Markus Andrews

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailCounting is under way in local elections across England and Wales, with one top pollster warning the Conservatives are on track for potentially their worst defeat in 40 years.Millions of voters cast their ballots on Thursday to choose their preferred choice of councils and mayors, with the first results starting to trickle through in the small hours of Friday.Follow our local elections blog for live updatesOut of the 107 councils where votes were held on Thursday, 35 were counted overnight and result so far will make grim reading for Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, suggesting potentially an even worse performance than national polls had indicated.While most council seats were last contested in 2021, at the peak of Boris Johnson’s Covid “vaccine bounce”, elections guru Professor Sir John Curtice warned the Tories could be on course to lose 500 councillors in “one of the worst, if not the worst” performances by the party in 40 years.England local elections after 35 of 107 councils declared More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailThe Tories have held on in the Tees Valley mayor race with a result which could save Rishi Sunak from facing a vote of confidence after a terrible set of local election results. However, as Conservative mayor Ben Houchen won in the north east he snubbed the Prime Minister in his acceptance speech and thanked voters for “backing my plan”. He also pointedly made it clear he would be happy to work with Sir Keir Starmer if the Labour leader becomes Prime Minister later this year.Even more concerning for the Tories was that the swing to Labour would see them win back the parliamentary seats won by the party in 2019 fall to Labour.Lord Houchen got 81,930 votes (53.6 percent) and his Labour rival Chris McEwan 63,141 (41,3 percent). The turnout was just 30.8 percent. Lord Houchen also saw a collapse in his vote which was 73.5 percent in 2021.In the aftermath of humilating results in council elections and a drubbing in the Blackpool South by-election the result has offered the Prime Minister some hope.Speaking in North Yorkshire, Mr Sunak told Sky News that Tees Valley was “a key battleground in a general election” and victory shows that he can lead his party to victory.He later tweeted to congratulate “my friend” Lord Houchen knowing that Tory MPs were looking at the result as an indication over whether they should call a vote of confidence in his leadership of the party.In his acceptance speech Lord Houchen, who was not even wearing a blue Tory rosette, said he was “humbled” by his victory but made no mention of Rishi Sunak or the Conservative Party.He thanked voters in the north east for “backing my plan” for the region.Later on Sky News he conceded that it had “been a shared effort” with Mr Sunak and claimed he “forgot” his rosette but was wearing a blue tie and blue socks. However, Lord Houchen also made it clear he would work with whoever becomes Prime Minister including Sir Keir Starmer.Beofre the result he told Sky News: “My job as mayor is to do what I can for local people, and if that means I’ve got to work with the Prime Minister, to be frank it doesn’t matter to me who that is – I’m going to do all I can to make sure I get the best deal for the local area… even if there is a change of government later this year or if Rishi is still PM or it’s somebody else, I‘ll work with anybody.”Ahead of the result being formally announced, a Labour source has told ITV that “it’s a win for Ben Houchen, not the Conservative Party” and Labour “is on track to achieve the 12.5 percent swing in the region it needs to win back seats here.”Labour candidate Chris McEwan and Conservative candidate Lord Ben Houchen, during a count of votes for the Tees Valley mayoral election (Owen Humphreys/PA) More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailA defiant Rishi Sunak has argued that he can still win the general election despite predictions he is on course to lose a near ‘catastrophic’ number of council seats. The prime minister admitted his party’s overnight results in the local elections in England were “disappointing”. But he pointed to results in Harlow and the Tees Valley to suggest he could still lead his party to victory. Earlier his party chairman had appealed to rebel MPs to “wait through the weekend” for more results as a bruising set of votes piled further pressure on Mr Sunak’s leadership. But asked whether he needed to convince his own party he could do better when it came to a general election, a defiant PM said: “If Keir Starmer was in Harlow on Wednesday saying that that was a place he needed to win in order to win the next general election – that hasn’t happened.”We still haven’t got results from places like Tees Valley with the mayoralty results, which again is a key battleground.” He also told reporters at a military base in North Yorkshire that it was “obviously … disappointing to lose good hard working Conservative councillors”. Rishi Sunak More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailWith the voting booths now closed and the count furiously being verified the race is on to be the next Mayor of London.Sadiq Khan, who is seeking his third term, is currently the favourite to win against his Conservative challenger Susan Hall.But the Tories have been buoyed by what they see as a low voter turnout with just two million Londoners out of a possible six million registered placing an X on their ballot on Thursday.Sadiq Khan is hoping for a third term More

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster email Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was turned away from a polling station after forgetting to bring ID to vote in the U.K.’s local elections.British media reported Friday that Johnson — who introduced the requirement for voters to provide ID with a photo when he was in office — was told by polling station staff in South Oxfordshire Thursday that he would not be able to vote without proving his identity. Sky News reported that Johnson, who served as Conservative prime minister from 2019 to 2022, was later able to cast his ballot and that he voted Conservative. Johnson introduced the Elections Act requiring photo ID in 2022, and the new law was first implemented last year in local elections. But Thursday was the first time large numbers of voters across England and Wales have had to present ID, such as a passport or driving license, to vote. The Electoral Commission said the vast majority of people were able to meet the new requirements, although it noted that some people who would have wanted to vote may have decided not to try because they did not have acceptable ID. It also said there was evidence that some people, such as disabled people and the unemployed, found it harder to show voter ID. More