A disheartened former Conservative minister said Boris Johnson’s local election results on Friday were “at an almost unacceptable low”. After the events of the past few months, the prime minister will embrace that.
In the face of it, Johnson should have fallen into darkness because a day of defeat for the Conservativesstarted early as the Tories lost their premier London councils Wandsworth and Westminster.
Conservative council leaders blamed Johnson for the setbacks involving hundreds of lost seats, and one Tory MP said: “Good councils are being lost because of a significant number of supporters. Our tradition no longer trusts the Prime Minister. He needs to go.”
Many Conservative MPs have seen the May 5 local election as a key test for Johnson: can he be the winner after party scandal? Last month, he became the first UK prime minister to be found guilty of a crime, after police fined him for attending a June 2020 birthday party in Downing Street during the first Covid-19 lockdown in the UK. Brother.
But Johnson was in an upbeat form on Friday, his allies mocking Labour’s patchy results outside London, which they claim proved proven. Party leader Sir Keir Starmer unlikely to win the next general election. Remarkably, Labor has failed to make major strides in formerly “red wall” areas of northern England, and even lost Kingston to Hull to the Liberal Democrats.
“The fact that Labor lost Hull but won Mayfair tells you all you need to know about them,” said a Tory official. “We have been reminded that we are currently on an electoral war basis.”
There was a sense that things could have gotten worse in Downing Street even before Johnson was elated by lunchtime news that police were reconsidering whether Starmer broke the no-door rule by eating curry. and have a beer with other Labor figures during the April 2021 election campaign or not.
A cabinet minister said: “The results are bad in London but Boris will be relieved with the results in the rest of the country. And with the investigation into the Starmer merger, it’s been a good week for the Prime Minister. “
In the run-up to local elections, Starmer struggled with questions about the curries and beer that gathered at Durham Miners’ Hall last year, when indoor socialization was banned in the area. Brother.
Labor has highlighted rules that make an exception to limiting indoor gatherings when they are “reasonably necessary” for work purposes. Emily Thornberry, shadow attorney general, said on Friday: “We believe no rules have been broken.”
But the Durham Police investigation into Starmer has the potential to help Johnson draw the line on the partying scandal before it does more damage to him.
Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, has taken a tough stance on the case, and both he and his deputy Angela Rayner have called on Johnson to give up well before the prime minister is taken over by the Metropolitan Police. monetary fine.
In January, Starmer tweeted that “honesty and courtesy” was a political issue and said Johnson should resign immediately because he was “under criminal investigation for violating his own ban”.
Johnson, who is still under police investigation for attending other Whitehall parties during Covid restrictions and is also awaiting a full report by senior civil servant Sue Gray on the incident, is eager to grasp the predicament. Starmer’s scarf.
A person close to Johnson said: “He thinks Starmer has been lifted by his own hands because of his continued piety on the matter. “Starmer is a hypocrite,” added a Number 10 insider.
Keir Starmer speaks to supporters outside StoneX Stadium in Barnet, a north London council that has set up Labor. © Jonathan Brady / PA
There is a growing opinion in Westminster that throwing a party may not be a problem, disappointing the prime minister. Conservative MPs showed little or no desire to monitor local election results to push for a vote of no confidence in Johnson’s leadership by writing to Sir Graham Brady, the committee’s chairman. 1922 by Tory backbenchers.
For Johnson, the dire state of the economy has become his biggest political threat, with Bank of England warning this week Inflation exceeds 10%, unemployment rises, and a recession is likely.
Tory MPs and cabinet ministers are urging Johnson to cut taxes and increase public spending to help their constituents. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has warned that higher public borrowing and higher spending could simply push inflation higher.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said his party’s local election successes across the country reflected public concern about the NHS and cost-of-living crisis more than its own. party at Number 10. Labor is now turning its attention to the economy.
For Starmer, successful election in London was quickly saddened to realize that the party was doing less well outside the capital.
Starmer praised the way Labor took control of Cumberland and Southampton councils as well as a trio of London boroughs: Wandsworth, Westminster and Barnet. “We have sent a message to the prime minister, Britain deserves better,” he said. Scotland is another key bright spot for Labor.
But Labour’s results on Friday did not exactly give the impression of a government in wait, and were lauded by a particularly strong performance in formerly free urban areas such as London.
“I would describe the results as certain,” said one member of the ballroom. Other senior Labor figures use similar adjectives to describe the managing Starmer but are not particularly charismatic.
One union leader said: “He is less ostentatious than Johnson but more importantly he has to figure out our response to the economic fallout, we are on the verge of being like the economy. wartime economy”.
Chris Hopkins, deputy director at polling firm Savanta ComRes, said Labour’s national poll lead had slipped since Russia invaded Ukraine and agreed that the economy would determine what happens next at Westminster.
“At the moment, there is no feeling that Labor is doing enough to win back voters over the cost of living crisis,” he added.
