The Conservatives had faced a particularly tough task because the last time the seats were contested was in 2015, on the same day as elections for the national Parliament in which the party — then led by David Cameron — won a surprise victory. Labour, in contrast, did not do so well in 2015, and this time around, experts said, its path should have been easier. But early evidence suggested that it had not succeeded in appeasing either supporters of Brexit in the north and in the middle of the country, or opponents in big cities and in the southeast. Labour had said that it would support a second Brexit referendum, but only in some circumstances, and that it wanted to negotiate an alternative exit deal. In Thursday’s local elections, the United Kingdom Independence Party, which remains a hard-line pro-Brexit party but has taken a turn to the right under its new leader, Gerard Batten, lost more than 50 seats.

Source: International New York Times May 03, 2019 08:48 UTC