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Boris Johnson loses control of London strongholds in local elections
The Hindu reported, citing Reuters, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party lost control of traditional strongholds in London and suffered losses elsewhere in local elections, early results on Friday (May 6) showed, as opposition parties capitalised on the government’s recent problems.
Mr. Johnson’s party was ousted in Wandsworth—a low-tax Conservative stronghold since 1978, which had been one of main opposition Labour Party’s main targets.
The Conservatives also said they had lost control of the borough of Barnet, which has been held by the party in all but two elections since 1964.
Daniel Thomas, the Conservative leader of Barnet council: “This is a warning shot from Conservative voters."
The overall tally due later on Friday will offer the most important snapshot of public opinion since Mr. Johnson won the Conservative Party’s biggest majority in more than 30 years in the 2019 general election.
The ballot is the first electoral test for Mr. Johnson since he became the first British leader in living memory to have broken the law while in office. He was fined last month for attending a birthday gathering in his office in 2020, breaking social distancing rules then in place to curb COVID-19’s spread.
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Early results showed the Conservative Party had lost 92 council seats. The main opposition Labour Party had gained 23 seat and the Liberal Democrats 42 seats.
A poor set of results will increase pressure on Johnson, who has been fighting for his political survival for months and faces the possibility of more police fines over his attendance at other lockdown-breaking gatherings.
The results will decide almost 7,000 council seats, including all those in London, Scotland and Wales, and a third of the seats in most of the rest of England.
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Mr. Johnson upended conventional British politics in the 2019 general election by winning and then promising to improve living standards in former industrial areas in central and northern England.
But the loss of Wandsworth and Barnet symbolises the way that Johnson, who won two terms as mayor of London, has lost his appeal in the capital. His support for Brexit cost him support in London, where a majority of voters supported staying in the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum.
Source: thehindu
