Article published on May 4 at 2 p.m. and updated at 6 p.m.

The huge electoral setback suffered by the ruling British Conservative Party deepened on Saturday, when the latest local election results confirmed the great victory of Labour, particularly in London, where Sadiq Khan won a third term, in these elections in form final test. before the legislative elections in a few months.

In the British capital, Sadiq Khan was largely re-elected for a historic third term, against the conservative Susan Hall, British media announced at the conclusion of the count.

Already on Friday, the first results showed that the conservatives in power for 14 years were going to suffer their worst defeat in 40 years in a local election, in which voters were called to vote in favor of a partial legislative – won by Labor – and to renew some of the thousands of local elected officials in England and Wales, as well as eleven mayors.

The Labor opposition's significant gains raise its hopes that its leader Keir Starmer will reach Downing Street after the general election due later this year.

“Today we celebrate the beginning of a page, one of the last steps before the legislative elections,” Keir Starmer celebrated on Saturday in Mansfield, in the East Midlands, where he celebrated the election of Labor mayor Clare Ward.

“Let's turn the page on the decline and launch national renewal with Labor,” he added, promising in particular to rebuild the adrift health system, after having asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak the day before to call legislative elections.

However, Rishi Sunak, facing divisions in his ranks, again defended his policies on Saturday, particularly his plan to deport migrants to Rwanda and his tax cuts.

“Labor did not win in places where they admitted they had to win” to gain a majority at the end of the next legislative election. “Only the conservatives have a plan” for the country, he said in a column published in the conservative newspaper The Telegraph.

In total, Labor won more than 180 seats and will lead eight more local councils, while the Conservatives lost more than 470 seats and lost control of at least ten local councils.

The rise of Reform UK, a nationalist and populist party founded by Brexiteer Nigel Farage, is also a cause for concern among Conservatives, who could lose votes to them in the legislative elections.

Not everything is rosy for the Labor Party either, which lost voters due to its position considered by some of its voters too pro-Israeli in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Little enthusiasm

He benefited more from “a desire (from voters) to beat the Conservatives” than from an “enthusiasm” for him, while turnout remained low (less than 30% in most local elections), John estimated. Curtice, professor of political science, in an analysis for the newspaper el i.

However, “nothing in these results disturbs the long-established impression that the Labor Party is on course to win the next general election,” he said.

In addition to London, Labor has so far won eight of the eleven municipal elections held in several large cities in the country, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield (South Yorkshire), but also in the conurbation of York and North Yorkshire, right where the Prime Minister's constituency is located.

While the recount is still underway in the hotly contested West Midlands (Birmingham), the Conservatives must be content with a single victory for now, as the re-election of the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley (east), Ben Houchen, was announced on Friday. . Rishi Sunak rushed to congratulate him, seeing it as a sign that the Conservatives can still turn things around before the legislative elections.

(With AFP)