Tory election nightmare: Boris braced to lose 550 council seats on Super Thursday
SENIOR Tories are braced to lose 550 council seats at the "super Thursday" local elections next month. The Conservative party scooped up the seats in 2017 town hall votes when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader.
PMQs: Starmer says Boris Johnson 'gets weaker and weaker'
It expects to shed seats to new leader Sir Keir Starmer as governments traditionally drop votes to the opposition in local polls. The Labour party leader has refused to commit to winning any new councillors on May 6. A Tory source said: “Corbyn was in charge at the last local elections. If Starmer can’t make gains now he is in trouble. I think there is a lot of expectation management going on from Labour.”
Voters in Scotland and Wales are choosing new parliaments and police and crime commissioners are also up for election.
Polls were postponed at the height of the coronavirus crisis last year over fears for the safety of voters and staff running the polling stations and counts.
The scale of the “Super Thursday” voting day means that every voter in Great Britain will be able to take part in at least one type of poll, making it the biggest event of its kind outside a general election.