Johnson lands an electoral blow before another episode of ‘partygate’

The Conservative Party has lost hundreds of councilors in the south of England, it is the force with the most losses in municipal elections in Wales and in Scotland its percentage of votes leaves it in third place, behind the Scottish National Party (SNP) and surpassed for Labour. But Boris Johnson is confident that he can renew his 2019 victory in two years’ time.

According to the projection by the BBC of the results of municipal elections in all the municipalities of Scotland and Wales, and in 146 of England, Labor would have garnered 35% of the votes ((0% variation with respect to 2018), if the elections would have been in all the municipalities of the country: the conservatives, 30% (-5%) and the liberal-democrats, 19% (+3).

Sky television has calculated how many seats each party would have after a general election, which is governed by the majority system, and concludes that Johnson’s supporters would get 278, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labor 271, the pro-independence National Party Scottish (SNP), 50, and the Liberal Democrats, 28. These figures worry the scrambled parliamentary group.

The House of Commons will reopen its doors on Tuesday, after the Queen’s Speech ceremony, in which the heir, Carlos, will read the Government’s legislative program for the new parliamentary year. Some dissidents in the group have already publicly blamed Johnson for the drop in votes and the talks between colleagues in this reunion will deal with the danger of losing their majority or his seats.

starmer investigated

London Police have postponed until after the election the announcement of new fines for participants in illegal gatherings and parties in Downing Street during the pandemic. A new episode of the ‘partygate’ series is possible, but this time with a parallel plot. Police in Durham, in the northeast of England, are investigating whether Starmer also broke confinement rules.

A student who opposed the restrictions filmed Starmer in April last year, having a beer with his colleagues, at a party office in Hartlepool. The Labor party says that his team, on campaign, stopped there to eat a curry, which was not a party. Police investigated the case and did not contact Starmer. But now they have received “significant information” about that meeting.

Johnson’s personal discredit is pointed out by his co-religionists as the cause of the results, which are not catastrophic for a government in the middle of its mandate. Analysts point to other structural factors: the Conservatives lose in areas with a population that went to university and in Thatcherite strongholds, such as Wandsworth or Westminster in London, famous for their low municipal taxes.