Amid Labour fears that the party will face heavy losses in the local elections in May, Sir Keir Starmer was set to hold a rare “political” meeting of the Cabinet on Tuesday morning (March 10) in the wake of the disastrous Gorton and Denton by-election. The by-election, held earlier this month in the Manchester constituency, saw Labour fall to third place behind the Greens and Reform in what had been one of Labour’s safest seats. The victory came after Mr Corbyn’s Your Party and Mr Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain agreed to stand aside to avoid splitting the hard-Left and Muslim vote.
Now, an elections expert has warned that there was “potential” for the experiment to be repeated on a national scale in May in what will be the biggest test of public opinion since the General Election in 2024.
“In Gorton we saw the Greens, the Workers Party and Your Party work together successfully and there is potential now for them to do that again in a whole load of other places, including London,” Robert Hayward said at a press briefing on Monday (March 9).
“If they work together and if the Greens are able to maintain their current poll ratings, then the potential threat for Labour is very substantial indeed,” he added.
Party insiders have already warned that Labour – which currently controls 21 of London’s 32 boroughs – could lose hundreds of seats to the Green Party, even in areas like Sir Keir’s North London constituency, Holborn and St Pancras, which is currently exclusively represented by Labour councillors.
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The Tory peer also warned that Health Secretary Wes Streeting could suffer a blow to his own leadership ambitions if his local council in Redbridge, in north east London, is lost by Labour. In the last election, Mr Streeting managed to hold on to his seat by just 500 votes (33.4%), following a strong challenge (32.3%) by a pro-Gaza independent, Leanne Mohamad.
“If you are arguing you want to be party leader it is slightly harder if Labour has just failed to hold your own local council,” Lord Hayward added.
Some 5,000 council seats across 136 English councils will be decided on May 7, alongside the devolved governments of Scotland and Wales. The elections are being viewed as a litmus test for whether Sir Keir can survive as prime minister after months of poor poll ratings.
According to a YouGov survey last week, Zack Polanki’s party was at 21% – up four points from the week before. As a result, the Green Party leapfrogged Labour to second place, with Reform in first at 23%. Labour and the Conservatives were joint third with 16% each.