06 May 2022 - Local Elections in the UK
Counting under way in Scottish council elections
(BBC News, 06/05/2022)
The early results are being announced in the Scottish council elections - with the Conservatives suffering big losses and Labour making gains.
More than 1,200 councillors will be elected across the country's 32 local authorities.
Each council is divided into smaller areas known as wards, with every ward electing up to five councillors.
Tory council leaders point finger at Johnson after election losses blamed on Partygate
Rowena Mason Heather Stewart and Aubrey Allegretti (The Guardian, 06/05/2022)
Local Conservative leaders have urged Boris Johnson to consider his position, after losing flagship London councils to Labour and council seats across the south of England to the Lib Dems, with several blaming Partygate and the cost of living crisis.
In a boost for Labour, it took control of several Tory flagship councils in London, including Wandsworth for the first since the 1970s and Westminster and Barnet for the first time since their creation in 1964.
Johnson’s party was swept aside by Labour in Cumberland and Southampton, as well as losing control of West Oxfordshire and Portsmouth, with the Liberal Democrats becoming the largest party.
‘The man is a clown’: Voters give their verdict on polling day in key London boroughs
Rory Sullivan,Maryam Zakir-Hussain (The Independent, 06/05/2022)
As he travelled around Wandsworth in the spring sunshine, local Labour leader Simon Hogg did not want to predict the election result.
But he stressed how symbolic a widely tipped Labour victory would be for a council that has been run by the Conservatives since 1978.
“It’d be amazing. Personally, I’ve been working on this for 20 years. It’d be a huge relief and satisfaction for me,” he told The Independent.
Local Tory leaders call for Boris to quit after string of humiliating election losses
James Hockaday (Metro, 06/05/2022)
Local Conservative leaders across the country have told Boris Johnson to resign after their party suffered a string of humiliating losses in the council elections.
The Tories lost the flagship Wandsworth Council to Labour having held it for the first time since 1978 in a major symbolic blow.
They also lost Southampton after just one year to Labour and West Oxfordshire and Worcester to no overall control as the electorate punishes them in the ballot box.