UK: Labour party suffers ‘wipe-out’ at local polls

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Labour’s national vote share slumps to 23 percent

LONDON: The Labour party saw its popular support evaporate on Friday after it suffered heavy defeats across the country in local council elections.

In Staffordshire, under Labour control since 1981, councillor Derek Davis said the party had suffered a “complete wipe-out” after losing 29 seats as the Conservatives romped home.

“I’ve been a member of the Labour party since 1963 and I’ve never known things to get as bad as this,” said Davis. “This is the lowest ebb I have ever seen,” he told BBC TV. Labour also lost Derbyshire and Lancashire to the Conservatives, and was awaiting results in its last remaining English county council, Nottinghamshire.

Labour slumps behind: The BBC calculated that Labour party’s projected share of the national vote had slumped to 23 percent, behind the Conservatives on 38 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 28 percent.

If early results were repeated at the general elections, the Conservatives would form the next government with a 22-seat majority, Sky News said. “These are very bad results,” Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell told BBC television.

The recriminations started early as former deputy prime minister John Prescott said the Labour party had run a “non-campaign” in Thursday’s elections for councils and European parliament.

“Whilst I knew we were short of money, I didn’t realise we also lacked the will to fight these elections,” Prescott wrote in a blog on the LabourHome website.

Conservative successes also included taking Devon and Somerset from the Liberal Democrats.

There was some compensation for the Liberal Democrats after they gained control of Bristol. reuters

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