Theresa May’s Conservatives gained more than 550 council seats and swept to shock victories in mayoralty contests in the West Midlands and Tees Valley in results that placed her party on track to secure a thumping majority in the general election.
The prime minister insisted she was not taking “anything for granted” but the Tories enjoyed a stunning day that was matched by a dramatic decline for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, which lost more than 300 seats.
The results forced Labour to hand over control of a series of English councils including Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Northumberland, while in Scotland the party lost its grip on Glasgow for the first time in 40 years. Paul Nuttall’s Ukip was crushed as every single councillor facing election suffered defeat.
The results were turned into a projected national vote share of 38% for the Tories, 27% for Labour and 18% for the Lib Dems, with Ukip plunging to just 5%. Although that prediction is narrower than the polls, it projects that May would win a solid majority in June’s general election.UKIP's implosion is no surprise: After the Brexit passed, they are like a dog that has finally caught the car it was chasing. They have absolutely no idea what to do now, and so they lost all the seats which stood for election
Labour clearly has problems as well, most notably that they have adopted a policy of complete hostility to the Scottish National Party (SNP), which has served to alienate Scottish voters (see Glasgow results).
There is also the fact that half of Labour is fighting with the other half, creating the most dysfunctional party in Britain this side of the Trotskyites.
It's fairly clear that the Conservatives will do very well in the snap elections, and my hope is that whoever replaces Corbyn after will hew to similar policies.
Blairite politics is not sustainable.
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