The polls in England proved ‘disappointing’ for the Conservatives. Are gains by Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens enough to guarantee a Tory loss at the next election?
Few in the Tory party expected the local election results to be anything other than painful. Yet the first wave of results still managed to be worse than anticipated internally as the party lost support to Labour in various red wall areas and to the Liberal Democrats in the traditional Tory shires. “You know something’s gone wrong when the expectation management figure becomes the reality,” sighed one Tory MP – following early morning suggestions from the polling expert John Curtice that the Conservatives could be on course to lose 1,000 seats.
Katy Balls is the Spectator’s political editor
