London shows that the more voters get to know Corbyn, the less they like him

It was always possible, I wrote a month ago, that the London elections would show voters baulking for the first time at the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn in power, especially after the protests in Westminster against anti-Semitism. That hasn’t quite happened: it seems there has been a slight swing to Labour in the capital, unlike the rest of the country. But fears of a Tory bloodbath in London – of Corbynistas and Sadiq Khan supporters painting the town red – were misplaced. The Tories have kept hold of their crown jewel boroughs: Westminster, Wandsworth, Kensington and Chelsea. Remarkably, they have even taken back control of Barnet, in north London, which one senior London Tory thought they would lose ‘undoubtedly’. He was wrong, and so was the Cabinet minister who claimed the party was ‘screwed’ in the capital.

Some are now claiming that this was all an act of ingenious expectations management on the part of the Tories.