Britain’s governing Conservative Party lost ground in midterm local elections as left-wing nationalist parties scored victories in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Summary
Britain’s governing Conservative Party lost ground in midterm local elections as left-wing nationalist parties scored victories in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- British local elections are seen as an important measure of public support for the governing party, and Conservative losses to left-wing Labour in London and to the liberal-centrist Liberal Democrats in their base in Southeast England are a blow to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
- Thursday’s elections covered 7,000 local council seats, including every seat in London, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and one-third of England’s seats.
- The Conservatives lost control of their remaining strongholds in London, virtually wiping out Conservative governance in the capital. Local Tories blamed Johnson’s “partygate” scandal and rising inflation for their defeats.
- Conservatives had their worst performance in a decade in Scotland, where Labour took the second largest vote share to the left-wing Scottish National Party.
- Sinn Fein, the left-wing Irish nationalist party and former political wing of the Irish Republican Army won the most seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time in history.
- Sinn Fein’s victory raises the prospect of Irish unification for the first time since the 1998 peace agreement that largely ended the decades of violence in the province.
- Nationalist and unionist parties in Northern Ireland are forced to govern in a power-sharing arrangement, but the Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s former governing party, said they would refuse to join a government led by Sinn Fein.
- The Guardian argued Johnson’s leadership is in “fresh peril” after Thursday’s rough elections for his party as Conservative MPs debated calling a vote of no confidence in his premiership.
- The New York Times called Sinn Fein’s likely victory a “seismic political shift” that could lead to renewed unrest and violence 24 years after the end of the 30-year violent period known as “The Troubles.”
- The Washington Post said Sinn Fein’s victory carried “big symbolism” and previously “unthinkable.” They attributed their election win to a focus on bread-and-butter economic issues like the cost of living.
- Breitbart attributed the Conservatives’ electoral setbacks in London to the scandals surrounding Boris Johnson, including his status as the first UK prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law while in office for violating lockdown rules.
- Fox News covered a new defense agreement between the UK and Japan. Johnson announced the new defense pact on the same day his party suffered setbacks in local elections.
- The Telegraph reported the Labour Party chief and Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls to resign amid a police investigation into possible violations of lockdown rules. Starmer had previously called for Johnson to resign amid an ongoing investigation into Johnson for committing similar offenses.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
