Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservatives scored a stunning election victory in an opposition Labour stronghold Friday, in Britain's first major ballot box test since Brexit and the coronavirus crisis.
The "Super Thursday" regional and local elections could reshape the UK as pro-independence forces in Scotland, where voting for the devolved parliament was also held, bid to break away.
Johnson has shrugged off questions about costly renovations to his Downing Street flat and campaigned on his record as the leader who finally "got Brexit done" Photo: AFP / -
Results in Scotland are due on Saturday.
But early results from England on Friday showed the Conservatives had won a landslide in the parliamentary seat of Hartlepool in the northeast -- a bitter blow for Labour and its leader Keir Starmer.
The rust-belt town constituency, deep in traditional Labour heartlands which has never voted Conservative since its creation in 1974, saw a 16 percent swing to the Tories.
Opposition Labour party leader Keir Starmer has played down electoral expectations Photo: AFP / Tolga Akmen
"It is a truly historic result and a momentous day," said Hartlepool's newly-elected Conservative lawmaker Jill Mortimer.
"Labour have taken people in Hartlepool for granted for too long."
Her win continues the trend from the last election in December 2019, when Brexit was the dominant issue and Conservatives grabbed a string of seats across Labour's so-called "Red Wall" heartlands in northern England.
First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), Nicola Sturgeon wants Scotland to break away Photo: POOL / Jeff J Mitchell
The vote in strongly pro-Brexit Hartlepool, held alongside local elections across much of the country, came about after its Labour incumbent quit over sexual harassment allegations.
A polling station in central Edinburgh closes at 10pm after a day of voting in the first regional elections since Brexit and the coronavirus crisis, after calls in Scotland for a new independence referendum that could reshape the country. Photo: AFPTV / Clara CHARLES
In 2019 -- Labour's worst election result since 1935, under the hard-left leadership of Jeremy Corbyn -- a quarter of Hartlepool's electorate opted for the upstart Brexit Party.
Now, with Britain's withdrawal from the European Union complete and that party rebranded, those voters appeared to flock to the Conservatives rather than Labour.
The result will ratchet up the pressure on Starmer, elected leader a year ago promising to rebuild the party and reconnect with its traditional voters.
Opposition Labour party leader Keir Starmer had already played down electoral expectations Photo: AFP / Tolga Akmen
"There's no hiding from the fact this is a shattering result for Labour," senior party MP Steve Reed told the BBC.
"It tells us that the pace of change in the Labour Party has not been fast enough. We need to quicken it up."
Starmer had already played down expectations for Labour, stressing that rebuilding the party would take more than a year.
IMAGESElection officials start counting votes in Glasgow the day after the "Super Thursday" regional and local elections. Results in Scotland are due on Saturday, May 8. Photo: AFPTV / Mathilde BELLENGER
Before the official results in Hartlepool, a giant inflatable Johnson appeared outside the building where the vote count was taking place.
The balloon prime minister, complete with trademark scruffy blond hair, gave two thumbs up.
The outcome suggests he continues to enjoy popularity in former Labour strongholds and has benefitted from Britain's successful vaccine rollout, despite the country also suffering one of the world's worst Covid-19 death tolls.
"The work to repay that faith starts right now, as we continue with our agenda to level up and build back better from the pandemic," said Conservative Party co-chair Amanda Milling.
Johnson, who has been dogged in recent weeks by several scandals, has campaigned on his record of finally having "got Brexit done". He has also touted government economic support during the pandemic and its vaccine drive.
"Johnson delivered Brexit, the PM is popular among Leave voters, the Tory govt spent staggering amounts of ? in the pandemic and overseen an amazingly successful vaccine rollout... and the economy is rebounding," Jane Green, Oxford University politics professor, wrote on Twitter.
Results of other voting for local councils in England, regional mayors including in London, and for the devolved assemblies in Wales and Scotland -- expected later Friday and over the weekend -- will give a broader picture of his support.
But early results showed his Conservatives performing strongly beyond Hartlepool in the northeast, as well as in central and southeast England.
They suggest Starmer faces an increasingly daunting task to unseat Johnson at the next general election due in 2024.
"The structural realignment of party support is clearly going to be the dominant story of the elections in England," said University of Southampton politics professor Will Jennings.
He noted the "feel-good factor" of the vaccine rollout may have helped maintain the recent shifts towards Conservatives.
But Conservative celebrations could be tempered by events in Scotland.
"It really is on a knife edge," SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted Thursday, appealing for turnout as she campaigns to hold a second plebiscite once the pandemic subsides.
