Much of the focus when it comes to ‘Super Thursday’ centres on whether or not the Tories can pull off an electoral coup by snatching Hartlepool from Labour. But the Lib Dems’ role in the drama has largely gone unnoticed – and a good result for Ed Davey’s party could spell the start of trouble for Boris Johnson.
Labour needs to hold onto Hartlepool. It’s really that simple. To lose the seat, particularly to a Conservative party that has been in power for eleven years, would be devastating. Starmer is also under pressure in the local elections. To put this into perspective, Labour lost around 400 seats in the areas being contested on Thursday during the Corbyn era. This means that even just to get back to level pegging with the Ed Miliband period, Labour need to gain hundreds of local seats – and no one is suggesting they are about to do that.
So it seems Labour are destined to underperform by any realistic measure this week.
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