Labour has just won the North East mayoralty, with candidate and current Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness taking over from ex-Labour Corbynista Jamie Driscoll. Labour got 41.3% to Driscoll’s 28.2% – the Tories trailed on 11.7%. And that’s despite all of Owen Jones’ campaigning?
Meanwhile Labour has just nabbed the usually Conservative York and North Yorkshire. Maybe that’s because the Tory candidate took his inspiration from Engels. Rishi Sunak has a new mayor…
CCHQ is trying to point all noses at the Harlow result in Essex, which has been previously touted as a crucial target for Starmer. Now an “incredible” victory has been claimed as the Tories keep hold of a one-seat majority. Rishi Sunak celebrated the result and Rob Halfon called it the “biggest comeback since Lazarus”…
Was that comment actually directed at recently suspended Tory councillor James Leppard? With 17 seats (including his) versus Labour’s 16, for the Tories to keep control, they will have had to readmit Leppard, who they suspended two weeks ago for saying of Muslims that: “We really don’t need them here. They add nothing”. CCHQ is currently refusing to say whether this has happened – though that is the one way they can claim to have control over the council. So, according to the latest information available, it’s No Overall Control…
What is going on at Labour’s press office? A “senior party source”, telling the BBC that they had lost the West Midlands 24 hours before the mayoralty result would even be declared, said:
“It’s the Middle East, not West Midlands that will have won Street the Mayoralty. Once again Hamas are the real villains.“
Smooth. The Tories called it “vile“. Now a Labour spokesman says:
“The Labour Party has strongly condemned this racist quote which has not come from anyone who is speaking on behalf of party or whose values are welcome in the party.”
The catherine wheel of local election spin keeps rolling…
After Labour conceded, the votes are in fully. Ben Houchen has held on to Tees Valley. Houchen, got 53.6%, down from 72.8% in 2021. Labour’s Chris McEwan 41.3%, up from 27.2%. A big reduction, though some crucial good news for Sunak…
More than one government source says the plotting situation is: If Houchen wins, Sunak will be just about fine. Houchen, though, is looking a bit further ahead:
“My job as mayor is to do what I can for local people, and if that means I’ve got to work with the Prime Minister, to be frank it doesn’t matter to me who that is – I’m going to do all I can to make sure I get the best deal for the local area… even if there is a change of government later this year or if Rishi is still PM or it’s somebody else, I’ll work with anybody.”
Bit of a dampener for the current occupants of Downing Street…
As co-conspirators wake up to crucial local election results, things are (as expected) bleak for the Tories. There’s no surprise that the parliamentary by-election for Blackpool South has been convincingly retaken by Labour after Scott Benton’s implosion, with a massive swing of 26.3 points. That’s the third biggest swing from Conservatives to Labour in post war election history. Reform were within a whisker (117 votes) of putting the Tories into third place. Reform has performed strongly elsewhere so far where they are standing…
The remainder of the picture is basically a total clean up for Labour – gaining Hartlepool, Thurrock, Redditch and even deeply formerly Tory Rushmoor. The Tories are pointing to Oldham, where Labour lost overall control of the council – but that is due to local factors over Gaza. A loss of control over the London narrative – with Tory briefings widely quoted overnight as saying Susan Hall would win – now seems unlikely. Plenty of big results still to come in though…
The Tories are pushing hard that these are ‘mid term’ results so are irrelevant for a general election – an odd choice of defence given it’s the end of the parliamentary term and a general election year. Whether Sunak is safe is unresolved…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”