Labour Must Not Ignore the Voters It's Losing

Labour did very, very well in last week’s local elections: Anyone who tells you otherwise can be comfortably ignored. Conservatives looking for good news in the data will find none. However, the story is not altogether straightforward for the opposition party: A look through the results shows that despite Labour’s impressive final tally, their strong performance against the Tories hides softer showings elsewhere.

Across the country, Labour lost votes to independents and Greens. In Oldham, they lost control of the council to independents critical of the party’s stance on Gaza. In Bristol, the Greens gained 10 councillors to become the largest grouping. They now look likely to take their second-ever parliamentary seat, having won all wards in the Bristol Central constituency where Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer stands a very good chance of unseating Labour’s Shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire at the next election. The Greens made a gain of 74 seats, stacking up their highest-ever number of councillors.