Local election results in England suggest voting groups are fragmented, rather than the large ‘tribes’ implied by the Brexit vote
With electoral events paused for 12 months, Britain’s pundit class had little to chew over to understand how voter behaviour had been changed by the pandemic, the post-Brexit period and the new leadership of the Labour party.
It was inevitable then that the recent election results would be pored over for clues to the future of British politics. Would “Super Thursday”, as it was dubbed, be a first indication that the movement of voters away from the Labour party seen in the 2019 general election had halted, a suggestion that, having “got Brexit done”, politics could occasion a return to “normal”? Or would it be a warning that 2019 was part of a more lasting realignment of the political system and not merely the “lending” of votes to deliver what parliament had failed to?
