The self-indulgence of the Conservative Party should rightly cost them votes

Editorial: The results may be spun to the public but every Conservative activist will have an intimate knowledge of the scale of disillusionment

(Dave Brown)

While there are many uncertainties surrounding the first fully normalised local elections in three years, there is one thing for sure: hundreds (if not thousands) of hard-working, honest, dutiful local councillors will lose their seats through no fault of their own.

This round, it will be mostly Conservatives who bite the dust. That they have a well-founded fear of rejection by the voters is apparent from their campaign literature. Few – if any – pictures of Boris Johnson with his thumbs up or even a mention of the fact that the UK has been governed by the Conservative Party in one or another form for the past dozen years. They are so desperate they attack independent candidates for “playing politics”, and their posters look more green than true blue. Vote for “local Conservatives”, they plead.

Soon they will discover that all politics isn’t always local. It doesn’t matter how many ugly planning schemes they blocked, how much recycling they do, how low the council tax, how they’ve regenerated the high street – many Tory councillors will be shown the door by voters angry about the cost of living crisis, Partygate and tractor porn.