Local elections: Boris Johnson faces his first post-partygate test

The polls have now closed in this year’s local and devolved elections. The parties – and their leaders – face a nervous wait for the results. For Boris Johnson, this is the first electoral test since he was fined by the police for breaking his own Covid rules. Tory MPs will be watching nervously to see how much damage has been done.

CCHQ have done a canny job of expectation management, suggesting that the loss of 800 seats – which would be a truly diabolical night for the party – should be seen as par. But there is real Tory nervousness about how bad results might be in the south. I suspect that Tory MPs in Lib Dem facing seats will be more nervous once these results are in. Johnson’s allies are hopeful that there will be some reasonable results in the north and the Midlands to take some of the sting out of these loses.