Labour Sets Sights On 'Blue Wall' Seats At Next Election

Labour is planning to target the south of England heavily at the general election as the local election results show some “blue wall” seats are turning red, Keir Starmer’s election chief has said.

- Rowena Mason

The shadow cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Labour was advancing in southern Tory heartlands and it was wrong to think the Liberal Democrats were the only challengers to the Conservatives in the south.

Speaking to the Guardian, he said it was now the case that Labour “controls twice as many councils in the south-east as the Tories” , pointing to gains in Rushmoor, Crawley, Swindon, Thurrock, Basildon and Southend. “The story of parts of the blue wall turning red is undernoticed,” he said.

Thursday’s local and mayoral elections had given Labour the “confidence and belief” that it can win a general election convincingly, he said.

Rishi Sunak faces turmoil in his party after its heavy losses, as the rightwing former home secretary Suella Braverman said the prime minister’s “plan is not working” and “at this rate we will be lucky to have any Conservative MPs at the next election”.

The prime minister faces a schism over whether to swing to the centre to tackle the threat from Labour and the Lib Dems or to the right to try to squeeze Reform UK’s vote share .

Labour’s targeting of the south shows its spreading ambition after winning convincingly in the local elections across much of the “red wall” in the north of England and the Midlands won by Boris Johnson back in 2019.

It had a landslide 26% swing at the Blackpool South byelection and took the mayoralties in the North East, East Midlands, West Midlands and York and North Yorkshire.