Labour Facing ‘One of Its Worst’ Results in Upcoming Local Elections

TOPSHOT - Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn reacts during the launch
OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images
Victoria Friedman

The Labour Party is expected to have “one of its worst local election performances in recent history”, the prediction coming just three months after the party experienced its worst national election loss since 1935.

Locals will be voting in 118 councils in England on May 7th, and the Labour Party is expected to lose up to 315 seats including Labour strongholds like Sheffield which the party has held for 75 years, according to an internal party document seen by the BBC and reported on Tuesday.

The party has been in disarray after its historic loss in the General Election on December 12th, 2019, where even hitherto strong Labour-backing constituencies in the North — the Red Wall — went Tory Blue, helping the Conservatives gain 80 seats, the largest majority for the right-wing party since Thatcher. The document seen by the BBC also suggests that the Red Wall could crumble further.

Jeremy Corbyn announced that he would be stepping down as leader and while ballots have gone out to party members to choose the next frontman, the socialist’s successor will not be revealed until April 4th, leaving little time for local potential Labour voters to know if their party will be led by Corbynista Rebecca Long-Bailey, anti-Brexit centrist Keir Starmer, or liberal-progressive Lisa Nandy.

A local media report from February revealed that some areas are struggling to find Labour candidates, namely Kirklees and Huddersfield in the northern county of West Yorkshire, according to a party insider.

Local elections are not the only woes for the party. Last month, a report by The Jewish Chronicle revealed that a hard-left faction has taken root in key roles in the local party in a north London constituency.

The weekly newspaper revealed that hard-left members were able to vote into senior positions candidates associated with leftist groups including the International Anti-Zionist Network — which labels Zionism as “racist” — in Labour MP Tulip Siddiq’s constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn, which is home to around 7,000 Jewish voters.

One Jewish Labour Movement member told The Jewish Chronicle: “There’s a history of antisemitism in the local party and meetings haven’t always been safe spaces for Jews – so it’s really concerning that the hard left have taken control.”

Mr Corbyn has come under fire for the party machine’s reaction to complaints of antisemitism in Labour, as well as facing accusations of antisemitism himself.

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