Support for the Labour Party was up by seven points compared with 2021 in the biggest Brexit-supporting wards, while the Conservative Party was down 5.5 points, according to an analysis of Thursday’s local election results.
Figures from the BBC’s ‘key wards’ data, which was obtained by the Observer, show that the Labour Party is winning back pro-Brexit supporters across the country, The Guardian reported.
Interestingly, the data also showed that the Conservative party was down by 2.5 points in the most pro-remain wards and down 5.5 points in the most pro-Brexit ones.
“Voting leave was a very strong predictor of voting Tory. Now it is fading. Our statistical modelling shows it is much weaker now,” said Robert Ford, professor of politics at Manchester University, who was part of the BBC’s results and analysis team.
“We can say people are voting less in line with their Brexit preferences than they were a couple of years ago,” he added.
In Thursday’s poll, the Labour Party gained 536 seats and took control of another 22 councils, becoming the largest party in local government for the first time since 2002. The Conservative party, on the other hand, lost over 1,000 seats.
Labour made gains in some areas that backed leaving the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, which the party will need to win over if it wants to achieve a majority at the next general election.
The council results will be the largest, and possibly last, test of voter sentiment before the next general election, which is expected to be held next year.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
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