Latest updates: key developments from the UK’s 2021 devolved and local elections
- SNP win: PM sets up summit as Sturgeon pledges second referendum
- Angela Rayner fired as Labour gripped by post-poll rancour
- Analysis: Rayner sacking risks reopening Labour’s wounds
- Sadiq Khan reelected as London mayor after rival runs him close
- 2021 elections: results for the English local, Scottish and Welsh polls
Boris Johnson will put repairing the NHS at the heart of his next programme for government, as his team draws up plans to lock in the huge local election gains in the north of England and Midlands.
With more NHS funding inevitable after the damage and delays caused by Covid-19, Downing Street wants to neutralise an issue that could undermine progress among voters who have switched to the Tories. The NHS England head, Sir Simon Stevens, has already said cancer care and extra funding needs to be a priority. NHS waiting lists are seen as one of the government’s major vulnerabilities.
Related: Johnson will vow to repair damaged NHS to lock in election gains
Newly-elected mayor of the West of England Dan Norris has said he felt Labour is still the party of the working class.
He told Times Radio:
Absolutely (it is). But it’s also the party of other people as well, not just the working class.
That was the reason for my success in the election in the West of England.
I think he unlocked the discussion in the West of England. People were able to listen to what Labour were saying and think about it and reflect on it. And then they decided to support it significantly.
He was very very important indeed. I believe that will happen in the rest of the country. It’s a very tough time, I think, to become leader of the opposition during what is a national emergency and we all know what happened in the Second World War: Churchill was supported by people, then lost by a huge, huge amount straight after the war.
