Politics

Local elections 2019: Tories hope to ONLY lose up to 600 seats if it’s a ‘GOOD night’


Tory MPs have feared voters will take revenge on Theresa May following the Brexit delay. Conservative Campaign HQ (CCHQ) have said they can limit losses to “around 500 to 600 on a good night”, according to The Sun. Up to 8,804 councillors are set to be elected in 259 local authorities across England and Northern Ireland.

A Conservative source told The Sun: “The private estimate is our vote will be more resilient than is generally thought.

“Much of the voting is in rural areas, where Labour haven’t made many in-roads in the last few years.

“The doorstep experience is also better than the national narrative.”

The hopes of the CCHQ echo a prediction made by political scientist Sir John Curtice.

READ MORE: May to SUFFER WIPEOUT as Corbyn threatens Tory stronghold in elections

Mr Curtice claimed the Conservative Party could do “better than expected” in the local elections tomorrow.

He predicted the absence of the Brexit Party could be “crucial” for the Tory party.

He said on the BBC Today Programme unhappy Brexiteer votes will have “nowhere to go, leaving them with the choice of “holding their nose” and voting for the Conservative Party “anyway”, or staying at home.

The top polling expert said: “Support for Westminster has haemorrhaged since March 29 amongst Leave voters. Maybe that will perhaps help to explain that things may not be quite so and for the Conservatives.

“Because it isn’t just the case that just the Brexit Party is not standing, and that is the Party to whom the majority of Conservative voters have defected if they have defected.”

However, BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg has warned the political landscape has “completely changed” since the last elections.

The political editor told Radio 4’s Today Programme: “These elections were, crucially, fought the last time these seats were up for grabs on the same day as the 2015 General Election.

“Now that is an era when the idea of a European referendum was only a promise in the Conservative manifesto. Basically, our political landscape has completely changed since then.

“And how will that come to bear in these particular elections? The overall context though is the Tories fought these at a high point.

“So the question for them tomorrow is how much will they be able to hold the line, will it be a kind of embarrassing set of losses, or will they actually haemorrhage?”



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