Blair happy to avoid a ‘rout’
Gordon Brown was conspicuously absent today, as he prepared to assume the leadership of a party battered in polls across Britain.
Votes after the polls closed and it remains to be seen how power will be allocated across local and devolved governments.
However, Labour have lost nearly five hundred councillors, four Scottish parliament seats and three Welsh assembly members. Senior party officials downplayed the losses, hinting at the scale of defeat originally feared rather than any optimism.
Reiterating his claim that it is always “tough” in mid-term, Tony Blair insisted the results still give Labour a “good springboard” for a fourth general election win.
He told the BBC: “People thought it was going to be a rout and it’s not turned out like that.
“You always take a hit mid-term, but these results provide a perfectly good springboard to win in the general election.”
However, the Conservatives claim the results indicate they are on course for an election win, having broken through the crucial 40 per cent mark in election.
The latest results show the Conservatives are expected take 40 per cent of the vote in England, with Labour on 27 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 26 per cent.
The Conservatives hailed these as “great results” and their best performance since 1992. Conservative party chairman Francis Maude declared “we’re back in business”.
Significantly, the Conservatives now hold more councils in the north-west than Labour, including Blackpool. However, they failed to take Manchester and Bury, described as the kind of seat the Conservatives must win to have a realistic chance of gaining power in Westminster.
Despite initial predictions that Labour could lose as many as 750 seats across Britain, Labour has not suffered a “disaster”. They are, however, now excluded from local government in the West Country after the Tories took Devon.
Labour also lost Lincoln, north-west Leicestershire, Plymouth and Gravesham to the Tories, in a night of results David Cameron described as “stunning”.
With electoral “chaos” in Scotland, it remains unclear whether Jack McConnell will lose his position as first minister to Alex Salmond. The SNP have taken the largest number of seats – 47 to Labour’s 46 – but Labour could yet form a coalition.
Rhodri Morgan had promised to resign if Labour did badly in Wales but was saved after they remained the largest single party in the assembly. However, he will be forced to negotiate a coalition government.
Mr Blair’s political career was less vulnerable than his regional leaders, having signalled his intent to resign after the elections. However his successor, still widely predicted to be the chancellor, will take over a faltering party.
Compass, the campaign for a democratic left, said the results signal the “death knell” of New Labour.
Describing the election as a “bad and bruising encounter”, Compass chair Neal Lawson warned the party not to dismiss the results as mid-term blues.
“This is not an opinion poll. These are real votes cast by real people,” he said.
Reflecting on the vote, the Liberal Democrats claimed the results endorse the three-party system.
Sir Menzies Campbell commented: “Labour has been wiped out in the south and the Conservatives have failed to make any inroads into the northern cities.
“These results show that three-party politics is a permanent feature of the British political landscape.”
