit policy was to blame.

“Sunderland voted as a city to leave in June 2016, and having had a Labour message across the city from MPs saying we need to be having a second referendum, people in Sunderland have said we are just not accepting that,” he told the BBC. “I have lost 10 councillors tonight because of that Brexit situation, where the Brexit message has stepped into and over local politics.”

Labour MP and national campaign coordinator Andrew Gywnne conceded it had been a “disappointing” night for his party and noted the anti-politics feeling driving the results.

“There’s been a view of politics in general, a plague on all your houses, so the electorate have looked in some areas to some of the smaller parties, independents,” he told the BBC.

Polling expert and professor of politics at Strathclyde University John Curtice told the BBC the results were not indicative that Jeremy Corbyn's Labour was currently on track to win an overall majority in a general election.

He said there was a "non-trivial probability" that the fresh general election Labour is seeking would end up with another hung parliament that would be "as incapable of reaching a decision about Brexit as the current one."

Results are expect to continue coming in throughout Friday.

This article is part of POLITICO’s premium Brexit service for professionals: Brexit Pro. To test our our expert policy coverage of the implications and next steps per industry, email pro@politico.eu for a complimentary trial.

Authors:

Charlie Cooper  ccooper@politico.eu  and Annabelle Dickson  adickson@politico.eu