Jo Coburn is your guide as the votes are counted in 2024’s bumper set of elections. Coverage and analysis of the local, mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections taking place in England and Wales on 2 May 2024. BBC correspondents are at the key counts all around the country. In the studio, Nick Eardley crunches the numbers on his giant screens, and Professor Sir John Curtice assesses the underlying electoral trends. The BBC’s deputy political editor, Vicki Young, analyses what these elections mean for each political party, and senior politicians are on hand to give their verdict on the results.
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it’s Friday it’s 12:00 and we’re live in Westminster a big victory for labor in the Blackpool South by elction this was directly to Rishi sunak to say we’re fed up with your decline your chaos and your Division and we want change conservatives suffer big losses too in the local elections you know a disappoint night for us um but you know uh that’s what you’d expect from parties in midterm of government it’s early days and counting continues we’re expecting a result in the race for teas Valley mayor in the next hour or so Professor s John Curtis will be with us throughout analyzing all the Electoral Trends I’ll be at the big screen crunching the numbers there are lots of results still to come for Mayors police Commissioners and councils I’ll be talking to correspondents that counts up and down the country politicians and commentators from across the political Spectrum with me throughout the BBC’s Deputy political editor Vicky young and at the start of today’s show Health Minister Andrea ledson Labor’s Deputy national campaign coordinator Ellie Reeds and liberal Democrat Deputy leader Daisy Cooper this is politics live yes hello and welcome it’s going to be an extremely busy afternoon as the results tumble in from all over the country we have 2third of the results from the local authorities in England still to come in maral contests from across the country that will influence the mood of course within the two main parties and police and crime Commissioners in England and Wales so far broadly speaking it’s been a bad night for for the conservatives as expected uh the question is just how bad as more results come in and a good night for the labor party which it had to be of course if they want these results to provide a sort of Bedrock ahead of the general election now that was underlined their success in the labor party and Illustrated with that byelection win in Blackpool South with a very impressive swing away from the conservatives to labor as we said there in the headlines at the top of the program we expecting that all important result from teas Valley and the maral contest there Ben hin who is the Tor incumbent although seems to have done as much as he possibly can to distance himself from the conservative brand is hoping to hold on there and that will be important in terms of sentiment within the conservative party well to open uh the program I think we might be able to show you pictures actually there from the count which we are expecting yes there it is they’ve been busy Counting all morning um we’re hoping to get a result perhaps within the next half an hour but as I say Ben hin hoping to hold on there were reports that labor had sort of left the scene if you like because they thought they hadn’t done quite enough in teas Valley we will find out shortly uh when we go and hear the result um Vicki that is the narrative in terms of bad nights for the conservatives good night for the labor party is that going to change do you think that picture I don’t think it will very much I think even if the conservatives have some relatively good news from those mayoral elections there will be lots of conservative MPS looking at their particular patch and looking at the swing from the conservatives to labor and thinking that potentially puts my seat in Jeopardy so in terms of a psychological boost yes holding on to a couple of the the maral elections is going to help but it’s now going to be all about that reaction from conservative MPS in terms of whether they think that Rishi sunak should be moved on uh that someone else should come in and take over because of course the difference with these elections they are in their own right of course inde of course very important you know making these choices about who runs your Council who your local mayor is they are important but we have a general election coming up later this year and there’s no way of separating out those two things so that is what’s behind all of this and conservative MP is desperate to see are they closing the gap on labor in terms of the opinion polls and equally labor determined to try and make those poll leads into actual real votes yes because of course labor has been polling around 20 points ahead of the conservatives we’ll see if that is broadly reflected as more results come in and we will give you the results of some of the key councils again that happened overnight and of course as they come in this afternoon there has been a sort of pause uh this morning obviously while people catch up on things like sleep but let’s go uh to that teas Valley count and talk to Richard Moss the BBC’s Northeast political editor hello to you Richard where are we hi Joe well uh we’re pretty close to getting a results here and it looks pretty clear now that Ben howcher will get a third ter as the teas Valley mayor four of the five Council areas that make up the combined Authority that the morality covers have declared all four of them gave a significant lead to Ben hin certainly enough uh for him to be pretty confident that the final declaration when it comes here will go his way now it’s not 73% as it was in 201 21 he and nobody else expected that uh labor have pushed him closer but it’s clear pretty sure now that he’s baring something very strange happening that he has won now he would have done it to some extent on his own personal appeal uh because there was a lot of reporting around the fact that he was trying to distance himself uh from the conservative party brand and rishy sunak as prime minister has that been on contributed to his possible win here certainly because he has made it clear as you say this is a vote about who leads locally who’s the best person for the teas Valley he made it quite clear this was nothing about Westminster politics I saw a lot of his social media fees and there were a lot of Voters who would say look I’m never going to vote conservative again I’m sick of the government but I will vote for you Ben and that’s been borne out by the results harle for instance where the conservatives had a very bad night on the council they lost six seats uh labor gained eight and got control of that Council back Ben hin came on top in the council votes in the votes there in that Council area for the maral elections that’s a clear indication that his appeal goes beyond the conservative party so I suppose Richie sunak will take solace from the fact there is a conservative still capable of winning this area but whether it means much for the Parliamentary election the MPS he needs to keep in this area that’s another matter because Ben how would see this as a very personal win and a very personal vote I mean it was sort of tmic wasn’t it it is still uh the te’s valley when it came to the issue of leveling up uh very much something that Boris Johnson would claim was sort of his Mantra is that sort of dream still alive there well I think for the conservatives it was crucial to keep hold of Ben hampon because otherwise who’s going to shout up for leveling up who’s actually going to deliver on the ground potentially developments that the MPS at the government can point to as evidence that it is making a difference now there are obviously a lot of disputes about whether enough difference is being made in this area there’s a lot of poverty still there are a lot of areas of of clear deprivation and one of the arguments during the campaign was was enough of the of any of the kind of big developments which the Regeneration of that steel work site really filtered down at the moment to Ordinary People in this area but to have someone waving the flag here was crucial so if Ben hin had lost you know that that probably was the last hope really for conservative MPS here who’ve been Keener I have to say to attach themselves to the you know the colors of Ben hch and what he’s doing perhaps than what’s going on in Westminster Richard Moss uh there in teas Valley thank you very much and of course we’ll go straight back to the count uh when we have sight of a result Andrea ledson it is quite something isn’t it to hear there from Richard moss and the evidence was very clear from the campaign literature that Ben howchin was divorcing himself pretty well from the conservative party brand because of where it is in the poll’s languishing 20 points behind what does it say well I completely disagree with the analysis that’s just been put forward Ben hin is the absolutely archetypal conservative in his views creating opportunity creating growth working his socks off for his local communities and likewise many many hundreds of conservatives including many conservative MPS have been up in the teas Valley campaigning for him to get him over the line so if he wins today I think what that says is two things one is that our policy rishy Sun’s policy of leveling up is working people are listening and he has Ben hin has delivered fa Valley but the other thing I think is that you know labor have been very smug about last night and of course they would have hoped very strongly to have won teas Valley if they want to have there as Angela R called it in harow which they also lost their Pathway to power so I don’t think labor has much to be smug about when they see a result like teas Valley which is at the heart of conservative leveling up Ellie I don’t think the labor party is smug about anything we fought for every vote at this set of meral and local elections we fought for every vote in Blackpool in Blackpool we saw the third highest uh swing from the Tories to labor in a postwar byelection and we’re really pleased about that but we’re not complacent about what it means so I don’t think there’s a a smugness there the thing about Ben hin is that he did run a campaign that was um very much distancing himself from the conservative party and the conservative brand branding you know you look at his social media post and his leaflets it would be difficult to tell he was actually standing under a conservative uh ticket but that’s not I tell you because everybody knew he was a conservative what they were doing is what exactly what voters should do and that is to look at the track record and to look at the labor opponent and think is that person going to deliver no so if people have chosen to vote for Ben hch and it’s because of his delivery as a conservative on the leveling up agenda it’s not something to do with his social media that’s just nonsense I mean Andrea when it comes to other parts of the country it will be a bright spot there’s no doubt about it for the conservatives if if Ben hin wins and yes you’re holding on to to harow and let’s let’s not in har though no but the point is labor actually Angela rer and K starma were there just a couple of days ago and kir starma says we need to win in places like harow if we’re to form the next they they’re winning in Harley paol and they’re winning in thoret that spread right across the country and that I you were a key player Andrea in the brexit campaign and formulating part of that formulating historic alliance with former labor heartlands like the ones I’ve just mentioned in the Northwest and in the Northeast and part of Boris Johnson’s cabinet do you accept that Alliance is broken if you’ve lost councils in thork if you’ve lost them in heartly paol yes you won that by elction in 20201 it’s gone so it’s been a really tough night for the conservatives and first I’d just like to thank all of those amazing ex- counselors and candidates who’ve worked their socks off over many years and over the campaign for their communities it’s been very tough for them down by well but equally it is understandable you know postco post Ukraine um Invasion we’ve seen a cost of living crisis unprecedented the pandemic was unprecedented and what we have now after many years of supporting people we now have sort of a hangover of inflation of people feeling very fed up with the lack of recover Absol totally agree but the point is that people feel fed up so I totally understand why they’re either staying at home and sitting on their hands but what I don’t think last night is showing is that there’s a massive love for labor well let’s see I mean Ellie what do you say about that is about sealing the deal I’ll just show you uh one result that’s come in from Swindon uh labor have held on to it I think we can just show you there uh 29 seats required for a majority and they’re on 41 uh the labor party uh the conservatives a long way behind they’re on 15 so a labor hold there in Swindon we can show you uh the share uh which is always important you can see labor have added oh the seat change have added nine and the conservatives have lost nine it is a pattern that is being reflected in a number of councils across the country but in terms of sealing the deal this is about proving that labor is not just picking up from people who are fed up with the conservatives but that actually people are voting with enthusiasm in those parts of the country they need to win a general election yeah and I’ve spent time in uh Blackpool uh I spent time in thork and a number of Rushmore that was declared last night and you know I speak to voters on the doorstep there and it’s not just that they’re fed up after 14 years of conservatives and the cost of living and NHS waiting lists and all all the rest of it but actually they’re listening to the positive offer that labor have got to uh put forward which is what Ellie well there’s a number of things that we’ve set out first of all Financial Financial stability is the first thing you know under the conservatives we had under the conservatives we had the mini budget that crashed the economy it sent mortgages Sky skyrocketing people are still paying respond and with with people are paying H1 pound more month in their mortgages whereas we have said you know economic SE security everything being fully costed having a beefed up obr to make sure that we’re financially uh secure is at the heart of everything that we would do and and that resonates with voters they want that stability they haven’t had well we can ask that question this afternoon about what it means and we can see how it’s reflected in the results let’s go to Daisy Cooper for the liberal Democrats you’ve held on uh to the councils that were already liberal Democrat where are you hoping to make gains well uh we’re expecting results later on today from places like tumbridge Wells and from wokingham and we’re very hopeful that we can make some uh significant gains in both of those places they both councils that are currently in no overall control um but what we can see overall is that we are on a winning streak our winning streak is continuing uh we’ve seen that we’ve cons idated um our position in places like uh Winchester for example where we’ve worn more Council seats we’ve held on to eastley as a as a council as well uh now David Cameron even has a liberal Democrats counselor we found out not long ago um so we are making those significant gains particularly in those places where we’re really Keen to uh we’re ideally positioned to win seats off the conservatives at the next general election all right let me just bring you another result here and this is from Norwich um it is a labor gain they did did actually have it in the past they only needed to win back a few seats uh to actually hold it again it was hung but you can see there uh labor party on 20 and the greens with a strong performance there on 14 if we show you uh there the seats that have changed hands labor have lost one uh the greens have gained uh one but that is a labor gain um from no overall control there in Norwich um let’s get a sort of overview of where we are in terms of the seats and the number of counselors with my colleague Nick erley hi Joel yeah it kind of reflects the conversation you were just having actually because if you look at the tally we’ve got so far 38 of 107 councils in so far this keeps changing in the last few minutes but you can see labor are doing pretty well maybe not quite as well as they could have but they are up 65 seats in the last few minutes the LI Dems have just overtaken the conservatives actually in terms of how many seats they’ve won so far obviously a long way to go but that number that the conservatives are on there down 142 that is really really bad as things stand they are on course to lose about half of the seats they’re defending which would be at the upper end of their worst fears so it’s a bad picture for the conservatives at the moment have a look at this this is what it means in terms of councils that have changed hands so far labor are up four the conservatives are down three nor you were just discussing there is the hung Council that’s gone to labor but when you’re in the party hqs on a day like this you’re trying to figure out what this means for the national picture and that is really bad for the conservatives down 14 based on 2021 2021 they had a bit of a bounce from the vaccine roll out Boris Johnson was on a bit of a high but that’s still a bad result so far you can see there that the labor are up 5% pretty good again maybe not quite as good as they would have hoped what does it all mean for Westminster elections is the question a lot of people will be wondering today and we’ve got a bit of a sense with the byelection in Black pool South which was very good for labor very bad for the conservatives have a look there 7,600 majority for Chris Webb so interesting I think that reform came within 117 votes of beating the Tories in to second place that will really worry conservatives in parts of the country where they think reform could pose them a problem there’s what happened to the vote the conservative vote down massively almost the third labor the main beneficiaries on that one but I think this is my graphic of the day so far because that is a huge colossal swing 26% from the conservatives to labor the third biggest swing since the second world war Joe you’ll know the other two bigger swings were in recent byelections as well if you’re a Tory MP waking up this morning or it’s afternoon now isn’t it if you’re a Tory MP sitting down for your lunch this afternoon and you’re wondering what on Earth do all these results mean for me that’s really going to worry you well as you say it’s been a long night of course it is the afternoon now with that Blackport South byelection being declared overnight uh and we’ll talk about that in just a moment but this set of local elections and maral contests and police and crime Commissioners the last major electoral test before a general election that could be uh within a matter of months and there has been talk talk on this program about any threat to Rishi Sun sunak leadership um in terms of being the head of a conservative party still languishing in the polls and what these elections might do to that threat well let’s hear from the Prime Minister himself he’s in his part of the country in North Yorkshire let’s listen to Rishi sunak obviously it’s disappointing to lose good hardworking conservative councellors and I’m grateful to them for all their service in local government keeping council tax low and delivering services for local people but we’ve still got lots of results to come as well just for ex and there are also things that I would point to H for example where K starma held a rally just on Wednesday saying that was a place that he had to win to be on track to win a general election that hasn’t happened and indeed we’re still waiting for the result in the teas Valley meraly just near to here which is obviously a very important test as well rishy soon at there talking up of course uh harow because it was one of those areas that the conservatives held on to uh despite a threat there uh from labor he’s in North Yorkshire in his constituency and we’re waiting uh of course for the result of a new maril contest a new meril post which is York and North Yorkshire hopefully we’ll get that uh this afternoon but let’s find out where we are in terms of the state of the parties with our elections expert uh Sir John Curtis welcome welcome to your just before we go to you let’s just show you this has just come in from Blackburn labor have held on to it they needed 26 seats required for a majority they got 29 and Independence were 13 but let’s have a look at actually what happens in terms of seats that have changed hands well they’ve lost four and independents have gained eight now that is because there had also been resignations prior to these local elections of Labor councilors who have quit over the issue of the Israel Hamas war in Gaza and you can see those Independence the number of seats have gone up by eight but backburn is still a labor hole just a quick uh response from you Ellie that that is a pattern that has been replicated in parts of the country with large Muslim populations numbers of Labor counselors quitting just how worried are you uh about that Trend it’s a reminder that particular issues can be very damaging electorally yeah I mean Independents always do better in local elections than for example at general elections but we know but we know but we know that there’s work to do to uh build trust with the Muslim Community and we know how much uh uh people feel very strongly about what’s happening in Gaza and the devastation there so we recognize there is work to do Joe in relation to this uh issue and we’ll continue to engage with communities and build back that trust all right let’s talk just very that just for one second that that in um our um political editor in the West Midlands is saying that labor are briefing there that they believe that they’re going to be defeated in the West Midlands May race we’re not going to get the result of that tomorrow that’s Andy Street and they’re citing the independent candidate akmed yakub who stood on a pro Gaza ticket saying that has been a major factor now there’s a bit of a r Brewing there a senior party labor party sourcer said it’s the Middle East not the West Midlands that will have won Andy Street the contest once again Hamas are the real villains a conservative Source has gone back to our politic editor there saying that that quote is vile and they insist that the contest is extremely close so that issue coming up um certainly there as well is that the language that that people should be using this is the first time I’ve heard this uh this the language this this quote um and we need to see what happens uh in the election in the West Midlands I was I was in the West Midlands yesterday uh campaigning uh and it wasn’t where I was the issue that was coming up uh on the on on the doorstep right but is that the language that Labor candidates labor counselors Labor mayal candidates should be using well it’s not the language that I would personally uh use um but you know we need to see what happens with that result and analyze uh you know when they come out but we haven’t seen those results yet Joe all right let’s turn to Sir John Curtis and get an overview if you like of the state of the parties at this stage welcome to you uh John of course we’ve got a lot more results to come in but the importance of these elections these local elections they’re important of course in their own right uh electing local councilors but they’re important because we are up against a general election which could be a matter of months away indeed though we need to be careful about that I mean the first thing to say absolutely is that local elections don’t necessarily forecast what’s going to happen in their general election in six months time but what they are useful for is as a barometer though sometimes a rather complex barometer of where we are at present because although it’s undoubtedly true that not everybody votes the same way in local elections as they would in a general election and that particularly helps the liberal Democrats the greens dependence Etc however the ups and downs of party fortunes particularly for the conservatives and labor do tend to parallel the ups and downs in other indicators such as parliamentary byelections and in the opinion polls and The crucial message that has come out of the bulk of the evidence uh overnight is that really very little has changed in the last 12 months and what we’ve seen today is very rolent of what we’ve been seeing throughout the last 12 months that is that it looks as though conservative support may be down a bit on last year labor may be edged slightly up liberal Democrats may be slightly down but nothing really has changed but of course that’s what the opinion polls have been telling us the opinion polls have been telling us that the conservative party has not made any significant progress in narrowing Labor’s lead equally I mean we’ve now got rather used to these parliamentary byelections and we get spectacular swings you know Blackpool South was the third biggest swing ever from conservative to labor in a post-war parliamentary byelection but we’ve now had five uh parliamentary byelections in which the swing has been over 20% I mean we’ve never had a parliament with so many not even between 1992 and 1997 so although it’s always understandable it’s always part of the game that we play uh at this stage of a election night and election day for parties who are not doing so well to cherry-pick the odd result where they do do well we do have to acknowledge that the broad swaye of the evidence basically is sending a message that the conservative project of trying to reduce Narrows labor lead doesn’t seem to be making any progress and as you’ve pointed out there’s only six months to go now maybe in the six months they can achieve what they’ve man not managed to achieve in the 16th month 16 months or so since Richard Senate became prime minister but change is required and the clock is ticking can we talk about the meral contests because we are about to get the result from teas Valley the indications are that the incumbent Conservative candidate Ben hin will hold on there now it’s difficult to read across uh from party success from a maral contest but it does provide a huge boost to morale doesn’t it and sentiment with within the party in terms of who holds on to these big merties yeah I mean the strength and the weakness of these Metro maror contests so far as local elections are concerned is that they can sometimes be about big personalities and Ben hin and Andy Street are big personalities we’ve known from the very first such merro contest in London in 2000 that it can produce results that completely cut across the party system I.E Ken Livingston’s victory in London in 2000 so they’re attractive they’re interesting they’ve got personalities and can I just interrupt you because I think we can say now Ben hin has taken uh that meril or held on to it so Conservative candidate Ben hin has won in the teas Valley please continue sure sure but but the point is that because they have big personalities personalities can sometimes win on the basis of the personal vote and I mean so far as the te’s value is concerned we know we’ we’ve seen opinion polling that a said that Ben hin had a good chance of winning but which at the same time said what he but he’s going to get about seven or 8% more of the vote than the conservative party would when people were asked how they would vote in a general election and you know also just bear in mind you know in that area the labor party just managed to win control of harleypool so the truth is the maral contests are probably the least reliable Guide to the question you asked me at the beginning of this conversation which is what did these results tell us for a general election it is the results that happened to anonymous councelors that across the peace and across the country that tell us much much more about the ups and downs of parties as parties as opposed to the impact or otherwise of particular high-profile personalities that might be able to Buck the trend in a particular kind of contest so John Curtis thank you very much uh for the moment but let’s just get brief reaction it it we’re saying that Ben hin has won in the t’s Valley um he’s held on to it this will be his third term fantastic news yeah obviously brilliant this is the bright spot for you and I probably should uh at this point introduce our new guest Harry Cole political editor of the sun despite that you heard what Sir John Curtis said they’re not easily identifiable in terms of how a party might perform at a general election what is the mood within the conservative party look they’ve had a spanking last night it’s pretty clear that it’s at the upper end of the worst case scenario um predictions and no amount of sort of pre-spin can really change the fact that I think if you look at those numbers of lib Dems are actually getting ahead of the stories right now Blackpool yes they didn’t make it into second sorry they did say into second they but only by 100 votes you know and actually it shows reform polling higher than their National level so they’re getting it from both sides they’re getting it from labor and reform so not fun we will go when the count uh actually makes the Declaration in teas Valley but as I’m say we are calling it that Ben howchin has won there let’s talk about Blackpool South um I mean the size of the Swing is enormous impressive by historic standards but as Harry Cole has just mentioned reform were almost within a 100 votes of the conservatives how worried are you about that well actually I I would have loved to have asked Sir John Curtis about that himself because he’s talking about this huge swing but of course the last time um there wasn’t a reform candidate and as you’ve just said reform were snapping at the heels of the conservatives and obviously reform voters would potentially as an alternative choose to vote conservative on the whole so I’d be interested to know what that says about the swing so it might be you know statistically a huge swing but reform what that says to me is that we need to do much more to win back our reform voters what would you change what would you change then are you saying that the Rebels on the right of the conservative party I would call them Rebels Joe well they are two of them have put letters in of no confidence oh I see you mean reform voters oh no sorry rebels in the conservative party uh that they are right in terms of changing policy and changing policy now well I what I actually think is that rishy sunak is totally focused on the things that really matter to people so creating the conditions for um inflation to come down um having a900 tax cut for working people clear it’s clearly not feeding through to it’s all very recent and as I said at the start the challenge we have right now is after the covid pandemic after the cost of living crisis where inflation hit 11% people are not yet feeling that they’re in a good place and so it’s understandable that people are fed up but we also do need to look at in 2021 the conservatives were at a high point because there had been this huge support for the public for jobs millions of jobs no millions of jobs were saved thousands of businesses were saved we’d rolled out the covid vaccine faster than anyone else in Europe people were on a high and that translated with rishy as Chancellor into support for the conservatives so there’s also well the other question for John Cur never mind questioning John Curtis I’ll ask him but that does leave people with the feeling that it was better under Boris Johnson if you’re a conservative voter wasn’t the point I was making a I’m not sure whether that’s uh you know the fantasy of some politicians and on on the right of the Troy part that he could come back I think is fairly delusional the side of an election let’s not remember why he had to go in the end which was he couldn’t form a government um so I don’t think that’s the that is the answer one thing that has surprised me though this morning is even the people that put the letters in the Andrew Jenkins of this world are saying you know what we haven’t got we haven’t got the numbers and it’s a numbers game yes and that is definitely a feeling that has come across in a number of interviews that actually times run out so yeah the time to change the leader if they were going to do it was in January in in a weird way actually sun has spent the last two weeks actually buying off different bits of the possible Rebellion the defense ministers the former Defense ministers who were all up in arms about defense spending he was saying the right things on on benefits of the right of the party and Rwanda might just you know take off who knows policy I know but let me just bring you the result uh since we’ve been talking about it and that is the teas Valley result uh the maril contest there we can see we put up the figures you’re looking at pictures there from the count that Ben hin has won on nearly 82,000 um to Chris mccuan uh the labor candidate there on just over 63,000 and the liberal Democrat there quite a long way behind now let’s have a look at the share of the vote there uh 54% for the conservatives but you have to remember in 2021 it was 73% that is a big drop there but still a win for Ben hen and 41% there for labor we can see how the share has changed uh we can see a drop there of 19% for Ben hin there in the teas Valley and labor are up 14% not enough to take take it but they’re up by 14% the liberal Democrats are up to uh 5% and we can see the swing there from conservatives to labor of 177% but in the end Ellie Reeves it wasn’t enough it was a very very hard challenge uh to win the meril T in the teas Valley and we talked earlier on the program about benin’s campaign and him distinct himself from the conservative party but if you but if you look at uh the the results um the the swing to labor there you know that that majority that Ben hin has 73% of the vote last time that only underlines how badly labor were doing at that point you were right then at your lowest point in 202 but if you look to the swing to to us and actually thinking about a number of the Battleground seats in that meraly area let’s go to te Valley and hear it ladies and gentlemen as Comin Authority returning officer appointed for the election for the mayor of te valy combined Authority on Thursday the 2nd of May 2024 I hereby certify that the total number of votes cast each candidate was as follows coun Ben coner part candidate 81930 muan Christopher PA commonly known as muan Chris laor and corative Party candidate 63,5 141 Thor Simon Christopher commonly known as cor Simon Democrats 7,679 the total number of votes cast was 152,50 the number of ballot papers rejected were as follows two for one of official Mark 118 for voting for more than one candidate two for writing on Mark by which the vot could be identified and 719 unmarked or void uncertainty leaving total of 841 objective ballot papers total number of ballot papers verified is 1535 91 which gives a turnout of 30.8% I there I therefore give notice that hin Ben Conservative Party candidate is duly elected as mayor for the team Val combined [Applause] Authority well big cheer there for Ben pouch and even if he has lost quite a bit of his share of the vote he has held on it’ll be a third ter for him let’s listen to what he has to say thank you very much everyone um I’ll try and keep this sh on um firstly I want to thank all of the staff returning officer uh the police and everybody involved in the C thank you to everybody last night came to the verification as well it was very very late in the verification everybody in the poing station incredible job and uh turning officer and stuff in Council to be extremely power of the election so thank you for that um when it comes to the election I just want to say that I am absolutely humbled by everybody that voted for me um TDE is a place where I was born I grew up other than a very short sub to Newcastle for four years and then I came straight back it’s a place where I’m going to be for the rest of my life and to be reelected for a third term in my home in my is absolutely the greatest honor that anybody could ever be me so I want to thank anybody that voted for me um it’s very very proud day I’m delighted thank you for giving me your backing thank you for backing me over the last seven years and thank you for backing my plan for the next four years we’ve done a very positive campaign we’ve try to show a Clear Vision of what we want for our area we trying to show how we can change our region for the better actually clear there’s still a long way let’s leave Ben hin there it is all a little bit echoey as is often the the case when these counts are being done um obviously thanking everybody a very personal appeal no mention of the conservative party nationally or of the prime minister no not so far maybe he was going to come on that I think what’s interesting about this is the idea of you know this the local personality if you like which is partly the points of the mays these these big leaders these big figures so he’s managed to withstand a significant swing away from the conservative party to labor now if you look at the Parliamentary seats in that area that makes a lot of them very vulnerable I want Al the one that probably isn’t might be to Simon Clark who’s you know very very critical obviously soon the other yeah but the others so far are sounding still pretty loyal and saying this is not the time to get rid of Rishi sunak but you know I don’t mean to be rude about the egos of MPS but a lot of them might think that look I’m quite a big name in my area you know I’ve been around for a while I might be you know a cabinet minister or something I could also withstand this kind of shift it doesn’t really happen it doesn’t really happen in general elections it’s a very hard thing to do remember Ben hon it’s not just Ben H’s personality it’s about three billion quids worth of Treasury cash has gone into that g into which obviously does help and that’s you know that’s the way it works if he’s a good a good mayor he’s he’s lobbied for it but don’t you cannot you cannot under underestimate the amount of investment that has gone into tside and a lot of controversy though Harry Cole about regeneration quite a bit of it stirred up by labor though which is a little unfairly well I mean just to underline uh what Vicki has been saying um I mean this is really the first sort of conservative Silver Lining if you like in these elections and although Ben hain’s vote has fallen by 19% since 2021 that was when he got 73% his performance is still 14% above what he achieved in the first contest he’s been the only mayor of teas Valley in 2017 and the polling shows that support for conservatives in the area in a general election was 21% lower than support recorded for hin so this win is down to his personal popularity Andrea that must be worried I think that whole little bit of discussion is absolutely pathetic from the BBC this is a superb all you and Vicki but is pathetic he’s won all you’re saying is he’s had this big swing away from I’m sorry I am IND yes taking away from Ben Harry just tried to suggest he’s had a three billion bung from the treasury this is all credit to a mayor who’s done an absolutely brilliant job in a key part of the leveling up agenda for this absolute Testament to the conservative government and to the leveling up agenda that have backed Ben hchen and it is absolute Testament to him as a good conservative his focus on his area his support for his communities in negotiating to win to apply for the funding that is available for you made your speech you’ve made your speech but actually we can show exactly why it’s not down necessarily to the conservative government this was his poster my promise to you or one of them I’ll deliver flights to Malaga and tener from tside airport nothing about the conservative part hang on and nothing about rishy sunak no one is taking away from his victory his personal Victory but the evidence Andrea is very clear that it was despite the conservatives and not necessarily because of them this is another one we’re backing Ben where’s the Tory logo where’s soon at where’s the conservative party in that so are you asserting Joe that nobody knew he was a cons I’m sure they did and what they said to him was we’re voting for you as we heard from our political editor in the Northeast Andrea but we won’t be voting conservative many of no no no well that’s what that’s what the political Ed said in the Northeast we W be but we won’t be voting conservative in the general election this is a fantastic Victory and it demonstrates what hard work and our leveling up policy is achieving around the country more jobs more growth more opportunities for people there’s other evidence in other parts of the country I mean out endorse it for example where liberal Democrats are campaigning really hard and we hope to see that we make some gains later today when the results come out in you know down in Dorset the conservatives are ping out leaflet saying that they were distancing themselves from the national conservatives their leaflets actually said we want to distance ourselves from the chaos of Westminster we’ve got conservative parties around the country in this set of Elections calling themselves the local conservatives saying please don’t punish us for what national conserv not a New phenomen Politics how many how many labor MPS had Jeremy Corin on the on the I mean come on you you fight the battle in front of you that’s that’s that’s Politics the idea that we suddenly shock the idea it still makes the point that there are conservatives in this election who themselves from the embarrassment of that’s the point we’re making but on that Ellie Reeves you should have perhaps taken that meraly labor were dominant in the teas Valley Once Upon a Time and in the whole area of tside and the conservatives took that from you um they took it and he now holds on to it Ben hin conservative or otherwise labor did not win well look it felt a lot of the time like Ben hin was fighting a campaign against the conservatives you didn’t me see any mention sure sure but but but but but so were we so I don’t know that it’s quite the victory that Andrea is saying that it is for the conservative party nevertheless it’s also a swing to labor in that set of results and if yout that to the swing that’s needed uh to win uh the seats the Battleground seats in teas Valley at the general election red card Darlington Stockton seat actually on that swing um I think we’d take those th those seats so you know although we didn’t take them meraly we’ve certainly gained a great deal of ground uh in an area where we need to win seats at the general election but it goes back to the point we don’t take any votes for granted we’re not complacent about any anything and we’ll continue to work hard and speak to people in that in that teas Valley uh area so they can put our trust in us at the general election because as I say Andrea when you look at areas like harleypool that was a very low point in 20121 uh for the labor party in fact it’s reported that K starma considered quitting uh at that point so bad was it in terms of local election results and losing that by elction in harleypool but labor have taken it they’ve taken harleypool and so they should but what does it mean for your conservative party when they are losing the sorts of councils in areas that you won in those post brexit years that Alliance is crumbling well I think what it shows for us is that we need to get the message out there about the attempts that the government is really making to recover inflation to levels previously experienced you know the 2% Target for the bank of England um to put more money into people’s pockets through the tax cuts that give 900 we’ve been doing January well I think it’s still very recent and as I’ve said earlier I think people are fed up you know we’ve had this terrible pandemic we’ve had the energy crisis the cost of living crisis all of these things no but all of these not cutting in a hundred year Once In A Hundred Year events Global events if you look around the world other economies are also struggling our growth has been better than many others in the G7 and in Europe and I understand that no but I understand that which is why I’m saying that’s why people are fed up and if you compare a lot of these seats were last fought in 2021 which is when the reverse was true we’d come out of lockdown we just managed to vaccinate all of our population people’s jobs and livelihoods have been by the vote was for whoever was running the country in Scot Wales under hang on Andre let me just get a bit more analysis um from you Harry in terms of what Andrew is saying there is long until a general election what’s going to have to change in order to narrow that Gap the poll lead nationally of 20 points locally we are seeing these losses in key parts of the country whether it’s in harleypool thork redit Rushmore I think what the problem that uh the government have now is even the most optimistic people within the Tory party who were saying look I’m looking at that 20 point poll lead and I just don’t buy it I don’t believe it in my patch it feels fine but now we’ve got what John Curtis very elegantly said you’ve basically got a part that if they were on a similar pole level this is exactly how they’d be performing so it is going to be a bit of a wakeup call it’s been a long wake up call to to happen but I think the the issue is now the party are in a bind they’re you know blocked in by reformable Bond side they’re losing voters labor and they’ve left it too late to do anything about it let me just uh show you these pictures that have been running it’s George Galloway who is the MP for Rochdale for the Workers Party of Britain you can just see the back of him there wearing the hat at the count in Rochdale of course that was something of a disaster for the labor party that he won that seat in a byelection he said he was doing it for Gaza there have been uh counselors quitting the labor party uh Ellie what’s your prediction for rdale I’m not going to make predictions for uh Rochdale um and you know you mentioned the Rochdale uh by elction we of course could stand a candidate in that by elction it was a bit of a disaster and we took the decision to to not stand uh there um which was which was regrettable um and we uh will move to making sure that we’ve got a candidate in place for Rochdale to go on and fight the general election right I mean again uh this is a part of the country usually very traditionally labor but is being challenged very much either by Independence or in this case the workers party for Britain yeah and we talked before um about the fact that Independence uh generally Fair better in local elections than they do in general uh election but likewise I said that we know we know that we need to rebuild trust with the Muslim Community and that’s something that we’re working really hard on let’s just show you uh the result in wellin uh uh Hatfield um I think we could show oh I think we’ve got the full uh result um because actually I should remind uh ourselves and viewers that many of these councils are not up in total they’re not sort of have all their seats uh being elected They Are Up In what we call thirds that makes it more difficult for one or other party to take control um sometimes they can stay um as they were but here it is in Wellen Hatfield it is a hung Parliament no overall control 25 uh required for a majority labor on 20 the liberal Democrats there on 15 uh the conservatives on on 11 but if we show you the seats that have changed hands again uh a sort of salutary lesson there in well in hat field um and the local MP there or not far away is Grant shaps the conservative MP um it’s hung but labor have gone up by eight liberal Democrats by two and the conservatives have dropped by 10 um if we have a look at the share it’s quite close there 32% for labor 21% for the liberal Democrats and 35% uh there for the conservatives this Vicki again it’s going to make conservative MPS who hold the seats either in or close to these key councils nervous yeah that’s Grant Chap’s parliamentary seat isn’t it so that’s another one and as you say it’s all really feeds into the mood of conservative MPS who yes they will be happy about any victories in the mayoral elections of course they will but they will then be looking at the shares of the vote and the direction of travel and I think what’s frustrating and worrying them so much is that there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that Gap closing between labor and the conservatives so all the levers that rich soon next pulling he’s trying all sorts of things it just doesn’t seem to be making any difference they just feel like the electorate have stopped listening to them now we’re not in the general election campaign yet so what they say to me is that they’re now holding out hope that look people aren’t that interested at the moment you know of course these kind of things these the turnout is much lower in local elections and they’re hoping that when it comes to a general election people will focus more that there will be more questioning of Labor and Labor’s policies and what they would do in government and they hope that that is what is going to say save them but as you were saying this these are real votes being made here and it it’s not looking good for the conservative every time you know Joe you know this every time a politician comes on the you know you ask him about polls on television they say oh the only polls that matter the well here it is here it is laid bear except of course people can vote differently sure in local elections these are local elections it’s not the general election it’s just that the temperature of England and Wales or parts of it because everyone has an election somewhere in England and Wales the temperature is being tested here um liberal Democrats quite often are over represented let’s put it that way in local elections it doesn’t translate necessarily into uh the number of seats that you would like to see at a general election uh but so far you’re definitely holding your position you would need to be taking some councils though wouldn’t you Daisy to be putting a bit more pressure on the conservatives if you want to improve your tally at the general election well as you know we’re in second place to the conservatives in around 80 seats uh around the country and those are the seats in which we’re campaigning really hard and hope to win seats off the conservatives when the general election is finally called we have so far Consolidated our position in places like Stockport in Winchester in eastley and it may well be that by the end of today we still think we’ve got the you know the best might may yet still be to come and maybe a couple of other places some other places around the country that by the end of today we may have gained those councils and if we do that would be a sure sign that we’re set to win more seats off the conservatives when the general election finally comes I mean the other important thing is historic context in terms terms of where governing parties are and oppositions are this close to a general election labor have done well there’s no doubt about it Ellie they’ve done well but you were expected to do well it’s not spectacular as yet in terms of if you look at the sort of local elections in 1995 in 1996 that led to a landslide under Tony Blair does that worry you a bit but actually if you look at this sort of stage in elect electoral cycle and by the way I was interested that uh Richard Holden said that this was uh mid mid term election to midnight a general election anytime no no that’s that that that’s right but but but actually governing parties would would normally um do better at this stage because it’s normally a pre-election bounce you know as as the party of government does their pre-election budget as they set out their pre-election uh you know kind of policy giveaway and that and that hasn’t that hasn’t happened so you would actually expect the governing party BCE rather than go backwards which seems to be happening uh with with this set of results for the conservatives well and and and that’s a fair point isn’t it what are you going to change what’s well we don’t have a Manifesto out Joe so so in that how close do we have to be to see those polls change well it’s not really that so much as I just don’t agree with what Ellie says which which is that you’d see a bounce because we’d have set out our Manifesto which we clearly haven’t done but what we are seeking to do is to cut taxes and to see real wages rising and so on so completely right it’s not mid term but on the other hand I mean what I would genuinely like John Curtis to aine on is the fact that in 2021 we performed we massively out so actually you know this this result is a function of that high Watermark and I would be interested genuinely to know whether taking that into account are these results as disastrous or is it in fact the case that a lot of conservatives are sitting on their hands at the moment because they’re a bit Fed Up and actually will come out turnover is a very important Point here too you know we’ve seen in um in some of these local Council turnouts um as low as sort of 30% I mean in Blackpool South I think it was 32% it hasn’t been particularly low um I mean a little bit lower perhaps in the teas Valley but not by much because you know Andrea local elections important though they are uh particularly this close to a general election don’t tend to see high turnouts we’re going to get the all important of course projected uh National share later on in the afternoon when that will give was an estimate and it is an estimate as to how if people had voted the same way nationally where the parties are and that will be very important in terms of the Gap uh between labor and the conservatives and exactly what sort of percentage of vote share you have and of course for the liberal Democrats too and other parties just briefly um Vicki you may be able to bring us um there just a couple of things from our political editors around the country as you know there are lots of counts and all the rest of it um the BBC political editor in Yorkshire is reporting that some of the smaller parties there are saying they think labor have won the York and North Yorkshire May labor though aren’t saying this so it’s certainly not confirmed in any way but that’s what some of the other get in backyard yes he’s he did I think vote um as we were saying vote in that area and then this is an update from we remember we were talking earlier about uh the West Midlands where there’s been a bit of a row um because labor had been briefing that they thought they were going to be on course for defeat in the West Midlands and citing the independent candidate who was standing on a pro Gaza ticket saying that was a major factor now a senior Party Source um apparently had said to our political editor there it’s the Middle East not the West Midlands that have won Andy Street uh that contest once again Hamas are the real villains now we’ve had a response on the record from labor to say that the labor party has strongly condemned This Racist quote which has not come from anyone who is speaking on behalf of the party or whose values are in the party so yet again this all that was pretty Swift and clear terms of that condemnation just on the smaller parties other parties and Independence oh we’re going to pause now because I think uh Richard Moss my colleague has an interview with the teas Valley mayor Ben howchin Lord hin uh congratulations on your Victory um obviously conservatives haven’t done hugely well in these elections why do you think you won um because we’ve been able to deliver we’ve showed real delivery for people the things that I said I would do when I was elected in 2017 and in 2021 we’ve done and that’s not just what I’m saying people can go out and see it in the local area they can go and touch it and see it for themselves people have jobs we’ve increased employment by 5.4% since I was elected now there’s still a lot more to do but what I think people have done is they’ve seen the progress that we’ve made and they want to see more of that which is why they’ve reelected me for a third time how much do you think this was a personal vote for you though rather than the conservatives you’re much more popular aren’t you than your party even in this part of the world that’s very kind of you to say Richard um I don’t know I mean is the honest answer I just fight for every single vote I do my best the local area I try and do what I think is right and again we can’t get away from the fact that rishy and the government have helped us a huge amount like I say we’re from the treasury in Darlington to the free port and more help in Devolution you know we can’t do all of these things if we’re not working with the government and so I’m thankful for them for the support that they’ve given me you weren’t so Keen though to put conservative on some of your posters though were you was very much a Ben howchin personal campaign and you were Keen to emphasize that this was a vote about who leads locally in westmin that’s obvious but that might also be seen as saying well actually I don’t really want much association with the conserva Govern of Westminster because it ain’t popular I’m not sure about that because we had richy sonak during the campaign he came up we were happy to show all of the Fantastic work that he’s done and that he’s supporting us in this local area and nobody you know nobody pretends that I’m not conservative the people of tside Dan and Harley ball know the party that I stand for and I’ve never shied away from that but it’s absolutely true to say that I’ve always put our area first and I always will does this though give any Solace to Rich Sun that he can win a general election with conservatives winning here in tside or is it about Ben hin winning really there’s always a chance but I keep saying that what we need as a government and as a country the government need to continue and do better at delivering for people the people that I hearing that may not be thinking about voting conservative or are currently thinking whether they want to vote conservative at the next general election they want more progress they want to give we need to give them the excuse to vote for us and we haven’t quite given them that excuse yet but what we’ve seen in places like my election here is when you do deliver and you give people real tangible results people will back you again so there is still a chance there’s a lot of work to do the government need to get on with it but what we’re also seeing is a labor party that threw the kitchen sink at us here like I said multiple visits from Ki most of the Shadow cabinet they were trying to pretend this was about Labor versus conservative and they didn’t do as well as they wanted to do I mean they were very confident just a few days ago that they were going to win and they haven’t done it so there’s a lot to play for nationally but again that’s for commentators and other to others to worry about I’m worried about my local area and the people that I represent a third term you are the mayor but obviously you know there could be a change of government around the corner will things be quite as fun with a labor government in charge sending the National Audit office potentially into that key te’s works development that regeneration well what we’ve seen is everything we’ve done has been fantastic right we’re creating thousands of jobs huge amounts of investment and I’ve already got four labor leaders that I have to get agreement from anyway as part of the combined authori so I’m used to working across party and again Kama came out just a few weeks ago so if there was a labor government he’s promised more powers and more money to May so that gives me more freedom to get on and to do what I do best which is deliver for local people can rishy sunic deliver for the conservatives general election Victory absolutely you can he’s got to get to work and we’ve got to double down and we’ve got to give people something to vote give people a reason to vote for us Ben hampon thank you very much thank you well that was Richard Moss talking to the triumphant Ben hin uh the Conservative candidate and incumbent in the teas Valley he has got a third term um he said it’s up to commentators to uh uh make a decision Q Harry Cole um and of course uh Watchers and observers uh Vicky young need to do better the government needs to do better at delivering they need to make a lot more progress the problem is is there enough time well I thought the really interesting line he said there and one that will I imagine be piercing in the ears of Downing Street is give us an excuse to vote for you you know let give us something to sell on the doorstep you know a takeaway tangible retail policy something that you know is different because what they’ve got at the moment just doesn’t seem to be enough and I think that without a Manifesto that really has some big eye-catching very easy to explain policies on the doorstep rather than just cooking the books on small boats saying the word Rwanda you know cost of living effective policies because the tax cut stuff hasn’t worked they’re going to have to go further and Ben hin was saying that was he was it like he was talking to the Prime Minister there yes I mean sending a message exactly one here but you could be yeah pull pull your sock up what would that one policy be if you were in charge um and maybe you do advise uh senior cabinet ministers what would a policy be that could change the dial for the conservatives I’ll answer that but I would just like to observe he did say he’s a conservative and he did praise the Prime Minister I’d just like to say told you so there’s no doubt about that there no doubt and he also did say everyone knows he’s a conservative um but actually in answer to your question I would certainly like to see those flights taking off to Rwanda and I think for a lot of people they have felt that that is sort of totemic of delivery you know you said you would stop the small boats we saw people dying in the channel just last week and actually if we could get our immigration policy sorted out so that we can stop that from going on I actually than would reassure lots of Reform voters to come back to us and I think it would get a lot of conservative voters to think right we’ll come out and support you but to to Harry’s point you know we are seeing tax cuts and as he says they’ve not cut through uh we are seeing inflation reduction that’s not cut through so actually I think that one policy and that was it I think we’re saying goodbye to you um Andrea uh lsum and also uh you Daisy Cooper thank you both for joining us and also to you thank you Harry my guest for this first part of the show we’re holding on to Vicky young and Ellie Reeves it’s now time for a news update with aade mashiri hello here is a summary of the BBC News the conservative party has suffered heavy losses in local elections in England the results are being seen as the last major test of public opinion before a general election due this year the labor party has made significant gains with the party also winning the black P South byelection taking the seat from the Tories prime minister rishy sunak gave his reaction to the day’s results not long ago obviously it’s disappointing to lose good hardworking conservative counselors and I’m grateful to them for all their service in local government keeping council tax low and delivering services for local people but we’ve still got lots of results to come as well just for ex and there are also things that I would point to harow for example where K starma held a rally just on Wednesday saying that was a place that he had to win to be on track to win a general election that hasn’t happened and indeed we’re still waiting for the result in the teas Valley meraly just near to here which is obviously a very important test as well do you need to convince your party you can do better in a general election well as I said if K sta was in harow on Wednesday saying that was a place that he needed to win in order to win the next general election that hasn’t happened we still haven’t got the results from places like teas Valley with the meril results which again is a key Battleground focused completely on the job at hand that’s delivering for people across the country if you just look at what we’re doing in the last week or so alone a 900 pound tax cut hitting people’s pay slips the first failed Asylum Seeker off to Rwanda at the same time What have Labor said well they said that they are going to scrap the Rwanda scheme and as as far as I can tell offer uh an amnesty to Illegal migrants that’s no way to solve that problem which is important of people right up and down the country however there was some success for the conservatives Ben hon has won te Valley giving rishy sunak a potential political Lifeline so I want to thank anybody that voted for me um it’s very very proud day I’m delighted thank you for giving me your backing thank you for backing me over the last seven years and thank you for backing my plan for the next four years we’ve run a very positive campaign we’ve tried to show a Clear Vision of what we want for our area we’ve tried to show how we can change our region for the better because let’s be clear there’s still a long way to go right I’m not sat here pretending that everything’s perfect but we are making good progress but we need to continue to tackle the problems that we have in our local area and the plan that I’ve got in place is the right one and for as long as I am there I will continue to work as hard as I possibly can for everybody and for those those people that didn’t vote for me that’s absolutely fine I’ll spend the next four years working doubly hard doubling down and I’ll work even harder to make sure that I can secure your vote in four years time so I just want to thank everybody out there but let’s keep on going let’s keep pushing let’s keep pushing for a better tside down to and harle pool let’s deliver more jobs more investment and again I just want to thank everybody it’s a really humbling experience thank you so much labor leader sakir stama was in Blackpool this morning and spoke to our political correspondent Helen cat look we want that general election and we are confident going into that general election because what this byelection shows is that the country wants change this is a very clear divide now we’ve had 14 years of failure and decline we’ve just got chaos and division from the Tores people want to turn the p on that and go forward with labor and our positive plan for the country a former senior post office lawyer has denied a cover up over the defects in the Horizon it system that led to the wrongful prosecutions of sub postmasters Janelle Singh is back for a second time giving evidence today at the inquiry into the post office Scandal it comes as the BBC has learned that a number of post office lawyers were aware in 2010 that a leading expert on the it system had given contradictory information the government has been defeated in court for a second time for not doing enough to meet its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions environmental campaigners argued that the energy Minister signed off the government’s climate plan for reaching Net Zero by 2050 without evidence it could actually be achieved the High Court ruled today that the government will now be required to redraft that plan again in Brazil floods have killed over 30 people following the collapse of a dam after days of heavy rain over a million people are now without power and clean water since the storms began over the weekend the collapse of a hydroelectric Dam following days of heavy rains triggered massive flooding more than 60 people are still believed to be missing a Chinese spacecraft has taken off this afternoon aiming to become the first mission to collect Rock and soil samples from the so-called Dark Side of the Moon which is not visible from Earth it’s un crude aircraft but could pay the way for China’s Ambitions to put a person on the Moon by 2030 the 53-day mission aims to bring around 2 kg of lunar samples to Earth for analysis now back to elections 2024 with Joe copen thank you very much and welcome back let me introduce new guests for this part of the election special on politics live Mark Harper uh Secretary of State for transport uh for the government and Ellie Reeves is still with us from the labor party joining Vicky young here is Rachel Conley from the new Statesman welcome to both of you well just before we went to the news and you heard again uh the teas Valley meraly has been held uh by the conservative Ben hch and he is obviously uh extremely pleased to hold on um and not least the conservative party because that is a rare silver lining in the results that have happened overnight because the conservatives have lost councils across the country but there are many more results to come including more maral contests and police and crime Commissioners uh labor are triumphant in Blackpool South that was in the byelection uh in the Parliamentary seat there with a historic uh swing from conservatives to the labor part to the labor party but also reform who came within about a 100 votes or so of the conservative party and that will be very worrying for the government I think we can go to Rochdale uh and talk to the MP there perhaps just before we do there’s George Galloway who is the MP for Rochdale he won in a byelection uh there just recently for the Workers Party of Britain uh George just before we come to you I just want to show you some of the analysis of uh areas with high Muslim populations um this is keyword analysis uh changes since 20 21 and you can see there that labor has lost support 16% down the greens have benefited and they are up 14% the conservatives down 10% and you can see their independence at the end have gone up 9% let’s return to George Galloway we had the result uh George Galloway in Olden labor lost that Council but in Rochdale where you are there is no chance of Labor losing the council there they are in command and only a third of the seats are up that’s right isn’t it yes although I can tell you we’ve won Landslide victories in our two target Wards and come second more or less everywhere else throughout the whole town not just the uh the uh constituency of Rochdale but the uh Haywood and Middleton constituency which is also in the burrow of rdale so we’re the second party in the town now uh which is considerable achievement uh the one thing you haven’t mentioned probably not in yet but I’m here to tell you uh that we have won a landslide victory in the longside ward in Manchester against the deputy leader of the labor Council there and also Blackburn I don’t know if you’re across the fact that labor have lost control of Blackburn and what used to be called a day or so ago Galloway backed Independence are now in command so I actually think Joe that this is a major story emerging not just the laboratory dichotomy right but Labor’s hemorrhaging of the you’re using very emotive language landslides and hemorrhaging but actually Blackburn labors held uh Blackburn just as a correction but I take your point that you’re doing well in some key Wards and these are important elections and a reminder to the labor party that issues like the Israel Hamas War in Gaza are very very important to many voters especially those areas with large Muslim populations but is there any evidence uh George Galloway that this would translate into any sort of win at a general election in terms of another seat or even your own well I don’t know when Landslide became a motive uh if you could see the piles behind me you’d know what I meant by Landslide uh but yes I think we are in a good position against Angela Rena for example uh not very far from here in the long sight uh area but at a general election George G you saying you’re in a good position at a general election yeah to to win against Angela Rena to win in the Gorton constituency in Manchester to win in oldum East to win in Blackburn where Craig Murray the former British Ambassador is our candidate yeah absolutely I think that can translate and as for holding rdale you can you can put your house on that one all right I’ll I’ll bear that in mind uh George Galloway I mean just to look at the differences in terms of what is being said uh about what should happen in the Israel and Gaza conflict because labor ceas far Motion in the Commons in February you will remember calls for Hamas to release and return all hostages and for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire which means an immediate stop to the fighting and a ceasefire that lasts and is observed by all sides do you disagree with any of that well millions of people in Britain don’t believe that labor is in any way interested in doing anything that will stop the Rampage in Gaza and the votes you’ve just been discussing with me make that uh clear so they haven’t persuaded me of their Bona days but more importantly they haven’t persuaded their once very loyal vote a core vote of the labor party lost over Gaza all right let me just let me just put that to Ellie Reeves who’s a senior campaign coordinator as well as an MP for the labor party what do you say to that it’s not so much what labor is saying George Gallow hasn’t said he necessarily disagrees with what’s being said by the labor party they just don’t believe you care well we’ve called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza it took a while we know we know we’ve got to rebuild trust with the Muslim uh Community we get that and we understand people’s strength for feeling about the devastation that they see in Gaza and the number of people that have been killed is intolerable we’ve called for that immediate ceasefire um but but also what we want to see is uh long-lasting political Solutions as well so a two-state uh solution uh and uh a state of Palestine um and we’ve made that really clear and we know we know that we need to re build that trust with voters um but but we have set out our position um that we want that immediate ceasefire we want the fighting to stop far too many people have been killed and it needs to stop right I mean George Gallow you may suspect the motive or not feel that they are sincerely held but in terms of what’s being said by the labor party there’s nothing there for you to disagree with well it’s too little too late and it’s not pressed with any kind of Gusto at all I was that foreign office question questions on Tuesday I asked two questions on Gaza on Tuesday at foreign office questions but the shadow foreign secretary David Lamy went to the dispatch box three times and blamed the Palestinians for a failure to achieve Aisa that’s the real face of Labor in this kir starmer didn’t hide the fact that he’s an unequivocal his word supporter of Israel and a very large number of formalist loyal labor voters can’t stomach that and they showed it yesterday in the election I mean we’ve just heard uh George Gallow along the lines you were talking about the Workers Party of Britain uh the party you represent has won two Wards in Rochdale is that somewhat underwhelming bearing in mind the strength of feeling that you have been talking about uh amongst voters there no well we only put up five candidates and these were our two target ws and I told you they’d won by that emotive W Landslide and so we have uh across this whole uh area acoss across this whole area and we work as uh as a team across several Bas uh we’ve won Sensational uh results we’ve even caused labor to fail to win the West Midlands the Galloway backed candidate we don’t know we don’t know the result yeah we don’t we don’t know the result uh there yet I’m just going to let you go but briefly um who would you rather see as prime minister after the election Richi sunak or k dama the left side or the right side of the same backside they’re just a backside for us well on that rather low uh moment um there in terms of anatomy anyway uh George Galloway uh there in Rochdale um just listening to that oh sorry labor are calling East Midlands yes maril T they’re saying that labor Clare ward has beaten Ben Bradley comfortably and they’re making the point that that covers a dozen key parliamentary Battleground seats in that area as we know lot well that is very important um in terms of not just sentiment and psychology but actually the sorts of seats uh that the Tories are going to find very difficult to hold on to then at the general election it’s a new Marty and it looks as if labor have won well look first of all I’m going to wait and see the result on that before I comment but let me just go back to something you were talking about on the May aues before because I am just going to nail this nonsense coming from labor party on Ben H’s Victory right he absolutely stood as a conservative I was in his patch last week I was delivering these leaflets that very clearly say he’s a Conservative candidate all this nonsense that somehow it’s not really a conservative win and it’s not really anything to do with us it’s nonsense not mention of prime minister utter nonsense the Prime Minister was campaigning with him as you heard in that report we’ve been working incredibly closely with him his campaign was about delivering things um and part of that is about the money that we’ve given him caning the second phase of HS he also I’m to but voters need an excuse an excuse to to vote conserva the national Parliament needs to deliver more in progress I know that you want to say that this of course is a victory and it is a victory but it was more on personal and I think all the discuss through the campaign has been that you can spin it that’s your job you can’t no no you can’t our opponents can’t have it both ways they can’t say that all the all the losses of council seats are somehow the prime minister’s responsibility and then we have really strong wins Ben hin and the conservatives won uh every single burough across teas Valley how much have they lost in terms of they Shar we won every single burough across te’s Valley that’s a set of parliamentary seats which labor used to take for granted decades right let and you they can’t have it both ways that was a strong win for the conservative party but look at Harley we took of Harley Paul Council for example that Ben H won that clearly has Ben won that conservative but this is but this is the point isn’t it Ben hin ran a campaign which distanced himself from the conservative conservative I’ve seen the social media posts that have gone off I’ve seen the leaflets mark he distanced himself from the conservative branding and that’s how you account from Harley Paul and then Ben’s overall uh result so and also there’s also been a swing away from Ben as well and I think we need to bear that in mind I’m sorry I was look I’m sorry you brought your and that’s fine and you’re right Ellie said he distanced himself from the party and pretended he wasn’t conservative I’m sorry the leaflets are in our colors they say he’s a conservative and the Prime Minister was campaigning with him that is that is not true that line not true two pieces of campaign literature that state quite the obvious uh the opposite I should say there’s no absolutely no mention of conservatism and there’s no mention of Rishi Sun but noted Ben hin is one and he was quite clear in his interview by the way strong for the Prime Minister let me go back um yes well I suppose he can say that now he’s uh in the comfortable position of having one said that beforeand well he he may have done but I think in general I’m not going to rehash all of the arguments um but in general he did not make a lot of the conservative party at a national level or Rich sunak um I just want to return following because there’s a correction on what George Galloway had said in terms of the number of candidates uh being put up in uh council elections in Rochdale he uh said it was uh there were sort of five of them but actually there were 13 and they’ve won uh two w so many more than actually George Galloway knows about it seems in Rochdale but generally what did you make of what he had to say on this important issue and the threat to the labor party Rachel I think George Galloway is using his platform exactly the way that you would expect him to do as as an MP uh and as an MP whose reason for being in Parliament seems to be to cause as much difficulty as much trouble as much of a headache for the labor party as possible two things can be true it can be true that Labor’s vote among uh Muslim Community in areas where there is uh High Muslim populations is down we’ve seen that uh in rdale and across other Council seats it is also the case that that isn’t a significant issue when looking ahead to a general election simply because of where those communities are based urban areas where Labor’s vote sh share is very high so yes I think it is something that K dber and the labor party should be aware of uh and should be thinking about but in terms of a general election the seats that they are trying to win marginals and where they really have to worry about shedding vote I don’t think it’s as much of a challenge for them as George Galloway liked to make out just there well let’s talk about the East Midlands meril because this was a and is a new position uh labor confident uh Vicki that they were going to take this it sounds as if um they have this question of bell weather what we call bellweather Regions Bell weather seats it does look as if labor is making strong progress in areas that were traditionally labor but the really important thing for them in terms of a majority at a general election is to make significant progress in areas like the West Midlands and the east Midlands uh to a certain extent and this would certainly go towards that it would I mean labor sources are very keen to point out the the levels they have to climb to you know looking back at the last election under Jeremy Corbin how far behind they are I mean they say and this is why they say look we don’t want to be complacent but they genuinely do really recognize how much they’ve got to do you know when people talk about the red W and the blue wall you know one labor source was saying look we need all the wars we need any War we can get hands on any War we can get over because you need to win eight 150 seats um you know it’s a it’s never been done before that you need a double digit gain in every region so although of course these results are looking very positive for labor um they do have a long way to go and um they are definitely still slightly concerned about the stay-at homes about the undecided uh voters because they do know that there’s a huge um amount of you know they’ve got a huge ount of um room to make up well I hope you’re good at climbing is all I can say Ellie after that uh metaphor an analogy I’ll just remind everybody of the results of the teas Valley meraly very very important in terms of the sentiment and mood and morale uh within the conservative party we’ve had both Andrea lsum and now a uh a cabinet uh Minister talking up about how important it is and how much ben hin is conservative which of course he is there he is winning with uh nearly 82,000 votes to Labor’s Challenge from Chris mccuan on just over 63,000 it’s a third term uh for Ben hin and in a moment we’ll hopefully talk to Sir John Curtis to talk about how important these meral contests actually are because it’s not easy is it to read across either for labor or the conservatives in terms of how that might play out in a general election because these are not parliamentary seats these are Big personalities these are big figures who have their own personal appeal so of course Ben hin great because he’s a conservative if labor win the East Midlands right that’s marvelous for the labor party but in terms of what actually happens at a general election how much can we take from it well couple of things firstly I hope you’ll be very balanced and and won’t and if if labor came a lot of credit for the East Midlands uh result if that goes the way you said I hope you’ll then remind everyone you know Ben hin won that as a conservative you can’t people can’t have it both ways right but I just say in terms of the read across first of all Ben won every burrow uh across that region um so consistent support across teas Valley that’s an area which was labor for decades I would argue they took it for granted uh I think which is part of why the the the delivery that Ben’s been delivering has got conservative results if labor were on course to do really well they’d be having to win places like if they can’t win a meraly in the teas Valley that tells me they’re not doing well enough and if if you’ll permit me just to I’ll come back I’ll come back I was going to come back to answer the question you posed me about what Ben said about reasons for let’s talk to S John Curtis because hopefully he just heard uh what you said there in terms if labor if labor can’t take uh the teas Valley meraly then are they really on course to do as well as they think they’ve taken harly uh John in terms of the uh Council having Lost That by election in uh 2021 what what’s your response to what Mark Harper has said well let’s let’s first of all let’s go it straight I think Ben hin deserves every congratulation for having succeeded in holding the seat and not only holding the seat but uh actually still this yes down from what he got in 2021 which was truly remarkable but actually also doing noticeably better than he did in 2017 however let’s just look at three things looking not just at te Valley but also West Midlands number one although Ben won harleypool in the meril contest the labor party still gained control of heartly poool council which kind of you know begins to raise questions about the re across secondly as I pointed out a while ago though I slightly slightly underestimated the figure one of the pie the one of the polls that was done uh about in Valley which again said it was pretty close uh also asked people how they would vote in a general election and the level of support for the conservative party in the general election was 21 points lower than that poll credited Ben hin with in terms of the maral vote and you could if you look at the detail of the of the tables you could see very clearly that there were lots of people in the teas Valley who were not willing to vote conservative again having done so in 2019 but who were still willing to vote for Ben hin thirdly I this will take us forward to tomorrow um you know the other story that we can expect the conservatives to to focus on not surprisingly is if Andy Street succeeds in defending the West Midlands but in the West Midlands there are two elections going on on Thursday one for the morality and the other for the police and crime commissioner and we know from what has happened what happened in 2021 that while Andy Street won the meril contest the Labour party won the police and crime commissioner contest which does therefore again raise doubts about the extent to which we can necessarily really presume that the maral contest is necessary is a reliable guide to what’s going on more broadly and again in the west mland the current ping also suggests that Andy street is out ping his party so you know every congratulations to Ben hin it is a remarkable Improvement it is one of the political successes of the leveling up policy but against a 14o decline in conservative support since 2021 across local councils up and down the length and breadth of England it is shall I shall I suggest it’s a silver lining to the cloud but it doesn’t disperse the cloud that was hanging over the conservatives at 6 o’ this morning uh well just dward what did you say to that M you that’s a fair assessment well on the on the comparison with 2021 I I covered that yesterday actually which is that was an election where we had I think independent people will acknowledge not just us a vaccine bounce we just come off the pandemic we were fastest in the world at doing it our best set of local results since 2008 so actually we were almost certain to go back from that performance yes but Ben and as John said Ben improved performance from from where he was in 2017 so I think that’s good so the mixed results I accept but it’s the it’s the so if you want to do if you do the read across Ben’s campaign was all about having a record of delivery and a promise of more and I think if I if I answer his question the way I would answer his question that he posed is we have to be clearer uh and set out the things that we have achieved and I think we’ve got a fantastic record on dealing with some of the real challenges that were thrown at us like the pandemic well no and one of the things I think that I hope uh my colleagues in Parliament will do after this set of Elections is focus on that choice that faces the country at the general election between labor and the conservatives get behind the Prime Minister set out our record uh and spend all of our time talking about that so that that’s what we focused on Ben’s demonstrated that if you do that then you can win all right well we’ll come back to that uh with you and Ellie in a moment but um so John Curtis we were talking to George Galloway who is the MP for Workers Party of Britain in Rochdale he was talking about landslides in certain Wards in Rochdale and in the area as a whole uh for his party and there’s no doubt that in areas with large Muslim populations uh labor support has gone back how significant is it well it’s actually a little bit more subtle than that we’ve done a bit more digging on Labor’s difficulties in Muslim held Wards and what you discover is that it really is a problem for labor in labor wards where there was already a very lot sorry in Muslim Wards Wards with lots of Muslim voters where labor were particularly Strong having over half the vote back in 2021 in those WS Labor’s vote on the data we have is down by 18 percentage points that is clearly a problem on the other hand if you go to wards where labor were less strong you know there their supportting is less than 40% then you don’t see labor struggling in anything like the same way now there are a couple of things perhaps to draw out from that one is of course we shouldn’t necessarily assume that the only people uh who uh vote labor who are upset about Gaza are those who identify as Muslim there is plenty of poing evidence out there that other labor voters are unhappy about it as well and perhaps therefore this becomes clearer in uh in Wards and in areas where there really is a strong labor vote and where perhaps the ethos is most disturbed by what uh s STS but the second thing of course if that is right is that perhaps the loss of Muslim support is occurred above all in places where it’s least likely to do labor damage in a general election but what I’ve got the air can I just also come back to Mark Harper Mark yes you are entirely right that the the conservative party did quite well in 2021 it was about six points ahead in the opinion polls which is more or less where you would need to be in order to win a general election but no more than that so you know let’s not exaggerate the position in 2021 the second thing to bear in mind is this I think you and I would probably agree that the conservative party did not do terribly well last year and on all the evidence we’ve got you did not do any better this Thursday than you did 12 months ago and that therefore the broad message of the opinion polls is cor is is is corroborated by these local election results that there has been no significant change in the gap between conservative and labor and that is a gap that you do need to try and narrow Mark no I would I would not disagree with that at all the prime minister made it clear that these results are are disappointing ones you where where we’ve lost counselors that’s clearly disappointing and we are clear behind in the poll so I think no one’s pretending that we don’t have work to do I wouldn’t disagree with that at all the point I was making was that where you’ve shown delivery and a good record and a good thing in the future then we can win elections and that is our that’s what we’ve got to do that means there’s a lot of work to do thatment isn’t showing delivery and therefore isn’t showing progress I mean just to extend um what you’re saying I mean how worried are you uh bearing in mind your constituency uh too that that labor has gained councils right across uh the country uh they’ve gained in Harley poool in thurk in Essex in Rushmore in Hampshire um and in redich in the Midlands I mean this is not just one part of the country this is right across the country that is difficult isn’t it for you well and and we’ve held on to a seat in the teas Valley which is an area that was traditionally labor AAL so you got to look at both of those things so the picture is complex so look I’m not pretending there isn’t work for us to do right that that would be a ridiculous position to hold which I don’t right there is a lot of work for us to do my point is yes we need to focus now between now and the election on the choice that faces the country the fact we’ve got a plan the plan is working the fact that if you chose a labor government they don’t have a plan you’d go back to square one and throw away all the progress through those difficult challenges you’ve had on the pandemic and dealing with the impact of the war in Ukraine and that that is what we’re going to have to focus on and just to pick your point up about the point about the across the country there a lot of Voters if you look at those polls that haven’t made their minds up if I take my constituency which you referred to I do meet people who are not super enthusiastic at the moment but but what is important is they haven’t switch to the labor party they want us to give them a reason to go and vote for them and that is the thing we’ve got to focus on between now and the election I will get a response from you Ellie in just a moment but before we let uh Sir John Curtis go just to pick up on that theme about Labor in councils in different parts of the country but a number of them were notably leave areas in the uh EU referendum uh during those brexit years is that divide leave and remain is that all but gone has it diminished as a sort of salient factor or is it still there and actually what Mark is saying is that people have stayed home uh they haven’t quite made up their minds yet the quick answer to you is so far as the J of support is concerned there has been a partial reversal of the impact of brexit on the geography of part Party Support that is something that was evident in the Y elections in 2022 and 2023 it’s not clear that it’s gone much further now uh but if you if you compare the the results now with what with the results in 2015 and 2016 and that’s one of the things we’re able to do back there yes you still see the labor party relative to 2015 and 2016 doing better in remain voting areas and conservatives conversely in Le voting areas the second thing I would say to you is if you look at the evidence of the opinion polls about who is voting labor 75% of those people who say they are going to vote labor are current supporters of rejoining and that figure is not down a great deal from the just over 80% of Labor supporters who backed remain back in 2019 actually the parties whose support has changed much more in terms of its composition is the conservative party support because basically the party had so little support amongst remain voters back in 2019 and those who voted remain uh in 2016 and were willing to vote for Boris Johnson were very very low conservative voters so they haven’t gone down the conservative party on their hand has lost about a half of the people who believe in brexit so therefore ironically the conservative vote is now much less of a pro brexit vote much diminished as the conservative vote now is than it was four and a half years ago so John Curtis thank you very much we’ll talk to you as more results come in but very interesting in terms of analysis uh and the motivations for people voting let’s just bring you up to date with some latest results from councils across England because of course these are local elections as well as maral elections and police and crime Commissioners where you can see there Castle Point uh held by or no it’s gained by the independent they were certainly in a strong position but they have gained uh Castle Point Burnley is hung that is also an area where to some extent Labor uh are coming under pressure from counselors who uh have quit the party hinb that’s an important game uh for labor in Lancashire they’ll be very pleased with that nossle unsurprising that is a labor hold um and West Oxfordshire uh remains hung as does well in Hatfield and labor have held on to Preston just looking Vicki at these results oh let’s just give you some more since they have come in uh basing Stoke uh remains hung barnesley is a labor hold uh and the liberal Democrats have held on to Watford uh labor have held on to Wakefield Blackburn despite what we were hearing there from uh George Galloway um and swinden and they’ve gained that’s an important win for labor 2 in Norwich um uh the greens will have been strong uh there but it was obviously no overall control but labor have gained there there’s a confusion over Norwich actually um I’ll just oh what they haven’t gained it well it says we’ve just had something in saying we reported earlier that labor had taken control of Norwich this was a result of a data error and the coun is still continuing but but I don’t know that may be now updated so I’m not quite sure about that well we’ll hold a question mark against I can tell you about so from people our BBC people in basilon which we like you know we talk a lot about bason as a bther place but the bason council is on course for being in no overall control and a senior T Source saying the results there are very bad for the party um so that would be going from Tory run to over overall control so I mean plenty of places where labor is doing well across the country as you say and in areas where they are very much looking at the Parliamentary seats looking ahead to a general election the places where they want to do well and I think they will be thinking that in many of those faes that is exactly what’s happening right well we don’t know for certain and in basilon all the seats uh were actually up it wasn’t a case of third um I mean that would be bad uh for the uh conservatives uh losing that to no overall control well look every loss of a hardworking conservative counselor is disappointing as the as the Prime Minister said I’ve been out campaigning with lots of counselors they work incredibly hard and the overall record of conservative councils is excellent they deliver better services at lower cost so every every Council that we lose means people going to get worse services and pay more council tax so that is obviously disappointing Ellie I’m not sure that I recognize that statement about council tax because actually the uh Council my local authorties side lowest council tax are labor councils I’m not quite sure that the recognize what comparison but you know look we’re obviously um getting the results coming in and you mentioned the uh the East Midlands May it’s not been declared yet but that will be a real test I think of of um a sort of barometer if you like because of the number of battleground seats there but also that’s a new maral there isn’t one of these big personality incumbents uh in that seat and by the way CLA Wards our candidate there her leaflets were very very very clearly labor Leaf fls um and I think that would be a a really interesting test particularly given the Battleground seats that that that come under that East Midland’s maral area well let’s park leaflet gate uh just for the moment but if that is the case Ellie then when it comes to the West Midlands maral are you saying that if Andy Street the conservative incumbent holds on then then it looks shaky for the surrounding constituency parliamentary seats for labor but Andy street is again know see I’m sorry well Andy street again you know if you look at a lot of his campaign literature his social media again a complete lack of the uh conservative branding you know he refers himself as the unpolitical politician he has uh a sort of brand distinct from the conservatives and we saw and I think s John Curtis mentioned that last time Andre Street was up for election he won but Labour won the police and crime commissioner on the exact same boundary so he clearly does have that s of personal following and that personal brand I think a lot of people in the West Midlands don’t actually realize that Andy street is a conservative all right um going to say well look I I I just thought it was a very clear attempt there to have a completely different position in one part of the country was the other you know there’s no incumbent I just think that is a bit ridiculous look and Andy Street very clearly is a conservative I was with him just a few weeks ago campaigning with him as we set out the first stage of the Midlands rail Hub huge amount of investment 1. obiously about what happened to HS 1.7 billion pounds yes but he’s getting investment of 1.75 billion P to connect Birmingham to 50 cities across the country and he was there campaigning with me a conservative cabinet minister uh on that very important policy so he very clearly is a conservative if he does well that’s a win for the conservatives the way one of the things in his favor uh of course is painting himself as a conservative unlike the labor run Birmingham uh local Authority which is bankrupt look local government is uh in really difficult situation because of years of neglect by the conservatives you know there’s no long-term funding plans for uh local government they have to go you know cap in hand uh bidding for bits of funding here bits of funding there spending millions of pounds in the process you know we need a long-term funding plan for local government and it’s not just labor councils that are in financial difficulty there’s a large number of conservative councils like Northampton Shire North fum and slau that are also in difficulty right I think we can show you although it’s just disappeared from in front of me the the result in Worthing um and that’s been held uh by labor again unsurprising but down on the south coast um Tim Lorton the conservative MP is stepping down at actually but we can see there 45% uh for labor to 37% for the conservatives what’s interesting if we have a look at the vote share change it’s gone up quite significantly uh for labor again if you’re looking at areas where labor would like to take in parliamentary elections up 133% down 12% um for the conservatives we’re waiting to hear if we’re going to get a meril result in the Northeast that’s also a new position there uh labor very much hoping they are going to take this uh the independent uh candidate Jamie Driscoll was Labour’s mayor in the former the old seat it has now changed and they’ve got this one post so we’ll bring that to you as soon as we have noticed that it is going to be announced but that would be an important win uh for Labor uh and we can see that they are setting up ready to make that an announcement but we’ll come back to it in just a moment in terms of the mood uh for the party um Rachel and in terms of Labor having sealed the deal it is a slightly hackneyed phrase but this idea that yes many voters clearly from these council elections um as a barometer um have lost and fallen out of love with the conservatives but have they really sealed the deal in terms of enthusiasm for the labor party I think there was slow turnout uh in various in v in various areas particularly uh conservatives pointing to low turnout in the Blackpool South by elction I think if you’ve got low turnout and labor are managing to get their voters out and the conservatives aren’t that’s not necessarily a win for the conservatives or something that should comfort them I think East Midland’s Marty is going to be really interesting certainly the conservative MPS that I was speaking to in the runup to these elections because that will show the benefits uh the the strength of conservative feeling when there isn’t an incumbent getting that result now no not quite yet that’s all on BBC 2 I’ll be back on BBC 1 and BBC News in a few moments time with continuing election results coverage
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