Starmer May Be Able To Win An Election - But What Next?

There was really only one loser at the local elections. The Conservative Party predicted it would lose 1,000 seats while assuming it wouldn’t – so goes the magic of expectations management – then lost even more seats than that.

- MARIE LE CONTE

There were also some definite winners last week. The Liberal Democrats had their best set of results in some time and, in the unlikely event that they manage to replicate those numbers at a general election, would return to pre-coalition level of parliamentary representation.

Similarly, the Green Party managed to play a blinder despite being mostly ignored by the mainstream press, and will now be running its first ever council.

As for the Labour Party – well, it’s a bit more complicated. The opposition is now the biggest party in local government for the first time since 2002, which is entirely good news. It has recaptured a number of councils across the country, including some which had been blue for some time.

Still, if a general election were to be held tomorrow and voters didn’t suddenly decide to change their collective mind, Keir Starmer wouldn’t find himself to be 1997’s Tony Blair. At worst, he would be a 2010 David Cameron – biggest party but no overall majority – or, well, 2015 Cameron, with a wafer-thin majority.