Did Sunak Snub Susan Hall By Not Voting In London?

With the catastrophic local election results suffered by the Tories this weekend, Rishi Sunak’s leadership has again become the focus of attention.

- DAVID MADDOX

It was bad enough to win fewer council seats than the Lib Dems by losing almost 500 out of the 985 the Tories were defending. And the defeat of West Midlands mayor Andy Street by Labour’s Richard Parker was a stunning blow.

But amid the chaos and recriminations, nothing seems to have symbolised the prime minister’s own deficiencies more than the revelation that he was sitting in London during the elections on Thursday but did not get round to voting for his party’s candidate for London mayor, Susan Hall.

There are no good excuses for why Sunak might have snubbed the hapless Hall, and the debacle has reopened questions about his future.

A question of election law and political choices

Normally, party leaders and major candidates use going to vote as a photo opportunity on election day. In London, Sadiq Khan went to the polls with his wife and dog, while Labour leader Keir Starmer also invited the cameras. But there was no picture of Sunak casting his vote.

When The Independent asked Downing Street how the prime minister had voted, the reply came: “He postal voted in Yorkshire.” In other words, he cast his vote for the defeated Keane Duncan, the Tory mayoral candidate for York and North Yorkshire, which covers his Richmond constituency.

This led to a flurry of claims from MPs and Tory activists that Sunak could have voted in both places. In general elections for parliament, voters with a house in more than one constituency have to choose one place to vote. However, in local elections, people can vote in more than one area on the same day if they are registered there.