Labour lose heavily in England but gain in Wales

Looks like Blair took a big hit in this election... ungrateful Brits. Thank God that Labour still has a tiny - but present - lead over the Liberal Democrats.

If the Tories take any more seats next time, they may win a parliamentary majority.

Labour has won the Welsh election, retained power in Scotland but suffered over 790 losses in the English local elections in a night of mixed fortunes for all the major parties - and breakthroughs for the radical left and racist right.

The Conservatives can claim victory in England with a better than expected gain of 536 seats on declarations so far, but suffered a body blow as MP Crispin Blunt resigned from the frontbench at Westminster and called for Iain Duncan Smith to quit the party leadership.

With results now finalised in Scotland and Wales, but a few still to trickle in from English local elections, Labour effectively has a working majority with 30 of the Cardiff assembly's 60 seats - a personal triumph for first minister Rhodri Morgan, who has signalled he will go it alone rather than seek another coalition with Mike German's Liberal Democrats.

In Scotland first minister Jack McConnell has opened negotiations for the coalition support of the Liberal Democrats, but even that combined pact will only have a wafer-thin majority of two.

With a new influx of radical socialists and Greens at Holyrood, the coalition is likely to have to tack to the Left.

The only unqualified victors north of the border were the Greens on seven seats and Tommy Sheridan's Scottish Socialist party on six seats.

Labour lost control of 29 English councils including Birmingham, the country's biggest council and a Labour stronghold for nigh on two decades.

The party's councillors regained power in Sheffield, Plymouth and Oldham, but the far-right British National party marched to victory in 11 new seats, taking their total in the country now to 16. Their best result came in Burnley where they now have a total of seven councillors.

It was the Tories who claimed victory in England last night, and courtesy of the top-up form of PR in Scotland and Wales stabilized their representation in the devolved assembly and parliament.

In Wales there was an unambiguous defeat for Plaid Cymru, who lost four seats to Labour. The position of leader Ieuan Wyn Jones is now under serious threat.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy today described his party's showing in the local elections as "an excellent result".

With around 200 seats gained nationwide and a share of the vote of around 30%, Mr Kennedy argued the Liberal Democrats were competing effectively with Labour and the Conservatives.

"The message to the government, on everything from tuition fees to foundation hospitals, is that they have to start listening far more. It should worry the government that their own people are not voting for them, or are voting for other parties." Mr Kennedy said he hoped that if Labour opted to end its partnership with the Liberal Democrats in the Welsh assembly, that would not herald a period of "unstable" one-party rule in Wales.

Iain Duncan Smith made no comment on Mr Blunt's damning personal criticism of his leadership, but in a statement hailed his party's local election results as a "stunning victory".

He said: "The Labour party have had their worst result since the Winter of Discontent in 1979. The Conservative are now the largest party of local government in Great Britain."

Mr Duncan Smith singled out Wales and Scotland as "very good results" declaring that the results were "an opportunity to take forward over the next two and a half years".

Tory chairwoman Theresa May told the BBC: "This is a very good result for us. What we now see up and down the country is Conservatives in a better position than they were yesterday We have made excellent gains."

But the Labour party chairman Ian McCartney insisted: "There's not a government in history that has not had a bad mid-term, even as good a government as this one.

Full story: Backlash costs Labour 700 seats Full story: Tory victory tarnished by resignation

Although Labour first minister Jack McConnell retained power for Labour on a respectable 48% national turnout, he admitted Labour had made mistakes, pledging "Things we have got wrong we will change."

A continuation of the existing Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition for the next four years in Scotland will be the result of the night's voting but with a combined majority of just two.

Indeed, the leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland, Jim Wallace, saw a 15% swing against him in his Orkney constituency.

With all the results now in, Labour has 50 MSPs (down six) the Lib Dems are unchanged on 17; the Scottish National Party has lost 8 MSPs, falling to 27, the Scottish Green party have seven MSPs (the biggest increase of the night, up from their solitary member in the last parliament) and the Scottish Socialists are up from one to six. The Conservatives have returned 18 MSPs - the same as last time.

There were mixed results for the SNP, which failed to take key seats in Dundee West and Glasgow Govan but they captured Ochil, Dundee East and Aberdeen North.

For the Tories there was jubilation that party leader David McLetchie won his place back at the parliament through a constituency seat win, unseating Labour's enterprise minister Iain Gray. Four years ago Mr McLetchie only arrived at Holyrood through the top-up list.

The Tories won three first-past-the-post seats - although they were ended up with 18 seats, as in 1999.

But the big victors were the radical left with the SSP now having six MSPs and the Greens, seven.

Independent Dennis Canavan was comfortably returned in Falkirk West with a 10,000 majority and former GP Jean Turner won as an independent campaigning to save her local hospital.

Labour today won the Welsh assembly election, taking half of the 60 seats - but on a dismal national turnout of 36%.

That could be enough to give the party a slim majority if an opposition assembly member becomes presiding officer - the equivalent of House of Commons speaker.

Although Labour is one seat short of a clear-cut majority, speaking on Radio Wales on Friday, Mr Morgan gave his clearest indication yet that he would not be seeking a pact with the Liberal Democrats.

"I am not proposing to talk to any other party, and we don't have any plans to do that, " he told Good Morning Wales.

"This is not about, 'Do I talk to the Liberal Democrats?', it is about how to deliver Labour's programme," he added.

The final total was Labour 30 seats, Plaid Cymru 12, Conservatives 11, Liberal Democrats six, and one independent - the former Labour MP John Marek, who fell out with his party.

The result means Labour could now run Wales alone, without relying on the Liberal Democrats as it was forced to do for most of the first term. However, that is a decision Rhodri Morgan has yet to make that decision formally.

One of the Tory seats was won by fuel protest leader Brynle Williams. The farmer shot to national attention when he led the blockade of the Stanlow oil refinery in Cheshire in 2000. Welsh Secretary Peter Hain claimed it as a "fantastic result for Labour. This is a terrible night for the nationalists. Their fantasy of an independent Wales has been buried forever and they are barely neck-and-neck with the Tories.

"We won three-quarters of the constituency seats which by normal general election standards would be a landslide. This is the best result for Labour in the elections anywhere in Britain."

A Plaid spokeswoman said: "Obviously we are disappointed. We will reflect on the result. Obviously our message did not get across as we wanted.

The Conservatives will be content with their performance as they look likely to have more seats than in 1999.

The key to Labour's victory was winning the heartland seats Plaid Cymru won in 1999 which deprived Labour of outright victory.

Labour took Islwyn, Rhondda and Llanelli from Plaid and won other seats with significant swings.

But all parties will be concerned by the disappointing turn-out across Wales. The overall picture has yet to emerge but in many constituencies the turn-out dropped below 40%.

Turnout struggled to rise above 50% in any of yesterday's elections as millions of voters across Britain stayed at home.

The elections north of the border were the most successful, but only around half of all eligible Scottish voters went to a polling station.

Looks like Blair took a big hit in this election... ungrateful Brits. Thank God that Labour still has a tiny - but present - lead over the Liberal Democrats.

This is a plus in their minds?

What's the difference between Blair and a (ahem) 'Liberal' on domestic issues anyway? I thought the terms were interchangable.

2 posted on 05/02/2003 4:38:20 PM PDT by Jhoffa_ (Sammy to Frodo: "Get out. Go sleep with one of your whores!")

Blair's got a huge problem. His party is fractured and it will be interesting to see if the Brits reward him by voting for the local Labourite or can't stomach the Galloways and vote Tory. Very, very interesting.

I'm not sure who is better in this. Wasn't it Labor that was pushing for a second UN resolution? It seems that it is not so much Blair that is the loser but the general Labor party if so. The big question is how will Blair handle it?

Someone needs to get ahold of Ian Duncan Smith and give him charisma lessons. He's really bright, has a great background, but lacks leadership qualities. At least the kind that's needed to head a party.

I'd love to see the Tories come up with someone who could put the euros in their place.

The Labour party's strength has always been in Scotland and Wales, while the Tories have usually dominated England proper. All this talk of devolution of rule to Scotland and Wales would pretty much put Labour out of business.

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