JEREMY Corbyn is facing a Labour backlash over his party’s “unmitigated disaster” at the polls, which prompted Theresa May to taunt his failure to make an electoral breakthrough.
With just one council in England left to declare its result last night, Labour had a net gain of 61 seats but a net loss of one council, the Tories lost 93 councillors and had a net loss of two councils while the Liberal Democrats outperformed the two main parties, picking up 77 seats with a net gain of four councils.
A BBC projection suggested that if the council results were reflected at a general election, then Labour would have three more seats than the Conservatives in another hung parliament. Both would have 35 per cent of the vote.
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As the dust settled Labour’s Chukka Umunna called for his party’s ruling National Executive to set up a “proper post-mortem,” warning the results could not give it confidence it would win the next General Election.
"You would expect after eight years of Tory government and in the wake of the resignations of several senior ministers... Labour to be making far greater gains,” said the London MP.
He added: "We haven't gone forwards and if we are looking to form an election-winning majority, we cannot be confident of that happening based on the results yesterday."
His Labour colleague Ian Murray, a long-standing critic of Mr Corbyn, also highlighted the political context of the English council results.
“Given we have the worst Conservative Prime Minister in history, the most divided Conservative Government in history, days before the local elections the Home Secretary resigns, Brexit is going wrong and the economy is dragging along the bottom, yet the Tories get a small swing outside London; it’s quite extraordinary.
“We should be 20 points ahead; someone has to look into what went wrong. For a party that wants to aspire to be in government, this was an unmitigated disaster,” declared the Edinburgh MP.
Tom Gordon: Sturgeon's appeal to principle on Brexit not all it seems
In the London borough of Barnet, which was another key Labour target, the internal row over anti-Semitism was blamed for the party failing to take control of the authority, which has a large Jewish community.
While Labour took charge in Plymouth it fell short of gaining control in areas like Swindon, Dudley and Walsall, where it had hoped to establish middle England strongholds.
It also lost control of Derby as well as Nuneaton and Bedworth, regarded as a bellwether area that often indicates the colour of the government at general elections.
Mr Corbyn, nonetheless, insisted Labour had consolidated its gains at last year’s General Election and had put in a “solid” performance.
The Labour leader played down the significance of the failure to gain councils in London, claiming the Tories had deliberately talked up Labour's chances to "unrealistic" levels.
Tom Gordon: Sturgeon's appeal to principle on Brexit not all it seems
On an early morning visit to Plymouth to congratulate activists for taking control of the authority from the Conservatives, the party leader denied Labour had passed the moment of "peak Corbyn".
"No, no, there is much more to come and it's going to get even better," he declared, explaining: "We were defending seats that were last won in 2014, which was a particularly good year for Labour in local government.
“Obviously, I am disappointed at any places where we lost a bit of ground but if you look at the overall picture Labour gained a lot of seats across the whole country; we gained a lot of votes in places we never had those votes before."
Meanwhile, a very relieved-looking Mrs May made her first post-result trip to Wandsworth in south London, which, along with Westminster and Kensington, was one of the Tory “Crown Jewel” councils Labour had set its sights on winning but without success.
Tight results in four Wandsworth wards meant Labour missed out on victory by just 141 votes.
To cheering activists, the PM declared: "Labour thought they could take control, this was one of their top targets and they threw everything at it. But they failed.”
Tom Gordon: Sturgeon's appeal to principle on Brexit not all it seems
She said the message from the elections was that "Conservative councils deliver great local services at lower taxes".
Mrs May added: "We won't take anything for granted. We will continue to work hard for local people and we will build on this success for the future."
The Conservatives gained control of councils in Peterborough, Southend and Basildon, and saw a small swing in their favour outside the capital. But they lost Trafford, their flagship council in the North West, to no overall control.
Across London in the Remain-supporting leafy borough of Richmond, Sir Vince Cable hailed the Liberal Democrats’ regaining control of the local council, one of four his party won.
“We’re very much on the way back," insisted Sir Vince whose party increased its vote shares in areas including Hull, Sunderland and Liverpool.
Elsewhere, Ukip suffered an electoral bloodbath, losing more than 100 councillors, leaving it with just three. Paul Oakley, its General Secretary, compared the party to the Black Death; it kept coming back.
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