May 18, 2024

Great Britain: Another defeat for Prime Minister Sunak’s Conservatives

British Prime Minister’s party also takes the final decision in English local elections Rishi Sunak suffered a bitter defeat. The Conservative Party lost the mayoral election in the West Midlands to the opposition Labor Party. Social Democrat Richard Parker will be the new leader of the metropolitan area around the megacity of Birmingham, the Electoral Commission announced on Saturday evening.

The Tories’ only major victory in the election was their retention of a town hall in the Tees Valley region of north-east England. Overall, however, they lost almost half of the 1,000 seats they held in local councils. Even the Liberal Democrats, which play a small role in the British Parliament, won more seats.

The scale of the Tory defeat

The scale of the Tory defeat is something the party should worry about, writes BBC pollster John Curtis. It was one of the Conservative Party’s worst results in local elections. England’s election results reflect polls predicting a change of government in England.

Labor leader Keir Starmer, possibly a future prime minister, was proud of his party and called on Prime Minister Chung to call an early general election. Sunak hinted at a meeting in the second half of the year, but has yet to give an exact date. The last possible date is January 2025.

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Apart from the West Midlands, the Social Democrats also won mayoral elections in London and the metropolitan areas of Manchester and Liverpool. In future, they will also provide a mayor in the newly created York and North Yorkshire region, in which Sunak’s constituency is located.

© dpa-infocom, dpa:240505-99-917620/2