The PM has danced to their tune and the dreadful election results were the inevitable outcome. The solution can’t be more of the same, says the former Conservative MP Justine Greening
Labour: 1,158 councillors elected and control of 51 councils
Lib Dems: 522 councillors and 12 councils
Conservatives: 515 councillors and 6 councils
Greens: 181 councillors and 0 councils
Reform: 2 councillors and 0 councils
The way council elections work is that they're staggered over a four-year cycle. The places that voted this year were only in parts of England, hence no SNP or PC numbers. By my count, the total split of councils controlled by each party is now roughly:
Labour 116 (almost back to 2015 levels - Corbyn's leadership did a real number on Labour...)
Conservatives 58 (down from a recent peak of 197 in 2017)
Lib Dems 39 (up from 6 in 2015 and the now highest number they've controlled since the late 90s)
Greens 1
Reform 0
The rest are mostly No Overall Control (no party has a majority) or a few run by independents.
Somehow, from this, far-right Tories like Braverman have reached the bizarre conclusion that Reform are the electoral threat they need to worry most about...
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