A day of Celebration for Labour

Labour + 823

Conservatives: -405

Liberal Democrats: -336

Greens: +11

Without a doubt Thursday was a resounding success for Labour. Labour gained Birmingham and Wales, retained Glasgow but did not win London. The Labour party gained a total of 823 councillors, the Tories losing 405 and the Liberal Democrats losing 336.

Prior to the election the Conservatives were trying to inflate what Labour should win, saying that anything less than 700 councillors would be a failure. At the same time Labour was trying to downplay what would a good result would be, saying that getting 300 would be a good night. In reality both parties were probably predicting around 500 councillors for Labour, the truth was far better than anyone had expected. Labour managed to gain over 800 councillors, which prompted Ed Miliband to proclaim “Labour is back”. This has devastated the coalition, many Conservatives believe that they are being punished for being too liberal and allowing UKIP to take their voters.

Without a doubt the Lib Dems had the worst night of the three main parites. They have been reduced to the smallest number of councillors since the party was created 30 years ago. Lib Dems feel that they are being punished for being too Conservative.

Neither party appear to understand what being in coalition means.

What the government will try to do is point out that the turnout was painfully low, around one third, and it therefore isn’t a good indicator for public opinion. They also have pointed to the disappointing result for Labour in 1999, yet Tony Blair still went on to win in 2001. Yet they forget that Blair was coming off the back of a huge victory and a growing economy when people went to the polls in 1997. The Conservatives on the other hand haven’t won an election outright since 1992 and the economy has just fallen back into recession, although it is much better than the Lib Dems, who haven’t won an election outright since 1910…

Labour managed to take 38% of the vote, 2% up from last year, the Conservatives took 31%, down 4% and the Lib Dems took a measly 16%, unchanged from last year.

I will now go into the election results in each of the four areas of the UK that voted in detail; England, Scotland, Wales and London.