Do the Tories want to lose London?

The Labour plotters who dream of ousting Jeremy Corbyn had high hopes for the local elections on 5 May. They envisaged a moment of humiliation for their leader in Scotland, Wales and England; a moment that would prove beyond doubt that the party’s leftwards lurch had narrowed its appeal and consigned it to the electoral wilderness. A good time, in other words, to stage a coup. Corbyn’s loyalists, for their part, had been preparing to blame the rebels and their constant sniping. Neither side imagined what now looks likely: that Labour might soon be celebrating a stunning victory in London.

The party is expecting a sharp decline in its total number of English council seats. This is quite a failing for a party in opposition: Labour has only twice before managed to lose council seats when not in government: in 1982, after the formation of the SDP broke the party in half, and in the local elections that followed the 1984–85 miners’ strike.