This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/03/local-elections-labour-successful-night
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Local elections: Labour hails successful night despite taking just 29% of vote | Local elections: Labour hails successful night despite taking just 29% of vote |
| (12 days later) | |
| A surprisingly optimistic Labour party claimed that it was well on the way to victory in the 2015 general election, even though its share of the vote according to the BBC was only 29%, lower than its 2010 general election result. | |
| It won only two county councils, retaking 284 council seats, fewer than predicted by many psephologists. In many local authorities, Labour found itself frustratingly falling short – for instance just failing to make the 26 gains needed to run Lancashire council, and gaining only 24 seats in Staffordshire. | |
| Most projections for the general election suggested Labour would not be able on this basis to claim an overall Commons majority, a disappointing return for a party in the middle of the longest postwar period of austerity. The Conservatives pointed out that in 1981 in the same stage of the electoral cycle Michael Foot secured more than 500 gains. | Most projections for the general election suggested Labour would not be able on this basis to claim an overall Commons majority, a disappointing return for a party in the middle of the longest postwar period of austerity. The Conservatives pointed out that in 1981 in the same stage of the electoral cycle Michael Foot secured more than 500 gains. |
| It is galling for Labour that the voters have found a new way to protest against the government rather than voting for the party of One Nation. | It is galling for Labour that the voters have found a new way to protest against the government rather than voting for the party of One Nation. |
| Labour insisted that such broad-brush analysis ignored the extent to which the party had made progress in its battleground seats for the 2015 election. Labour said there were elections in 46 of its target parliamentary seats on Thursday, and close examination showed the party had progressed well in those seats. If Labour won all 46 it would be on course to win a majority of more than 60, it said. | |
| The party pointed to victories in terms of share of the vote in 17 seats: Cannock Chase, Stevenage, Harlow, Amber Valley, Erewash, Lincoln, Burnley, Pendle, Carlisle, Cambridge, High Peak, Lancaster and Fleetwood, Morecambe and Lunesdale, Loughborough, Norwich South, Crawley and North Warwickshire. | |
| It also pointed to victories in North Tyneside, and gains in Bristol council elections. | It also pointed to victories in North Tyneside, and gains in Bristol council elections. |
| In many of these seats the Ukip vote was relatively high, but it appears to have mainly eaten into the Tory vote, leaving Labour ahead. | In many of these seats the Ukip vote was relatively high, but it appears to have mainly eaten into the Tory vote, leaving Labour ahead. |
| One Labour official said: "Yes, everything has been made more complicated by Ukip's achievement, but we have never insulted Ukip and understand the source of its support. Miliband has been saying for months that his biggest problem is to convince voters that any political party can change things." | |
| But Labour is going through its own version of mid-term blues, buffetted by the Blairites and the unions, shaky in its response to welfare and silenced by the long celebration of Lady Thatcher's premiership. There will also be an inquest on whether Miliband did enough to foresee and defend Labour from the Ukip assault. | But Labour is going through its own version of mid-term blues, buffetted by the Blairites and the unions, shaky in its response to welfare and silenced by the long celebration of Lady Thatcher's premiership. There will also be an inquest on whether Miliband did enough to foresee and defend Labour from the Ukip assault. |
| If the Conservatives chase the Ukip vote to the right, Labour may shift to vacated ground in the centre, rather than leaving this normally fertile territory to Nick Clegg. John Reid, the former home secretary, made that case on Friday. An articulate former Labour special adviser, Paul Richards, insisted there was only a little comfort in the results: "If white working-class voters desert Labour in the heartlands for the Ukip, it will dent Miliband's chances in 2015. It certainly should kill stone dead any notion of a 'progressive majority' just waiting to be led to the New Jerusalem." | |
| Miliband is instinctively opposed to such thinking and sees the voters' response to austerity less about left and right and more about a compelling vision of the future. | |
| Miliband himself said: "The biggest opponent we will face at the next election is the idea that no one has any real answers and there is nothing we can do to turn things around." But the party will have to reflect on whether some of its big campaign messages resonated at all. The Blue Labour tendency, advocates of a more emotional conservative socialism, will feel its arm has been strengthened. | |
| But there will be immediate pressure on the party to develop clearer policies on the economy, welfare and Europe. Labour for instance has simply parked the issue of public service reform. Yet even Blairites, such as Alan Johnson, another former home secretary, did not demand more policy. "If anything Ed Miliband is showing too much leg in policy terms," he said. But all the old certainties are gone, and Miliband is going to have be more decisive and bold than in recent weeks. | |
| - On 14 May 2013 a correction was made to this article as 'Morecambe' had been misspelt as 'Morecombe'. |