Local Election Results
This week's local elections represented a very positive move forward for the Conservative Party. These results are not just a vote against Gordon Brown and his Government. They are a positive vote of confidence in the Conservatives. People see a Party that has changed for the better, that is united and that has a strong team of leaders. Increasingly, they are looking to us to speak out on the issues they really care about - on improving our schools and the NHS, keeping down the cost of living and dealing with crime on our streets.
So far, the results show that we have achieved a 44 per cent vote share and have already gained 256 seats in these elections. We have taken control of 16 councils, including Bury, North Tyneside and the Vale of Glamorgan, and gained seats from Labour from Sunderland to Southampton, and from Cardiff to Great Yarmouth.
This looks like Labour’s worst vote share – at 24 per cent – since records began in 1973. Labour are now in third place, behind the Liberal Democrats (25 per cent) and have already lost 331 seats.
Local elections reflect local factors and cannot be regarded as an infallible guide to to the result of national elections. However, changes in local election performance are often associated with changes in General election performance.
There have been many cases in recent British politics of "mid-term blues" where governments who have bad council election results in which they were up to and including 11 percentage points behind going on to win the subsequent general election. However, there is no precedent for a government which more than 11 percentage points behind in local polls going on to win the following Westminster election. For the present government to come back from 20 percentage points behind an win would be the most extraordinary political recovery in British history.
That does not mean that we Conservatives can afford to sit back and take victory for granted: one Conservative spokesman said yesterday that we will not regard a Conservative win in the coming general election as being in the bag until the results have actually been announced.
David Cameron and his team will do everything we can to prove that we are ready to form an alternative government.
So far, the results show that we have achieved a 44 per cent vote share and have already gained 256 seats in these elections. We have taken control of 16 councils, including Bury, North Tyneside and the Vale of Glamorgan, and gained seats from Labour from Sunderland to Southampton, and from Cardiff to Great Yarmouth.
This looks like Labour’s worst vote share – at 24 per cent – since records began in 1973. Labour are now in third place, behind the Liberal Democrats (25 per cent) and have already lost 331 seats.
Local elections reflect local factors and cannot be regarded as an infallible guide to to the result of national elections. However, changes in local election performance are often associated with changes in General election performance.
There have been many cases in recent British politics of "mid-term blues" where governments who have bad council election results in which they were up to and including 11 percentage points behind going on to win the subsequent general election. However, there is no precedent for a government which more than 11 percentage points behind in local polls going on to win the following Westminster election. For the present government to come back from 20 percentage points behind an win would be the most extraordinary political recovery in British history.
That does not mean that we Conservatives can afford to sit back and take victory for granted: one Conservative spokesman said yesterday that we will not regard a Conservative win in the coming general election as being in the bag until the results have actually been announced.
David Cameron and his team will do everything we can to prove that we are ready to form an alternative government.
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