![]() Voting for a second referendum or even a revocation of Article 50 could create a huge electoral backlash come the General Election. Labour MPs north of Birmingham must think, to slightly paraphrase Clint Eastwood – “Do I feel lucky?”. And this is merely the hors d’oevre before the Brexit Party, like a political Typhoid Mary, wreaks utter havoc with millions of natural Labour voters in the European elections, taking advantage of proportional representation to become the vehicle of protest against antics in Parliament. To lose seats in places like Ashfield, Bolsover, Barnsley, Sunderland, Leeds, St Helens and Wirral is just embarrassing. They have actually lost seats across England, nine years into a self-immolating Conservative Government, whose leader has terminal poll ratings and is loathed by much of her party. The story of the overnight results is the awful drubbing Labour has had at the hands of Brexit supporters in the North and Midlands, areas that should be their heartlands. They will be pleased to have held key councils like Swindon and gained others like Walsall and North East Lincolnshire, while making gains in unlikely places like Stoke-on-Trent and Bolton. ![]() The Conservatives were always going to take a pasting - but it could have been much worse. However, this setback is from a high point in 2015 when the Conservatives, for the first time, won an overall majority at a General Election while governing without one. The key narrative in this year’s local polls is of course 'a plague on both your houses'. It’s certainly true that the Conservatives have done very badly, often losing to anyone who wasn’t wearing a blue rosette – hence solid progress for the Greens and independents in places like Essex, Kent, Surrey and Lincolnshire and the Prime Minister’s local authority, Windsor and Maidenhead. Turnout slumps and… and Her Majesty’s Loyal opposition bags a healthy haul of Town Hall seats. The Liberal Democrats do well in their traditional electoral erogenous zones. The rituals of mid-term local elections are still apparent, even in this most tumultuous of years – in the shadow of Theresa May’s Brexit shambles and the threat of the Brexit Party in the European elections on 23 May.
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