London commuter belt elections: Labour advances in battleground councils
Labour on Friday celebrated some big wins across London’s commuter belt in South East England including the home of the British Army in Hampshire.
The Conservatives admitted to suffering a bruising night but drew comfort from an apparent victory in Harlow Council in Essex, a key general election target for Labour just north of the M25.
But their 17-16 count in Harlow depended on a Tory councillor who has been suspended for alleged Islamophobia.
Elsewhere in Essex, Labour seized Basildon Council from the Tories, who lost 12 councillors there on Thursday. The area was home to an archetypal floating voter in the buildup to Tony Blair’s landslide victory in 1997.
The Conservatives also lost 12 councillors on the night in Thurrock, which was declared effectively bankrupt after a series of failed investments in solar farms left it with debts of about £1.5bn.
Labour added eight councillors to gain control of the council, which had the fourth highest Leave vote of any local authority in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
“This is exactly the kind of place we need to be winning to gain a majority in a general election. The people of Thurrock have sent the Conservatives a message that they want change,” a Labour spokesperson said.
Most results were still to come in from Thursday’s council elections across England and the London mayoral election, where Labour’s Sadiq Khan was tipped by pollsters to beat Tory candidate Susan Hall and secure a third term.
But returns on Friday showed Labour and the Liberal Democrats performing well in the Home Counties, as voters punished Rishi Sunak’s Tories both nationally and over local issues.
At the count for Rushmoor Borough Council in Aldershot, the Army’s HQ, Labour won seven more seats to end with a majority of one, with the Conservatives down eight, the first time Labour have ever taken control there after 24 years of Tory rule.
The Labour spokesperson called it a “truly historic result” that mirrored results elsewhere in the Tory “Blue Wall” of southern England, and reinforced the party’s argument that Mr Sunak should call a general election now.
“This result demonstrates just how much the Labour Party has changed and people in Rushmoor know that only Labour can deliver the change they want to see,” the spokesperson said.
In Hertfordshire, true-blue Broxbourne Council remained in Conservative control. Labour became the largest party on Peterborough City Council but the authority remains under no overall control.
Eastleigh, Gosport and Winchester in Hampshire were Liberal Democrat holds, and deputy leader Daisy Cooper said the “best is yet to come” for England’s third party whenever the general election is held.
"These results show Lib Dems are on course to win key battleground seats from the Conservatives in the London commuter belt and across the Blue Wall,” she told the Standard.
"We have won seats in Suella Braverman's backyard in Hampshire and gained ground in Winchester and Hertfordshire. Lifelong Conservative voters in the Home Counties are fed up of this Government after seeing their mortgages soar, health services crumble and rivers ruined by sewage."
In Fareham, where Conservative former Home Secretary Braverman is the MP, the Tories lost five councillors but retained control.
In Berkshire, Labour retained control of Reading with the Green Party in second place on eight councillors, double the Tory contingent. The Greens boasted of a strong night overall, profiting in some Muslim-populous areas of northern and western England from Labour defectors angry over Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on the war in Gaza.
