British Prime Minister Theresa May was today rescued by better than expected local election results from Thursday's voting, with her ruling Conservative party performing well in many councils.
The biggest gains for the Conservative party came largely as a result of a near-wipeout of the far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP), which had made significant gains in the last local elections. The Opposition Labour party, which was expected to capitalise on anger against the government in power, failed to win several target seats from the Tories, including Wandsworth and Westminster in London, but won back Plymouth and became the largest party in Trafford.
“It is a great result and down to all the hard work of the local councillors We won’t take anything for granted and will carry on doing a great job,” said May, during a visit to Wandsworth – seen as one of the major battlegrounds of these polls.
The party’s relatively robust performance will help quell renewed attacks over her leadership from her own party rebels, at least for a while. The elections, covering over 150 local authorities and spanning metropolitan and district councils, unitary authorities and London boroughs, were seen as a crucial test for her government as the first reflection of public opinion since the snap general election in June last year.
Both major parties suffered bad publicity in recent weeks, with the Tory government criticised the ongoing Windrush immigration scandal and Labour struggling with anti-semitism allegations.
The Lib Dems, which tend to fare well at a local level, made some strong gains, including taking over Richmond in London from the Tories as a Brexit backlash in a strong Remain-supporting area.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, being seen as a major factor behind Labour's disappointing showing, described the results as “solid”.
"We have consolidated and built on the advances we made at last year's general election, when we won the largest increase in Labour's share of the vote since 1945," he said.
"Obviously I'm 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'd never had those votes before," he added.
Lib Dem leader Edward Davey said the results indicated that the party led by Vince Cable was making a comeback as an effective choice against a Corbyn-led Labour.
“People are desperate for a voice that isn't a right-wing Brexit Tory voice or a left-wing Corbynista voice. Under Vince Cable, Liberal Democrats can become that and the results show we are becoming that," he said.
For UKIP, the relative highs of 2014 turned into near obliteration, with the party down 96 and left with just two councillors. Its general secretary, Paul Oakley, compared the Eurosceptic party to the Black Death, or the plague that caused millions of deaths in the 14th century, and said it was "not all over at all" for his party.
"Think of the Black Death in the Middle Ages. It comes along and it causes disruption and then it goes dormant, and that's exactly what we are going to do. Our time isn't finished because Brexit is being betrayed," he said.
The parties were battling it out to either keep hold of or take control of around 4,371 seats across England.