A breakdown of Britain’s local political map shows a new Red Wall could be emerging in urban and graduate areas.
Sam Freedman, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, has analysed councils in Britain ahead of the local elections next month.
He found large parts of the country now have no Tory councillors at all, with Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Norwich, Oxford, Cambridge and seven London boroughs among them.
Watford also has no Conservative representation.
Warnings
Boris Johnson has been warned the Conservatives will “reap the whirlwind” of the No 10 lockdown parties saga at the ballot box as the threat of more police fines hangs over him.
Former Conservative minister Steve Baker told The Daily Telegraph the partygate affair could hurt the Tories at the local elections on May 5, with his constituents expressing “fury” at reports of lockdown breaches in Downing Street.
It comes after the influential backbencher turned on the Prime Minister in the Commons this week, telling MPs the Conservative Party leader should have realised the “gig’s up” after the Metropolitan Police concluded he had breached his own coronavirus rules.
“Barbaric rules”
“People lived under barbaric rules. They were told that if they deviated one iota from the law they would kill people. And they suffered for it,” Mr Baker, who hinted that he had submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister, told the newspaper.
“Meanwhile in No 10, where they should have been obeying both the letter and spirit of the rules, clearly they breached both.
“It’s been a disaster and I fear we will reap the whirlwind on polling day.”
Related: Oh, the irony: Boris Johnson slams ‘misogynistic abuse’ of Angela Rayner
