Stunning Labour triumphs in London and West Midlands leave Sunak reeling
Keir Starmer says the prime minister has no option but to call a general election
Rishi Sunak was dealt a series of shattering blows last night as Labour won a knife-edge battle to seize the West Midlands mayoralty from the Conservatives and Sadiq Khan trounced his Tory rival in London to secure a third term.
The results, along with decisive victories for Labour’s Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, Steve Rotheram in Liverpool and Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire, left Labour in charge of most of England’s mayoralties.
The West Midlands upset where Andy Street lost to Richard Parker by 1,508 votes, announced after a dramatic series of recounts, followed a disastrous showing for the Tories in Thursday’s local council elections. They finished third behind the Liberal Democrats in the number of seats won, for the first time since 1996.
The danger for Sunak is that Conservative MPs will now see the PM and the national party as having destroyed a successful and popular mayor in the West Midlands who was credited by many with boosting the region’s economy. Street’s fate was sealed despite him having done all he could to disassociate himself from the national Conservative party in his campaign for a third term.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/04/stunning-labour-triumphs-in-london-and-west-midlands-leave-sunak-reeling
"Stunning" may be a bit of hype as there's no way the London race should have been anywhere near close given the whackaloon Khan was running against and polling guru John Curtis indicated yesterday that he felt there was going to be less of a shine on Labour's results as a result of the backlash against the Labour Party's stance on Gaza, but it'll do.
Maybe Sunak should book a flight to Rwanda? Or we could do it for him.
= new reply since forum marked as read