Conservatives Facing Significant Losses in Local Elections as Labour Takes the Lead

With 45 out of 107 councils in England declared, Labour has won 379 seats, a gain of 62 and more than twice the number won by the Conservatives. The Tories so far have won 136 seats, representing a loss of 153, according to the BBC’s election tracker. Labour has won 24 councils—a gain of four—and the Conservatives have won just three, a loss of three. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are sitting in second place overall, having won 141 council seats and five councils. Counting and the announcement of results is expected to continue throughout the weekend. Elections expert professor Sir John Curtice told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme that while it is still early days, “we’re probably looking at certainly one of the worst—if not the worst—Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years.”...