Britain’s Conservatives suffer heavy losses in a sign that Rishi Sunak is in real trouble

Britain’s governing Conservative Party has suffered heavy losses in local elections, a sign that they could be in real trouble when the country holds a general election at some point later this year.

Britain’s governing Conservative Party suffered heavy losses in local elections, a sign that they could be in real trouble when the country holds a general election at some point later this year. With around a third of the results declared, the loss of more than 100 seats on local councils and one parliamentary seat in a by-election suggest that national polls in which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his party trail by a distance are correct. It also means that if a general election were held tomorrow, the opposition Labour Party would almost certainly win power. Conservatives are attempting to spin some positives, with one campaign source saying: “Whilst this is a tough night for the Conservative party, it’s clear there is absolutely no love for (opposition leader) Keir Starmer.” There may be some truth to this: Conservative losses were not exclusively gains for Labour. Parties across the political spectrum, including the new populist right-wing Reform UK, benefited from the Conservatives’ poor performance. What these results don’t tell us is when the general election will take place. That decision rests solely in the hands of Sunak, who has until December 17 to call an election. Conservatives are divided on when they think Sunak should bite the ballot bullet. He has to date only committed to it happening in the second half of 2024. The harsh truth is that there is no obvious good time for Sunak to call the election. In all scenarios, there are vanishingly few who think he has any chance of winning re-election, with most instead basing their opinions on what what be the least bad loss.