Forget the European elections, which everyone (particularly those who fancy causing a bit of grief for David Cameron) expects to produce humiliating results for the Conservatives. The elections that have a longer-lasting impact that take place on the same day are the local elections. I look at the emphasis the Tories are putting on campaigning in the locals that goes over and above anything they’re doing for seats in Brussels, in my Telegraph column today. But even those areas that don’t have concurrent local and European polls on 22 May aren’t exhausting themselves on campaigning for the European elections.
Last year, the Conservatives tried to manage expectations by suggesting at one point that they would lose up to 750 seats – in the end they lost 335. This year there’s a private hope that they could hold onto the seats they have – and also gain some in certain areas. The party even hopes it could win some seats off Labour in Tower Hamlets.
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