The local council elections on Thursday illustrated a stark contrast between the victors and losers in England, as illustrated in Figure 1.
The biggest defeats were suffered by the Conservative Party with a gigantic and exponential loss of 1,334 seats. This was followed by UKIP which lost 145 seats; and, the smallest defeat was endured by Labour with a loss of 82 councillors.
On the other hand, the Liberal Democracts gained 1,350 councillors, an increase of 703 from the local elections in 2015. This gain was hailed as an enormous victory by its party’s Westminster MPs. Commenting on her party’s gains in the local elections, Layla Moran MP tweeted: “I understand we have just broken out best ever gains at local election IN OUR HISTORY”.
It was also a positive night for the Greens; they obtained 265 seats, which was a whopping increase of 194 councillors. Writing about the excitement, Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s only MP tweeted: “Brilliant result, huge congratulations to everyone who made this happen”.
Many commentators have interpreted the Liberal Democrats’ and the Green’s victories as a sign of people wanting to reverse the Brexit process. It has been noted that the Conservatives, the Labour Party and UKIP suffered defeat due to their support for Brexit.
However, it remains to be seen how these results will translate at a national level at the European Parliament elections later this month.
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