Labour urges UK election after Tory losses

Britain's Labour on Friday urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call a general election after the opposition party made significant gains in English polls that included a seat in parliament.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the party's parliament seat win in Blackpool South in northwest England sent a clear message to Sunak, who has until late January next year to call and then hold a nationwide vote.

"Blackpool speaks for the whole country in saying, 'We have had enough now, after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline, we want to turn the page and start afresh with Labour'," he said on a visit to congratulate the new MP there, Chris Webb.

Labour, out of power since 2010 and trounced by Boris Johnson's Tories at the last general election in 2019, won the constituency with a 26-percent swing -- the third-largest margin from the Tories to Labour at a by-election since World War II.

The win came as early results showed Labour were inflicting heavy losses on the Conservatives in local contests that took place across England on Thursday.

Sunak conceded that it was "disappointing" to have lost dozens of councillors so far but said many results were still to be announced.

"I am focused completely on the job at hand, that's delivering for people across the country," he told reporters.

- Mayoral battles -

The polls represent the last major ballot box test before Sunak faces a general election that he has said will be held in the second half of the year.

Speculation is rife in the UK parliament that a bad showing may lead some restive Tory lawmakers to try to replace him, forcing Sunak to possibly call the vote earlier.

The 43-year-old has failed to improve his party's dismal opinion poll ratings since succeeding Liz Truss in October 2022.

Senior Conservatives played down the significance of the defeat in Blackpool South, noting it had been triggered by a lobbying scandal that saw the area's former Conservative MP resign.

They also sought solace in the re-election of a Conservative mayor in Tees Valley, in northeast England, albeit with a vastly reduced majority.

Observers said it was essential that Ben Houchen held his position to prevent any possible revolt against Sunak's leadership.

The outcome of another key mayoral contest in the West Midlands is also seen as crucial to whether the Sunak can revive his party's fortunes before the general election.

That result, involving moderate Conservative incumbent Andy Street, is not expected until Saturday.

The outcome of the London mayoral election, where Labour's Sadiq Khan is expected to win a record third term, is also due then.

- Right-wing upstarts -

The Tories were defending hundreds of seats they secured in 2021, when they led Labour in nationwide polls before the implosion of Johnson's premiership and Truss's disastrous 49-day rule.

Starmer said Friday's results showed that his party, beset by ideological infighting and claims of anti-Semitism under hard-left former leader Jeremy Corbyn, was once again an electoral force.

He told Sky News that Labour was now "a fundamentally different party" to the one he took over four years' ago.

The Tories are under fire nationally on issues ranging from cost-of-living to transport and health. Voters are also turned off by infighting that has resulted in five prime ministers since the 2016 Brexit vote.

Pollsters forecast that the Conservatives could lose about half of the nearly 1,000 council seats they are defending in cities.

"We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years," polling expert John Curtice told BBC radio.

The Blackpool South defeat was the Tories' 11th by-election loss this parliament, the most by any government since the late 1960s. Sunak has been in charge during seven of them.

Worryingly for him, the Conservatives only beat the fringe Reform UK party into second place by 117 votes in Blackpool.

The party linked to arch-Eurosceptic Nigel Farage won 17 percent of the vote, its best-ever by-election performance, suggesting it could squeeze the right-wing vote at the general election.

Labour lost control of one local authority due to anger over its stance on the Israel-Hamas war.

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