Chris secures victory in Blackpool election with 10,825 votes
\nLONDON
\nBritain\u2019s opposition Labour Party won a parliamentary seat in northern England on Friday and control of several councils, inflicting heavy losses on the governing Conservatives to pile more pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
\nThe thumping victory set the tone for what will be a closely watched two days of local results before a national election this year, which polling shows could put Labour leader Keir Starmer in power and end 14 years of Conservative government.
\nVoters cast their ballots on Thursday for more than 2,000 seats on local authorities across England and a handful of high-profile mayoral elections, including in the capital, London.
\nBlackpool South was the only parliamentary seat up for grabs after the Conservative lawmaker quit over a lobbying scandal.
\nLabour candidate Chris Webb won the Blackpool election with 10,825 votes. The Conservative candidate came in second with 3,218. The swing of 26% to Labour from the 2019 result was the third biggest in post-war by-election history, polling expert John Curtice said.
\nThe defeat in Blackpool and early signs of deep losses at the council level will boost Labour\u2019s hopes for a sweeping victory over Sunak\u2019s Conservatives in the national election.
\n\u201cThis seismic win in Blackpool South is the most important result today,\u201d Starmer said.
\n\u201cThis is the one contest where voters had the chance to send a message to Rishi Sunak\u2019s Conservatives directly, and that message is an overwhelming vote for change.\u201d
\nThe chairman of the Conservative Party said it had been \u201ca tough night\u201d.
\n\u201cObviously not a great set of results,\u201d Richard Holden told Times Radio.
\nPoor showing by conservatives
\nSunak\u2019s Conservatives are about 20 percentage points behind Labour in most opinion polls for the national election, which Sunak has said he intends to call in the second half of the year.
\nThe British leader had hoped his announcement on increased defence spending and the passing of his divisive plan to send illegal asylum seekers to Rwanda might win over voters, but the losses could again fuel calls for him to step down.
\nCurtice said that, based on results so far, the Conservatives could be looking at their worst local election results for 40 years and were on course for defeat in the national election.
\nThe first 500 of the more than 2,600 local council results showed Labour making gains at the expense of the Conservatives\u2013in line with finance minister Jeremy Hunt\u2019s pre-vote prediction of significant losses for the governing party.
\nThe Conservatives seized on Starmer\u2019s failure to win control of one southeastern council that it had targeted.
\nLabour said anger over the party\u2019s stance on Gaza, where Palestinian health authorities say more than 34,500 people have been killed in Israeli\u2019s military offensive, had tempered some council results but the overall message from the polls was that people wanted change.
\n\u201cThis is on the eve of a general election … The mood is that it\u2019s time for a change,\u201d said Labour\u2019s national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden.
\nAlthough local elections do not always reflect how people will vote in a national contest, a heavy defeat could trigger renewed anger in the Conservative Party over Sunak\u2019s leadership.
\nThe extent of that unrest could hinge on the results of two mayoral elections in which the Conservatives hope to show they can still hold ground in central and northeast England.
\nThe Tees Valley mayoral result is due on Friday, while the West Midlands mayor is to be announced on Saturday. The result in London, where current Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to win another term, is also due on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chris secures victory in Blackpool election with 10,825 votes LONDON Britain\u2019s opposition Labour Party won a parliamentary seat in northern England on Friday and control of several councils, inflicting heavy losses on the governing Conservatives to pile more pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The thumping victory set the tone for what will be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-404487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n