May fares better than expected in local polls

London: British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party fared better than expected in local elections in England, results on Friday showed, in her first test since losing her parliamentary majority last year.

The party held on to key London councils despite a big push by the main opposition Labour party, which failed to live up to its own hype.

The UK Independence Party (UKIP), which has seen its support collapse since the 2016 vote for Brexit, was all but wiped out, while the pro-European Liberal Democrat party made gains.

Labour’s leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn had sought to build on momentum from last year’s general election, when an unexpected surge for his party deprived Ms May of her parliamentary majority. But Labour admitted “mixed” results despite a difficult week for May, who was plagued once again by cabinet divisions over Brexit as well as a row over immigration that toppled one of her top ministers. “We’ve done better than expected,” Conservative party chairman Brandon Lewis told Sky News.

“We have seen Labour — who thought they would be sweeping the board in London — thus far not gaining a single council in London.”

The Conservatives appeared to have benefited from the collapse of UKIP, which was instrumental in the Brexit vote but has since lost its way.

UKIP general secretary Paul Oakley denied his party was all but over, bizarrely comparing it to the Black Death plague which wiped out as much as a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century. “Think of the Black Death in the Middle Ages. It comes along and it causes disruption and then it goes dormant, and that’s exactly what we are going to do,” he told BBC radio.

“Our time isn’t finished because Brexit is being betrayed.”

On a victory tour in London, May said Labour “threw everything at it, but they failed”, while adding: “We won’t take anything for granted.”