BBC: The Labor Party deals a strong blow to Prime Minister Sunak in the British local elections

Britain’s opposition Labor Party, led by Keir Starmer, dealt a heavy blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ruling Conservative Party in local elections on Thursday. He appears From the interim result From ballots held in 107 councils in England and Wales. The BBC announced the preliminary results on Friday.

Starmer’s party won council seats in places including Redditch, Thurrock, Hartlepool and Rushmore in Hampshire, but surprisingly lost its majority in the city of Manchester, where Labor had been in power since 2011. A parliamentary seat in the southern coastal resort of Blackpool in the north-west of the country also went to Labor at the expense of the Conservatives. The result is considered an embarrassing defeat for Sunak.

Although a clear trend appears in the preliminary results, not all election results are yet known. The outcome remains to be seen in London, where current Labor mayor Sadiq Khan hopes to extend his term. All final results are not expected until the end of this week.

‘landslide’

Observers viewed the local elections as an unofficial referendum on the leadership of British Prime Minister Sunak. This series of results may determine the course of national elections later this year. According to Reuters news agency Refers to opinion polls He insists that a change of power is imminent and that Labor will break the Conservative Party’s fourteen-year political dominance at the next election. Sunak himself has not yet responded, but his party colleague and Conservative Party leader Richard Holden is speaking out Reverse times From “A Hard Day’s Night”. According to him, these are “clearly not great results.”

On Friday morning, Starmer referred – and spoke of a “landslide” – mainly to the importance of Labour’s victory in Blackpool South. There, Labor candidate Chris Webb won convincingly with 10,825 votes. The Conservative Party, led by local candidate David Jones, came in second place with 3,218 votes. The seat was at stake on Thursday because Webb’s predecessor, who was elected as a Conservative candidate in 2019, resigned amid a lobbying scandal. According to Starmer, these elections were an opportunity for the British to send a “direct message” to Sunak and his Conservative Party. “This message is an overwhelming voice for change,” the Labor leader said.

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