The reconfiguration of British politics post-Brexit has exposed Boris Johnson’s Tory party as being out of touch
The council elections in England reveal that not all politics is local. On the doorstep, voters brought up the cost of living crisis and Boris Johnson being fined for breaking life-saving Covid rules. Mr Johnson knows the Conservatives did badly. But he hopes the party did not do badly enough for his Commons opponents to move against him. The Labour party did well. But perhaps not well enough to convincingly herald an English resurgence. Instead, voters gave their support to smaller parties that offered any sort of alternative.
Sir Keir Starmer hailed totemic victories in London – notably the Tory strongholds of Wandsworth and Westminster – as a “turning point” for Labour. In left-behind places such as Carlisle, set in pastoral Cumberland, and Rossendale, Sir Keir won surprising victories. However, large parts of England outside the capital failed to turn for Labour. At the time of writing, the one-point advance in Labour’s vote share in London was accompanied by a three-point fall in the north of England.
