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Updated 9.30pm
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Theresa May’s Conservatives made sweeping gains today in local elections, handing her a big boost going into next month’s Brexit-dominated parliamentary vote.
Final results showed the ruling centre-right party gaining ground across the country, with the main opposition Labour party taking a pounding and Brexit cheerleaders UKIP all but wiped out.
Despite the thumping victory, May said there was no room for complacency ahead of the June 8 general election and the negotiations that follow on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
“It’s encouraging that we’ve won support across the whole of the UK but I will not take anything for granted,” she said, “because there is too much at stake”.
“This is not about who wins and who loses in the local elections: it is about continuing to fight for the best Brexit deal.
“Despite the evident will of the British people, we have bureaucrats in Europe who are questioning our resolve to get the right deal.”
On the eve of the vote, May lashed out at Brussels over the Brexit talks, accusing officials of hardening their position to affect the outcome of next month’s election.
Eric Kaufmann, a politics professor at the University of London, said her tough stance seemed to be paying dividends with a realignment towards her party.
“The Conservatives have managed to pull in people who voted Leave (in last year’s EU membership referendum) while retaining Remainers,” he told AFP.
After votes were counted in all 88 local authorities being contested, the Conservatives had made a net gain of 558 seats to 1,900.
Labour lost 320 to end up with 1,151 – prompting leader Jeremy Corbyn to acknowledge that winning next month’s general election would be a “challenge on a historic scale”.
Brexit party UKIP flattened
The smaller, centrist Liberal Democrats, who had been hoping to soak up anti-Brexit votes with their pro-EU stance, failed to make their hoped-for gains, losing 37 seats to end up with 441.
And it was a disastrous day for the anti-EU, anti-immigration UK Independence Party, which lost all 114 seats it was defending, and won only one new one.
UKIP’s vote was “bleeding off to the Conservatives”, Kaufmann said – an analysis shared by party leader Paul Nuttall.
He said it had fallen “victim to its own success”.
The result spells bad news for Nuttall’s hopes to secure a seat in parliament next month.
But he said: “If the price of Britain leaving the EU is a Tory advance after taking up this patriotic cause, then it is a price UKIP is prepared to pay.”
The Scottish National Party, which is seeking another referendum on seceding from the UK on the back of Brexit, won 31 seats to end up with 431.
The party’s success in Glasgow forced Labour out of power in the city for the first time in almost 40 years.
Across Scotland, the Conservatives had the biggest gains, up 164 seats to 276 — pointing to a revival for the party which has only one MP north of the border.
As expected, Labour won mayoral races in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle, but they were beaten in the West Midlands race, centred on Birmingham.
There, the Conservatives’ Andy Street, formerly the director of upmarket department store chain John Lewis, claimed a narrow win.
Labour’s historic challenge
Corbyn said he was “disappointed” that Labour had lost “too many” councillors, but said the party was “closing the gap on the Conservatives”.
“We have five weeks to win the general election so we can fundamentally transform Britain,” he said.
“We know this is no small task — it is a challenge on an historic scale. But we, the whole Labour movement and the British people, can’t afford not to seize our moment.”
Labour has been languishing more than 20 points behind the Conservatives in national opinion polls, and has been damaged by deep divisions over Corbyn’s left-wing leadership and its approach to Brexit.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Dave Rowntree, the drummer from pop group Blur, was elected to Norfolk County Council in eastern England, representing Labour.
One seat in Northumberland, northeast England, had to be decided by drawing straws, following a tie.
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You do know young are facing the same problem all over the country. It’s not just Dublin. The housing market is broken all over the country and people are angry. If you are heading for 40 and don’t own your own home you are in trouble because a mortgage of €450k(govt says its affordable) needs to be paid back over 25 years meaning payments are huge on it.
@Diarmuid O’Braonáin: your right. The rising price of materials is not helping at all. The price of land also.
The lifting of silly restrictions around town lands would help. Their forcing everyone into towns or just do nothing and get a free A rated home
Or just wait for a free home.
@Stephen: Exactly. They want everyone living in identical semi Ds or boxy cramped apartments. Now they won’t let you even own it. The councils are in cahoots with developers, only making large sites zoned for residential bit-by-bit that only large development companies can afford. Meanwhile I’ve seen small sites within LAPs, surrounded by houses, refused planning because the land was zoned agricultural. Small sites zoned residential are very very rare and are usually not very good. And you can forget about outside towns; you have to have a “genuine need”, be from the area (5km of the site) or living there 7 years and working there too despite the fact that the “locals only” rule is illegal under EU law. The council controls zoning. They can buy large tracks of agricultural land for cheap next to towns (or use government owned land), split them into smaller plots, service them and sell them on with planning guaranteed for reasonable development at cost.
@Stephen: Ireland is the least densely populated nation in the EU yet we have the highest land prices. There should be a tax on land hoarders.
All those empty buildings in Dublin and other town centres should be taxed (not just property tax but a ‘derelict’ tax) Thus the market would be larger with more land/buildings changing hands.
More supply will mean lower prices.
Then you think of the Billions spent on the hospital by Leo. I wonder how many houses could have been built for two Billion?
While I’m on a roll…..
3. Move all government offices and functions out of Dublin city centre and remove ALL parking spaces from government / public service employees – Thus driving a move towards reducing pressure on Dublin housing and infrastructure.
@Pete Lee: Ok, you lost me here. So no schools or hospitals to allow their empolyees to park there as long as they are in Dublin city centre. I assume Rotunda midwifes are all supposed to cycle to work?
Thousands of council residential property’s empty, awaiting refurbishment!!! Outsourcing that work if the councils can’t or won’t do it would be a massive dent. There just does not appear to be an appetite for it. Question is why?
@Tony Harris:
Very good Question!
Yet the excellent Peter McVerry Trust has a useful scheme whereby unloved dilapidated single houses owned privately around the country are brought back into use by clever funding arrangements with the owner and working closely with Local Councils with housing requirements.
Tradesmen hired to carry out the work are paid market rates for their services.
So, whose feelings do the Councils not want to hurt by tackling something very urgent, given the overhang of dilapidated council-owned units and nationwide shortage of homes?
It’s another Question that could be put to our housing minister if anyone is interviewing him tomorrow.
Nearly 90% of council funding comes from central government – all of it with strings attached. Dilapidated properties often don’t get repaired because the DOE wont fund them. Fire damaged council houses often wait years for the relevant private insurance company to fund re building or repair. Changing this has not been a DOE priority. One of the many ways government operates to slow the supply of decent housing to the populace in favour of creating demand for the private rental and purchase sectors at prices people cannot afford to drive supply. I hate SF but accept that they will win the next election as they are committed to ending the new absentee landlord support policies of FFG and the continuing transfer of wealth from the creators (workers) to the takers ( vulture capitalists.)
Ideology. That’s it. It’s a question of will.
@Darren Priest: 100%. Materials, zoning, labour market – all smoke and mirrors. You look at the global response to covid and see how many World governments made radical decisions to confront that crisis. Housing is in crisis here, if powers that be wanted to put the shoulder to the wheel they would.
Padraig Pearce gave his life that Irish men & women would be able to run their country, our current politicians are a joke, financial interests are running this country.
@trebloc01: they don’t see us as the citizens of our own country. They see us as “customers” to be drained. Regina Doherty even referred to welfare recipients as customers when talking about the public service card. They don’t hide it. Recently at an FG meeting the only problem they saw with housing crisis is that they’ll lose votes. Wasn’t even a leaked quote, it’s just what they think.
The writer is probably right though. In the end, this will probably be a two-horse FG-SF race where the voters will be speaking for the country!
As for FF, that man is driving it into the ground
1. DA GOV – allows the funds because they build or promote house building
2. Why are FDI / etc. not encouraged out of Dublin – thus Demand reductiion
It’s cheaper to buy than to rent . A situation that is daft .buying a house is a guarantee of some financial independence in your old age . The old party system has only worked for the benefit of overseas funds , who also get special tax allowances.
I don’t blame the funds from exploiting the situation, but I do blame the voters for persisting with weak governments.
It’s time for a leap in the dark
Population increasing at faster pace than infrastructure. Check stats for pop in 1998. You have your answer. And the prices per kilometer for Houston to Connolly underground is Irelands reality. Deal with it.
@John O Connor: The lack of investment in infrastructure is a choice by successive Govts. It’s not a way of life to just be accepted
Sign Rory Hearn’s petition here:-
https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/stop-investors-buying-our-homes
Referendum on Housing petition here:-
https://www.change.org/p/irish-referendum-on-family-home-special-status
38 amendments to the Constitution to date but the Housing Referendum is still undone since the 1974 Kenny Report. Housing must be taken out of the control of others and placed firmly in the control of the citizens. It is fundamental for a decent Irish society .. nothing less will solve the problem of Political failure to deliver affordable homes.
Simple solution, don’t rent them! Simples
@Mickomacko: so where do you live?
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