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Tories fear losing half their seats in May local polls as pre-election budget flops
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
100 points (98.1% liked)
UK Politics
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Senior Tories are braced for a catastrophic set of local elections that will see a collapse in council seats won at the peak of the “vaccine bounce” enjoyed by Boris Johnson.
Rishi Sunak’s allies regard the results as the most dangerous moment remaining for the prime minister before the general election.
Sunak, under pressure to explain how he would pay for his pledge to abolish national insurance contributions by the end of the next parliament, has expanded on the measures in the budget by announcing that he is preparing a new benefits squeeze to fund it.
At that point, Johnson’s government was enjoying a boost in popularity as a result of the Covid vaccine rollout, while Keir Starmer was on the verge of resigning after losing the Hartlepool byelection.
The poll slump means that May’s results are likely to be dire for the Tories, with some experts predicting the party could lose as many as half of its councillors up for re-election.
Party officials accept that the results will probably be bleak but are already pouring all their efforts into a push for a general election most likely to be held in the autumn.
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