Local government elections held on Thursday in the United Kingdom saw losses for Labour, the largest opposition party, while the governing Tories saw a number of gains. In Scotland the separatist Scottish National Party narrowly missed out on a majority in the Scottish Parliament.
While the Tories enjoyed advances, Labour held onto the London mayoralty and held its position as the biggest party in the Welsh Senedd (the Welsh assembly).
The Tories saw the number of local councils they control increase as well as large increases in the number of councillors it has.
In London Sadiq Khan, the incumbent mayor and Labour candidate won 55% of the vote in the second round run off. Khan and the Tories’ Shaun Bailey went through to the second round vote with Khan emerging victorious. In the 25-member London Assembly, Labour won 11 seats (down from 12), the Tories nine (up from eight), the Greens three and the Lib Dems two, an increase of one for each of those two parties.
In Wales Labour fell one seat short of a majority, winning 30 of 60 seats, an increase of one. The Tories’ seats jumped by five to sixteen, while Plaid Cymru, which wants increased Welsh autonomy, came third with 13 seats (up from 12). The Liberal Democrats won the remaining seat.
In Scotland the SNP fell short of a majority, winning 64 seats in Holyrood (Scotland’s Parliament) in the 129-member body.
The Tories came second with 31 seats and Labour third with 22 seats. The Scottish Greens managed 6 seats and the Liberal Democrats four seats.
The performance of the SNP together with the Greens means that there is a pro-independence majority in Holyrood and that another referendum on independence is ‘inevitable’. In 2014 Scotland had held a referendum on independence; 45% voted for independence, while 55% opted for the status quo.
Following a phone call to prime minister Boris Johnson, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s spokesperson said: ‘The first minister also reiterated her intention to ensure that the people of Scotland can choose our own future when the crisis is over, and made clear that the question of a referendum is now a matter of when, not if.’
[Photograph: WPA/Getty Images]