Conservatives dealt losses at the polls but who did the most damage?

With Boris Johnson bearing the brunt of the blame for Conservative party losses in local elections, the wider picture gives us potential insight into future general elections.

Professor of Politics in the School of Sociology, Politics & Law at the University of Plymouth, Colin Rallings provides analysis.

Conservative losses have mounted up as the local election results from England have continued to flow in during the afternoon.

And it is not only Labour which has done them damage.

The Liberal Democrats have exceeded all expectations, aided by a spectacular victory in the new Somerset council.

And although the totals are more modest, the Greens have more than doubled their number of seats, mainly at Conservative expense.

This so-called pincer movement should worry Conservatives.

It shows some electors working out how to cast their vote in a way that most damages the party’s chances.

Indeed it was one factor behind Tony Blair’s landslide victory a quarter of a century ago.

No one suggests that anything of the kind occurred last night, but it would be dangerous if the habit became ingrained as the government tries to convince voters it both empathies with and answers to the growing cost of living crisis.

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Overnight the picture was largely composed of councils in London and other metropolitan areas where Labour and the Conservatives traditionally go head to head.

Labour had appeared to reach a plateau at the last London borough contests in 2018 but has now added Barnet, Wandsworth, and Westminster to its tally.

Wandsworth had not been Labour for 40 years; Barnet and Westminster had never been controlled by the party since the boroughs were created in 1964.

But not everything went Labour’s way, even in the capital.

ITV News Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana breaks down the key results

Harrow swung from Labour to the Conservatives, and there will be an anxious wait for the result in Croydon, where a Labour run council has been embroiled in severe financial difficulties.

Cock-a-hoop Labour politicians were also able to point to success in gaining control of a handful of other councils in the south like Southampton, Crawley, and Worthing, where the party has recently been out of favour.

However, although the party has gained a net five councils so far, its seat gains in England are more modest.

There will also be a concern that many councils in the so-called ‘red wall’ in the midlands and north, while supporting Labour more enthusiastically than 12 months ago, are still some way from being the unassailable party fiefdoms they often were before Brexit.

And in Hull, Labour lost control to the Liberal Democrats, who ruled the city back in the noughties before the party was swept into David Cameron’s coalition.

As the day wore on, the damage inflicted on the Conservatives by the Liberal Democrats also became more apparent.

Not only in Somerset but in Westmorland, Woking and Gosport, they won a majority on the council and readily took Conservative seats elsewhere.

With close to 200 net gains, this was a local election performance reminiscent of those pre-coalition days.

The elections in Wales and Scotland also presented opportunities for Labour to advance, having last been fought at a high point for Conservative support in 2017.

The SNP remain the dominant party north of the border, but the Conservatives lost seats there in almost equal measure to each of their main opponents.

In Wales, with results still far from complete, Labour has gained two councils but, as in England, made unspectacular progress in parts of north Wales seen as adjuncts of the ‘red wall’.

In summary, Conservative losses are probably at the upper end of the party’s fears, but Labour is a long way from suggesting that Keir Starmer should measure up the curtains in Downing Street.