Boris Johnson reacts to 'mixed' local election results
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The better than expected local election results left the Prime Minister in a bullish mood as he spoke to the Daily Express about his renewed vigour to “deliver for Britain”. He declared Tory losses “could have been a lot worse” and believes the Government can go from “strength to strength”.
Speaking from 10 Downing Street while preparing for the Queen’s Speech next week, Mr Johnson said: “It’s a bumpy time and I do understand what people are going through.
“The message from voters is that they want us to focus on getting through this challenging period, and that’s what we shall do.
“And we shall do it with every ounce of compassion and ingenuity.
“We will stop at nothing to deliver for a better Britain.
“We are getting on with levelling up and the record investment proves we’re on the right track.
“We’re focusing on the big issues and I think the British people understand we’re doing our level best to get people through the economic aftershocks.
“We will get through these troubled times, but I’m also one hundred percent focused on ensuring we have safer streets with more police on the streets, and communities getting the support they deserve.
“There’s much in the pipeline that will deliver for Britain for now, and the long-term future. We have a vision.
“We will build more nuclear plants to reduce our dependence on imported energy.
“We made Brexit work, we dealt with the pandemic and this proves we can deliver.”
Mr Johnson spoke after the Tories suffered a battering in the town hall polls across the country, losing 320 council seats and control of 12 authorities.
In a big setback, the party relinquished the London borough of Wandsworth, solidly blue for 44 years, to Labour.
Other shock Tory losses included Westminster, Huntingdonshire, Maidstone and Wokingham.
Yet while Labour surged across London, party chiefs were understood to be disappointed by only modest gains outside the capital. It failed to make significant inroads into the Red Wall former heartland territory captured by the Tories at the last general election.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party gained only 49 seats in England and a further 82 in Scotland and Wales. His party took control of eight councils, including Crawley, Kirklees, Southampton and Worthing. But it also lost control of others, including Hastings and Harrow.
The spotlight is now on Mr Starmer after Durham Police announced it will probe whether his beer and curry night with aides broke lockdown rules.
The PM had declined to comment on the police’s investigation of “Beergate”.
Labour’s stuttering performance in England was far outstripped by the Liberal Democrats’ gains of 183 council seats.
In Scotland, the SNP gained around 22 seats to register their highest ever number of councillors, with the Tories dropping into third place behind Labour.
Yesterday’s vote share saw Tory support slump to 30 percent, behind Labour on 35 percent.
If repeated at the next general election, the Tories would be the biggest party in a hung parliament.
Mr Johnson admitted the Tories had suffered a “bad night” but insisted the results were a “mixed bag” for his party.
During a visit to a school in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency, the PM said: “It’s mid-term and it’s certainly a mixed set of results, and we’ve had a tough night in some parts of the country.
“But on the other hand, in other parts of the country you’re still seeing Conservatives going forward and making quite remarkable gains in places that haven’t voted Conservative for a long time or if ever.”
He added: “The big lesson that I take from this is that this is a message from voters that what they want us to do above all – one, two and three – is focus on the big issues that matter to them, taking the country forward and making sure that we fix the post-Covid economic aftershocks.”
Mr Johnson vowed to “fix the energy supply issues” causing inflation and “keep going with our agenda of high-wage, high-skill jobs.”
The Lib Dem advances triggered concerns among some Tory MPs that their party is becoming increasingly vulnerable in once solidly blue rural and shire county constituencies.
Tory David Simmonds said the Prime Minister has some “difficult questions” to answer after the party’s losses in the local elections.
The MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner said voters were unhappy about the disclosures over lockdown parties in Downing Street and Whitehall.
“It was a pretty clear message on the doorstep. Clearly the Prime Minister has got some difficult questions to answer,” he said.
“Overwhelmingly the message that I heard on the doorsteps was people were broadly positive about the Government’s policies but they are not happy about what they have been hearing about partygate.
“He said, ‘I will take full responsibility for these election results’, and I think he needs to confront that question now.”
Tory backbencher Tobias Ellwood, another frequent critic of the Prime Minister urged fellow MPs to decide whether Boris Johnson was still fit to be leader as their party is “haemorrhaging” support in parts of the country.
“It’s for other colleagues to take a stock check, not just for these elections, but also in the next couple of weeks,” he said.
He added: “We are haemorrhaging support in parts of the country, there’s some serious issues going on.”
Veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale, who temporarily dropped his call for the Prime Minister’s resignation after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, yesterday renewed his demand for a change of party leadership.
“This movement has got a life of its own now – it may become an unstoppable tide,” he said of internal opposition to Mr Johnson.
Theresa May’s former chief of staff Lord Barwell said the local election results were “catastrophic” in London and should be a “wake-up call”.
He said on Twitter: “Wandsworth and Westminster were flagship councils.
“We held them during the Blair honeymoon. We held them during austerity. We held them under Theresa May.
“Losing them should be a wake up call for the Conservative Party.”
Tory councillors bruised by yesterday’s results also hit out at the Prime Minister yesterday.
John Mallinson, Tory leader of Carlisle Council, claimed the Prime Minister bore “a lot of responsibility” for the “very poor.”
He said: “I don’t think any one person is responsible for everything, but he does seem to be attracting a lot of unrest and ill feeling at the moment.”
He said Mr Johnson would be a “poor option” to lead the Tories into the next general election.
Simon Bosher, leader of the Tory group on Portsmouth Council, said: “I think Boris does need to take a good, strong look in the mirror as well because I think he needs to look at those people that we have lost tonight because those are people that are actually bearing the brunt on the doorstep of behaviour of what’s been going on in Westminster.”
Polling experts last night rated the results poor but not disastrous for the Tories.
Tory peer and election expert Lord Hayward: “This is a revolt of the upper middle class which will clearly cause a lot of unease among a large number of Tory MPs.
“But it is not so bad that it is automatic that there will be a challenge.”
The peer added that the Government had many challenges to face over the coming months that could eventually undermine the Prime Minister’s position.
Chris Hopkins, of polling firm Savanta ComRes, said: “The results are poor but not disastrous for the Conservative Party, but that in itself will feel like a positive.”
Mr Hopkins said the results were “good but not great” for Labour, with the party making “patchy” progress outside London.
“These local election results, frankly, are not the results of a government in waiting. There does appear to be something holding people back from actually voting Labour at the ballot box, and therefore things either have to get much worse for the Conservatives, or much improved for Labour, before we’re likely to see Starmer in No 10,” he added.
Boris is all art on school visit
Boris Johnson painted a somewhat questionable likeness of Her Majesty the Queen during a school visit on Friday, writes Ben Hatton.
He visited Field End Infant School in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.
“They left me for dead,” Mr Johnson said, not in a comment on the poll results, but comparing his portrait of the Queen to the efforts of the five- and six-year-olds at his table.
“More school of Rembrandt than Rembrandt,” he said of his efforts.
The Prime Minister joined Year 1 pupils as they painted pictures of the monarch, which the school hopes to use for celebrations of the Platinum Jubilee.
Mr Johnson said the portrait, which he signed, would be dedicated to the school.
As some of the paintings are expected to be used to help decorate a Jubilee street party, there is the prospect that the Prime Minister’s artwork could potentially end up on public display.
He has previously spoken of his interest in art, including once describing in an interview how he likes to paint small models of London buses on wine crates. He was photographed painting at an easel while on holiday last year.
Mr Johnson’s mother was a painter who made her name with portraits of such subjects as actress Joanna Lumley and novelist Jilly Cooper.
“By me and Mrs P,” the Prime Minister said, holding up his finished portrait of the Queen, referring to the fact that he and the children were painting over a pre-drawn image by one of the teachers.
“I’m like one of the people in Rembrandt’s Atelier who fills it in,” he said.
While walking around the school, Mr Johnson told teachers that he went to the same primary school as David Miliband. “My happiest days”, he said.
The Prime Minister also met teachers participating in the national tutoring programme to help children catch up on their learning after the pandemic.
Speaking about the merits of the approach, he recalled that, when he was a primary pupil in Camden, north London, a teacher took him to one side and “gave me some time, and it made a huge difference”.
Tories slump to third place in Scotland
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said Boris Johnson “can’t ignore the message” from voters after the party suffered a drubbing in council polls.
The Tories sank to third place behind Labour as Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP topped the poll, gaining 62 council seats and taking their total haul to a record 453.
Speaking to the BBC from the election count in Moray, Mr Ross said: “It’s been a difficult night and the results coming in today are very disappointing.”
He highlighted gains in Moray and Aberdeenshire, but said: “In too many parts of Scotland, we’ve lost excellent candidates and councillors haven’t been re-elected because it seems many of our supporters decided to sit this one out, to protest and not cast their vote, and we’ve lost out as a result of that.”
When asked whether he believes Mr Johnson should lead the Conservatives into the next general election, Mr Ross said: “The Prime Minister simply can’t ignore the message that’s been sent from voters not just here in Scotland, but across the UK.
“The Conservatives lost Westminster Council last night – that’s a council that even in the peak Labour years under Tony Blair the party held on to – so there’s been a very strong message from the public to the Prime Minister.”
Former Scottish Tory leader Baroness Ruth Davidson, said on Twitter that said the party had to compete against the 2017 resuly when they returned the most councillors in 40 years.
She also leant her support to Douglas Ross, stressing the gains made at last year’s Holyrood election.
“In terms of questions of leadership, I know what it’s like to lose seats at my first local election, before coming back stronger,” she added.
The SNP was declared the largest party in the election for Glasgow City Council, with 37 seats to Labour’s 36. The Green Party gained 16 seats across the country.
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Hartlepool councillor who assaulted wife re-elected
A Tory councillor retained his red-wall seat after standing for election just seven days after he appeared in court to admit assaulting his wife, writes Paul Jeeves.
Gordon Cranney, 41, stood before magistrates on April 28 where he pleaded guilty to assaulting Claire Cranney by beating. The Hartlepool Borough Council member was given a community order and ordered to attend a programme aimed at changing the behaviour of domestic abusers.
Despite the criminal conviction Cranney was able to stand because electoral rules say that a criminal conviction only disqualifies a person from doing so if they have been handed a jail sentence.
The couple are still together and were yesterday at their home. Mr Cranney said: “My wife is very upset and is sitting here in tears, she doesn’t wish to say anything.” He said he would comment on his conviction for assaulting her after giving the matter “time for consideration”. His decision to continue with his plans for re-election to the town’s Seaton ward provoked fury in the town. Last year Cranney was pictured shaking hands with Prime Minister Boris Johnson whilst campaigning for the town’s MP Jill Mortimer in the Hartlepool by-election.
Richinda Taylor, CEO of Teesside domestic abuse support charity EVA Women’s Aid, said: “Violence against women has to stop, and people in the public eye have a duty to set a positive example to others. Mr Cranney is not setting that good example.”
Hartlepool Labour Party labelled it “an outrage” that Cranney had stood for election insisting he “had no place in public life.” However despite the condemnation Cranney went on to beat them, polling 944 votes ahead of Labour candidate Martin Dunbar’s 460.
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