The Tory losses are not a win for Starmer’s Labour.

Local election results are still being declared across England, after people took to the polls to have their say on over 8,000 council seats yesterday (May 4th). With 108 of the 230 councils currently declared, it’s not been a good day for the Conservative Party. They’ve already lost control of 20 councils, and are down 364 seats, with three big upsets happening in Medway, Maidstone, and Tamworth.

It’s a clear message from the people of England to a Conservative government that has for the last 3 years at least so brazenly paraded their corruption, lies, and greed in the fact of the people they were elected to serve - they’ve had enough. The shallow attempts at division with surface-level identity politics, attempting to villainise transgender people and refugees it hasn’t worked. Trying to blame Russia and immigrants for the everyday struggles of the working class person in a vain attempt to distract and detract from their responsibility, people have seen straight through it. Time, it seems, may finally be up for a party that has passed on the role of Prime Minister so many times in recent years, it’s appeared as though they feel it is a hereditary title to pass amongst their ranks with no regard for democracy.

Keir Starmer was in Chatham earlier today, to speak on the Labour Party’s win in Medway - which is no question quite an important change of hands. Medway Council has been under Conservative control for more than 20 years, for it to lose control and be gained by Labour is a significant moment. In his speech, he said “Make no mistake, we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election. We've won the trust and confidence of voters and now we can go on and change our country.”

But that’s not quite true, and if Keir actually wants to win the next election he needs to be honest about these local results. Because the truth is thus far what the results actually show is that no one party has the trust or confidence of the voters. We are in a political purgatory, a no man’s land. The Conservatives may well be down 20 councils, but the Labour Party are only up 6 - and crucially only 3 of those are Labour gains from a previously Conservative majority. Of the 20 councils the Conservatives have lost so far, 14 have returned as a result of No Party Majority - the other three being two Lib Dem gains and an Independent Party gain. Of the 108 councils declared in total so far, 37 of them have been No Party Majority results. That’s just over one-third of all the declared councils where the people said “We actually don’t trust any of you enough.” And of the 364 seats the Conservatives have lost, Labour has only managed to pick up 215 of them.

This should be the easiest time in recent history to be the leader of the opposition. We have had 3 Prime Ministers in a year - Boris Johnson was forced to resign in disgrace after a year of controversy, including being issued a fine by the police for breaking his own lockdown regulations, Liz Truss lasted 6 weeks and tanked the economy, and Rishi Sunak is a billionaire being investigated by the Parliamentary watchdog for not declaring his families financial interest in firms he gave Government contracts to. Conservative life peer Michelle Mone appears to have purchased a jet, a yacht and a racehorse with money given to the firm Medpro - a firm she is linked with - for PPE during the pandemic. We’ve had a health secretary resign for breaking his pandemic guidance, a Deputy PM and Secretary of State ousted for bullying, and the current PM was forced to resign as Chancellor less than a year ago due to leaked information about his finances and taxes. And without even taking into account the personal corruption, their policies for the last 13 years have driven us into a cost of living crisis so extreme we’ve seen a year straight of strikes and protests. Keir Starmer and his Labour party, as the opposition, should be picking up Conservative losses left, right, and centre.

The fact that they are not is as damning an indictment on Starmer’s Labour and public opinion towards them as it is a reflection of public opinion on the Conservatives. With a general election coming within the next 18 months, Starmer needs to evaluate why. He needs to listen to the public because they are not telling him they trust him right now, they are not saying he has a clear path into Downing Street. And they should be, this should be the easiest win since 1997. It’s time to hear what the people are saying, because “No Party Majority” might feel like a win at the Local Elections, but a hung parliament at the General Election won’t. And unless he steps up, that looks like where we’re headed.