Last night was dubbed ‘Super Thursday’ by some media outlets because it saw no fewer than fourteen council by-elections. It wasn’t ‘super’ for a Tory party now reeling from losses to Labour – and even two seats to the Greens.
The results broke down as follows:
The ‘1 result to come’ was another Conservative loss. The Tories nosedived even in some of the constituencies they managed to hold – and in one lost seat their vote share fell by a massive 42 percentage points.
Tellingly, Labour also gained in Scotland while the SNP lost share – and seats:
Unsurprisingly, the BBC made little or no mention of the results, as Twitter users pointed out:
Hi there Laura @bbclaurak Tories lost 6 council seats in one day yesterday. Can't see a report on your feed. Did you miss it by any chance?
— Corbyn Supporters 50+ #VoteLabour (@corbyn50plus) September 8, 2017
Labour’s gains in share and seats show that, far from abating, the ‘Corbyn surge‘ continues and is even gathering strength – news which will have the Tories in even more disarray than they have been since June.
The two gains in Scotland with no Scottish Labour leader in place suggest that Labour’s gains there in the General Election were very much an effect of the Corbyn surge rather than, as some centrists tried to claim, the result of the now-departed Kezia Dugdale’s leadership.
The Scottish results also underline the importance of Scottish Labour electing the left-wing candidate Richard Leonard – if Labour can perform this well without a leader, it needs one who can enhance the Corbyn effect even further, not a centrist former Progress vice-Chair who will be perceived as offering a return to ‘more of the same’ politics.
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