By Robin Baker
The results of the local elections in England on 2nd
May were:
|
Councillors
|
Change
|
%
change
|
||
|
Conservative
|
3561
|
-1335
|
-27%
|
|
|
Labour
|
2023
|
-82
|
-4%
|
|
|
Liberal Democrats
|
1351
|
704
|
109%
|
|
|
Green
|
265
|
194
|
273%
|
|
|
UKIP
|
31
|
-145
|
-82%
|
|
|
Others (mainly independents)
|
1179
|
662
|
128%
|
|
Of course local election results are heavily influenced by
national political issues, but one must be careful not to misinterpret these
figures. They do not show that
anti-Brexit parties came out as winners.
Indeed Conservative and Labour between them won two thirds of the
seats. But they do give a strong signal
that the swing in popular political thinking today is away from Brexit. Bearing in mind the narrowness of the
referendum result in 2016, the change in what we now know what Brexit would
mean and the appreciation of the lies used by Brexiteers to win the referendum,
I do believe that they provide strong evidence in support of a people’s vote.
The Prime Minister’s comment on the result was that they
show that people “want us to get on and deliver Brexit”. That seems to me to be as intelligent and
honest as most of her comments on Brexit.
