by Andrew MacAskill and Elizabeth Piper
LONDON (Reuters) – The Conservative Party’s setback continued on Friday, the first results of local elections in Britain showed on Thursday, as voters used the polls to express their anger at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government.
The elections, for some 7,000 local council seats in England, Scotland and Wales, are seen as a test of popularity for Boris Johnson, who was fined last month for breaking rules in terms of confinement that he himself had imposed on his fellow citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Conservative Party lost seats in London, notably in traditionally conservative strongholds such as Wandsworth and Barnet.
For the first time, the Labor Party won seats on the council of Westminster, a borough located in the heart of the political district of the British capital.
“A fantastic, absolutely fantastic result. Believe me, this is a big turning point for us from the depths of the 2019 general election,” Labor leader Keir Starmer told supporters in London.
The final results, expected later on Friday, will represent a snapshot of British public opinion, the most important since the Conservative Party won an overwhelming majority in the 2019 general election.
The local council election is the first poll in the UK since the litany of revelations about parties being held at 10 Downing Street, the residence of the head of government, during lockdowns linked to the coronavirus outbreak.
“These results confirm that the Conservative Party has suffered some kind of rejection from the electorate,” said John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde.
(Reporting Andrew MacAskill and Elizabeth Piper; French version Camille Raynaud and Anait Miridzhanian; editing by Kate Entringer)