Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party lost traditional strongholds in the London area and suffered losses elsewhere in local elections, early results released today suggest, as voters appear to have punished the coalition over a series of scandals and deteriorating living standards.
The Tories were defeated in Wandsworth, their stronghold since 1978. They also lost Barnet, where they had won every election without interruption since 1964 with only two exceptions.
The Labour Party believes it has won - for the first time - in Westminster, the district where most government institutions are based.
Daniel Thomas, the outgoing leader of Barnet's local council, saw the result as a «warning shot from Conservative voters».
The full results, expected to be announced later today, will be a first reflection of public opinion since 2019, when the Tories secured their biggest majority in the House of Commons in more than 30 years.
This is the first electoral test for Boris Johnson since he became the first head of government in modern UK history to break the law. Last month, he was fined for attending a birthday party in his office in 2020, breaching social distancing measures imposed to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus pandemic.
The first results show that the Conservative Party lost 92 seats on local councils, Labour won 23 and the Liberal Democrats 42.
The heavy losses in local London councils - from which the Tories were almost completely wiped out - are expected to further increase the pressure on Mr Johnson, who has been fighting for his political survival in recent months and faces the risk of more fines from the police for lockdown violations.
The elections held yesterday (Thursday) decide 7,000 local council seats: all of them in London, Scotland, Wales, a third in most of the rest of England.
