UK PM May’s Conservatives make gains in local elections

The results will be damaging for Labour and Jeremy COrbyn in particular.

But she insisted the SNP had “won this election comfortably” with her party ending up with “more votes, more seats, more councils where we are the largest party, not just compared to every other party but compared to five years ago”.

May has accused European Union officials of seeking to affect the outcome of the election by issuing threats over Brexit, and warned voters that the other 27 member states were lining up against Britain to win a deal that “works for them”. But what does it all mean for June’s general election?

Prime Minister Theresa May was adamant that the Conservatives are most certainly not “taking anything for granted”, despite winning an overwhelming majority throughout the nation.

There have been predictions her majority could be 100, possibly even 150. “We’ll have to wait and see what the final results are – and overall, of course, the turnout is much lower than you get in a general election”, said United Kingdom defence secretary Michael Fallon, playing down the Conservative gains.

If the results in England, Scotland and Wales can be taken as a barometer of the likely outcome of the June 8 poll then it seems the Conservatives are on course for a decisive victory.

There was an average swing of just over 7% from Labour to the Conservatives in the English county council elections, compared with 2013 when these councils were last fought over.

Labor had a mixed night in Wales losing some important councils, including Blaenau Gwent and Bridgend, where the prime minister recently visited to boost the chances of a Tory candidate becoming MP. Ukip results resemble a auto crash.

Most dramatically, it lost ground in Scotland, where the Conservatives – long all-but-extinct there – made gains.

In Lincolnshire, where Ukip leader Paul Nuttall is standing in the general election in Boston and Skegness, the party went from being the official Opposition to having no seats at all as the Tories gained 23 seats.

The figure is based on a study of all the parties’ performance by Sky’s election analyst, Professor Michael Thrasher.

The First Minister and SNP admitted the Conservatives in Scotland had “a good day by their standards”, with the party returning a record number of councillors north of the border. Nuttall put the poor results down to May talking tough on Brexit.

The results prompted a furious response from former donor Arron Banks, who said Ukip was “finished as an electoral force” under its current leadership and needed “a strategic bullet to the back of the head”. “We are the victims of our own success”. Results from the local elections suggest the message is getting through.

The online poll of 1,552 people was conducted on May 3 and 4.

We’ll have to wait and see whether the public will embrace Mr Corbyn in the coming weeks, but there is evidence that the Labour leader is now much less popular than Theresa May or indeed his own party.

“The reality is that today, despite the evident will of the British people, we have bureaucrats in Europe who are questioning our resolve to get the right deal”.