The state and local government
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- The SNP’s vote increased by 89,502 from 231,505 to 321,007; and, although they only retained their two seats, their share of the vote rose 0.7 to 2.1 per cent. The socialist
- UK Independence Party – though it received
- Social Democratic Labour Party
- Ulster Conservatives and Unionists – New Force
- Traditional Unionist Voice
- Independent Community and Health Concern
| 873 Hence, despite the proportion of spoilt ballot papers in the 2007 local elections being lower than in the parliamentary election, they were still three times greater than in 2003. According to the Gould Report:
What is characteristic of 2007 was a notable level of party self interest evident in Ministerial decision-making (especially in regard to the timing and method of counts and the design of ballot papers)…the work of the legislation sub-group was undermined by late policy decisions taken by Ministers on a variety of legislative issues. While prescribing all elements of electoral legislation remains a legislative function, Ministers will always need to take some decisions on elements of electoral administration. However, as in other areas of public life, these can and should be taken with the voters’ interests as the primary objective, supported by publicly available professional and expert advice. This appears not to have been the case in 2007.874 Gould therefore recommended that responsibility for the Scottish parliamentary and local government elections should be with ‘one jurisdictional entity…the Scottish Government’; that ‘the Scottish parliamentary and local government elections’ should be held separately ‘preferably by a period of about two years’; and that ‘all those with a role in organising future elections consider the voters’ interests above all other considerations’.875 Former Secretary of State for Defence and Secretary of State for Scotland Des Browne on 26 June 2008 announced that – although he accepted the proposal to decouple local government elections from Parliamentary elections and would consider the idea of a Chief Returning Officer post – he rejected Gould’s core proposal that the Scottish Parliament should be responsible for all elections876: which indicates, that ‘the Scotland Office is more interested in clinging to one of its few remaining powers, than doing what is best in terms of the conduct of elections in Scotland’.877 The Green Party won representation in Edinburgh and Glasgow, amounting to eight councillors in all, and was successful in attracting transfers. They were more successful than the rival socialist parties, as were the Greens in the 2008 London mayoral and assembly elections following the Respect Renewal/Left list split, which won a seat each and paid the price for the Scottish Socialist Party/Solidarity split. Solidarity now has no councillors following the defection of Ruth Black on Glasgow City Council to Labour; and the Scottish Socialist Party have one councillor on West Dunbartonshire council.878 The role of Independent candidates has also changed, with a decline in established areas like Highland where the parties started to offer candidates, but some growth in hitherto party-dominated areas like Ayrshire. Scottish local government has become a kaleidoscopic pattern of party alignments. Each party is in office in 8–13 authorities (between 25 per cent and 41 per cent). There is no systematic national pattern of parties forming alliances on general ideological lines. Nor was the switch from Labour leadership to SNP leadership at the Scottish Parliament level necessarily reflected in the council chamber. Local politics was a much more important determinant of the alliances made. Labour, for instance, is in coalition with the Conservatives in two councils (East Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire) and with the Liberal Democrats in Midlothian. The Liberal Democrats have alliances with Labour in Midlothian and the SNP in Edinburgh and Fife. In 2007 SNP–Conservative cooperation was prohibited by the SNP, although they now have an alliance with the Conservatives in West Lothian - where they had helped the SNP and Liberal Democrats to form an administration. Compared to the 2003 FPTP results, Labour lost Clackmannanshire, East Lothian, Edinburgh, Renfrewshire, Stirling and West Lothian, and the SNP lost Angus (none of which would have been majority controlled under STV on the 2003 results). Labour also lost East Ayrshire, Midlothian, North Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire, and the Liberal Democrats lost Inverclyde, which would have been majority councils in 2003 under STV. The Conservatives also lost South Ayrshire, which they had controlled thanks to a by-election, and the Liberal Democrats lost their effective control over East Dunbartonshire. Therefore to ‘some extent’ the results in Scotland in 2007, as Lewis Batson notes, ‘were a consequence of the continuing decline in Labour’s share of the vote since the party’s high water mark in 1995, but the change in [electoral P.L.] system did cause a sudden and no doubt painful correction in many areas in which Labour had previously been over-represented’.879 That is, as in Wales and England, the secular decline in Labour representation/support predates the introduction of STV in Scotland. Wales ‘The May 1st [2008] elections’, as Peter Rowlands notes, ‘were dominated by the mayoral contest in London’, whereas the local government elections in Wales and parts of England ‘were arguably a better indication of trends in political support for the main parties’, which was ‘particularly true of Wales, as it was only here, apart from a handful of English councils, that all council seats on all 22 councils were up for election’. Moreover, as also shown above, most English councils were only electing a third of their members: thus ‘the changes were generally much smaller than in Wales’, and although local factors were significant in some areas, ‘voter judgements of the national political parties were central’.880 For New Labour the results in Wales, as Appendix 11 shows, were disastrous. Most commentators had predicted that because of their heavy losses in 2004 they were unlikely to lose many more seats, even if they did not make gains. However, Wales Labour’s total number of seats fell by 136 from 478 in 2004 to 342 in 2008. Hence between 1999 and 2008 their total number of seats fell by 223 from 565 in 1999 to 342 in 2008. Though by 2009 Wales Labour’s total number of seats had increased slightly to 349. They also, as shown above, lost control of six councils on 1 May 2008 – Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Caerphilly, Newport and Flintshire – five in what was once rock solid Labour territory in industrial south Wales. Thus Wales Labour now controls only two – Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon Taff – of the 22 councils in Wales. They also lost one fifth or more of all their previous seats in 14 out of the 22 councils on 1 May 2008, including a half or more in five councils, and a third in another four. The worst cases being Cardiff – the biggest council, where they now have only 13 seats out of 75 and the net loss of seats was 14 on top of a huge net loss of 21 seats in 2004 when they lost control of what had been previously been a safe Labour council881 – and Torfaen where the net loss of seats was 16 and Labour lost control of the council. The only seats won back were in Anglesey (5), Bridgend (5) and Neath Port Talbot (1). Wales Labour’s share of total seats has also fallen from 44 per cent in 1999 to only 27 per cent in 2008/09. The other main parties and independents all gained at Labour’s expense. The Conservatives did best by increasing their total number of seats from 109 in 2004 (9 per cent of all seats) to 174 seats (14 per cent of all seats) in 2008. They also won control of another council (Vale of Glamorgan), and did well everywhere except in the old coal valleys and the nationalist heartlands. The Liberal Democrats did well in the larger towns of the south – including six gains in Merthyr Tydvill, which was partly due to a dispute over an open cast mine.882 Their total number of seats increased from 148 (12 per cent of all seats) in 2004 to 162 (13 per cent of all seats) in 2008. Plaid Cymru lost control of Gwynedd council due to a dispute over school closures:883 but their total number of seats increased from 172 (14 per cent of all seats) in 2004 to 205 (16 per cent of all seats). Hence Plaid has recovered from the losses it sustained in 2004: and now – because it won back seats from Labour in Rhondda Cynon Taff, Caerphilly and did very well against them in Carmarthenshire – has slightly more seats than it had in 1999. The fascist BNP had 26 candidates, mainly in the north, and got over 15 per cent of the vote in a third of the seats they contested. Three of their candidates also stood for both the local authority and community council; and one was elected to Flintshire-Hawarden Community Council.884 The Greens stood 37 candidates, about half of them in Swansea where they have a base and a substantial vote in some wards, but did not win any seats. The Independents – who, as Roy Jones notes, are mainly ‘people who have fallen out with Labour or who are Tories in sheep’s clothing’885 – took control from Labour of both Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent, where the ‘People’s Voice’ group of ex-Labour councillors took eight seats.886 Their total number of seats increased from 355 in (27 per cent of all seats) in 2004 to 373 (30 per cent of all seats) in 2008. Thus in 2008 there were 31 more Independent than Labour councillors in Wales: which is the first time independents have had more seats than Labour – though by 2009 the number had fallen to 25. Moreover, John Davies – an Independent Pembrokeshire councillor –on 27 June 2008 was elected as the new Leader of the Welsh Local Government Association with Derek Vaughan – the Neath Port Talbot Labour councillor who was the Association’s previous Leader – as Deputy Leader.887 Wales now only has four councils out of 22 with clear majorities for one party (Monmouthshire and the Vale of Glamorgan, which are Conservative, and Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon, which are Labour). The other 18 councils (82 per cent of the total) have no overall control: and five of these are now Independent-led (Anglesey, Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Pembrokeshire and Powys). Left of Labour parties, as Appendix 9 shows, had 18 candidates and their total vote was 1,807. Respect Renewal did not stand any candidates. The Left List had three candidates (two in Cardiff, one in Swansea) who got a total of 186 votes; and their average vote was 62. Socialist Alternative/Socialist Party had four candidates (three in Cardiff, one in Swansea) who got a total of 804 votes; and their average vote was 201. Wales Communist Party’s 11 candidates (three in Cardiff, three in Rhondda Cynon Taff, two in Caerphilly, one in Merthyr Tydfil, one in Swansea and one in Pontypridd) got a total of 817 votes; and their average vote was 82. Hence, although the Socialist Alternative/Socialist Party had the highest votes – with their candidates receiving 376 votes in Cardiff Pentwyn, 172 in Swansea Castle 158 in Cardiff Canton, and 98 in Cardiff Adamstown – over 60 per cent of the Left of Labour parties’ candidates were communists. Wales Communist Party candidates also got 45.21 per cent of the total Left of Labour vote, which was slightly more than the Socialist Alternative/Socialist Party share of 44.5 per cent, and substantially more than the Left List’s 10.3 per cent. In addition, as previously noted, a Wales Communist Party candidate was elected unopposed to Hirwaun and Penderyn Community Council. Hence, as John Osmond – Director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs – concluded:
Professor Richard Wyn Jones, Director of the Institute of Welsh Politics at Aberystwyth University, said: I have heard so many rumours about the low levels of party membership, even in areas where Labour does well electorally, that this comes as no surprise. I’ve heard of whole constituencies with Labour MPs that have a maximum of 20 members, although because people don’t want to talk about it on the record there’s no way of confirming it. Everybody knows that Labour’s membership has fallen off the cliff. The people who joined when New Labour was in the ascendancy have now gone, and a lot of traditional Labour Party members have got fed up with New Labour. It’s an ageing membership too. Very few young people are joining, and the party’s youth structure is collapsing. The party is in deep, deep trouble….Clearly Labour used to be a class-based party... New Labour changed all that, but the project is now collapsing. 890 Social historian Peter Stead said: I think the Labour Party should think very carefully before scrapping local branches. In many parts of Wales the party’s battles with Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats are based on local issues. If you don’t have active local branches campaigning on local issues, you risk losing seats.891 The abolition of branches has always been a central aim of New Labour. For example, in 1996 the then Director of the North West Region – David Evans who subsequently became an Assistant General Secretary and is now a consultant – wrote an internal report entitled The New Labour Party: a vision of organisational modernisation: which stated that ‘[o]nce policy-making is removed from branch and constituency then an Executive or Officers can undertake the business’ and that ‘[r]epresentative democracy should as far as possible be abolished in the Party’.892 Therefore this latest proposal to abolish branches in the Wales Labour Party needs to be vigorously resisted and defeated by the whole of the Welsh labour movement. Since, as John Foster argues, without ‘the mobilisation of trade unions and constituency parties to fight for the restoration of internal Labour Party democracy…which could be driven forward and given momentum by mass campaigning in a way which impacts directly upon the struggle between left and right inside the trade union movement and the Labour Party 893, the revival of class politics at the community, local and national levels in Wales, as in Scotland and England, on the scale needed will not be possible. The local elections in England on 4 June 2009 There are now 405 local councils in England (excluding the City of London and the Greater London Authority), Wales and Scotland (see Table 6.1). However, on 4 June 2009 on the same day as the European Parliament elections, local elections were held for 2,363 seats in only 34 English councils: 27 county councils and seven single-tier or unitary authorities responsible for all local government functions in their areas (see Table 11.8).894 Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, on 10 May 2009, had predicted that New Labour was in danger of losing up to half the 500 seats and all four councils it was defending mainly outside the big cities: because the opinion polls suggested that there had been a swing of about 10 per cent from Labour to the Tories since the last time most of these seats were contested on general election day 2005. They also predicted that the Conservatives would gain 300 seats; and that the Liberal Democrats would ‘lose out as many Tory candidates sailed past them on the back of voters switching directly from Labour’.895 In 2008, as Rallings and Thrasher noted, New Labour’s 24 per cent share was ‘the lowest share of the vote ever recorded for either of the two major parties at a local election’.896 Hence New Labour’s 22 per cent share of the vote on 4 June 2009 was their worst on record. The Conservatives with 35 per cent were down 8 points compared to 2008; the Liberal Democrat’s share of 25 per cent was two points higher than in 2008 and they were the only one of the three main parties to increase their projected share from last year's local elections. The 18 per cent share for others was by far the highest on record. Previously, the highest total for others was 10 per cent, which was reached in four recent local elections: 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 (see Table 11.1). That is, the damage done by the MPs’ expenses scandal (and ministerial resignations in the case of New Labour) reduced the two main parties share (though not that of the Liberal Democrats) with minor parties and others the main beneficiaries. Yet, despite the current discontent with politicians of all parties, this did not appear to have had much effect on turnout, which on 4 June 2009 was around the long-term local election average of 35 per cent.897 New Labour, as Table 11.8 shows, won 178 seats in the local elections held in England on 4 June 2009: but had a net loss of 291 councillors and four county councils: Derbyshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire.898 Hence New Labour did worse than Rallings and Thresher predicted with the loss of two-thirds of the 500 seats they were defending. Conversely, the Conservatives – who won 1,531 seats (more than six of every 10 seats contested) and had a net gain of 244 councillors – now control all 27 county councils except Cumbria, which has no overall control, and four unitary councils (Central Bedfordshire, Isle of Wight, Shropshire and Wiltshire).899 The Liberal Democrats won 484 seats with a net loss of two councillors: and – although they gained control of Bristol from No Overall Control and it was Labour rather than the Tories that they damaged – they lost control of Devon and Somerset to the Tories who gained over 50 seats in the far southwest (including on the new Cornwall council, which was previously controlled by the Liberal Democrats, where the Tories were now the largest party). The Greens won 18 seats with a net gain of eight councillors. UKIP now had seven county councillors (four in Staffordshire and one each in Norfolk, Nottinghamshire and Suffolk). Table 11.8 Local election results 4 June 2009
Source: BBC News (2009a) The fascist BNP had 450 candidates and now had three county councillors: one each in Hertfordshire, Lancashire and Leicestershire.900 In Burnley, Lancashire, the fascist BNP had had borough councillors ever since 2002; in North West Leicestershire, they had had two district councillors since 2007; in both Burnley and NW Leicestershire the newly elected councillors were already BNP borough/district councillors, and in particular they were among the handful of BNP councillors who actively carry out their role and are known in their communities. The third fascist BNP win was in South Oxhey, a far-right stronghold for very many years. In most counties the fascist BNP polled abysmally, coming bottom or next to bottom of the list of candidates. Though there were moderately good percentages for the fascist BNP in pockets of the East Midlands, but poor results pretty much across the board in Yorkshire and the Humber, the South West and the South East. In Essex, the only county where the fascist BNP contested every division, it got over 20 per cent only in one Basildon and one Epping Forest division. On the other hand, many areas that in the past had returned a strong fascist BNP vote, such as Stoke-on-Trent and Bradford, did not have local elections in 2009.901 The “others”, as Rallings and Thrasher observe, ‘often polled heavily without winning, and in almost one in six wards their presence led to a fall in the share of the vote for all three major parties’.902 Despite the latter, however, the key feature of the local election results on 4 June 2009 was the further collapse in New Labour’s vote, which as Rallings and Thrasher concluded marked the end of the electoral coalition that Tony Blair believed would enable his party to govern for much of the 21st century in the same way as the Tories dominated the 20th….The map of England’s shires [was P.L] almost unremittingly blue and Labour...[had P.L.] 50 fewer county councillors than even at its previous low point in 1977….Labour [was P.L.] reduced to just three councillors (from 32) in Staffordshire, and lost more than 20 seats in both Lancashire and Nottinghamshire.903 The local elections in England on 6 May 2010 Elections were held for 8,666 seats in 164 local authorities in England on 6 May 2010, comprising:
• 2,444 seats on 36 metropolitan borough councils that elect by thirds • 1,061 seats on 20 unitary authorities that elect by thirds • 3,300 seats on 76 shire district councils that elect by thirds and 199 seats on seven shire district councils that elect by halves There were no elections in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or the remaining Unitary Authorities and Shire Districts in England.904 Four mayoral elections were also held (see Appendix 5). Table 11.9 Local election results 6 May 2010
Source: House of Commons Library, 2010b, p. 3, p. 5 In 2009 New Labour’s share of the vote was 22 per cent – the lowest, as noted above, ever recorded for either of the two major parties at a local election. Hence New Labour’s estimated 29 per cent share of the vote on 6 May 2010 was seven points higher than in 2009. The Conservatives with 36 per cent were up one point compared to 2009; and the 23 per cent share for the Liberal Democrats was two points lower than in 2009. However, the 18 per cent share for others in 2009 – by far the highest on record – fell to 12 per cent in 2010 (see Table 11.1). That is, as in 2005 when the local and general elections were last held on the same day, smaller parties in 2010 were squeezed by the two main parties. In 2009 when only local elections were held, moreover, turnout was around the long-term local election average of 35 per cent, whereas in the 2010 English local elections held on the same day as the general election in England it was 65.4 per cent.905 The Conservatives – who are still the hegemonic force in local politics (see below) –won 3,533 seats, representing 41 per cent of the total contested and had a net loss of 93 seats (see Table 11.10). The party won over half the contested seats in shire districts and gained 12 seats. By contrast, in metropolitan boroughs they won 24 per cent of the seats contested, a decrease of 47 seats. The Conservatives do not have any councillors on several metropolitan borough councils, including Gateshead, Knowsley, Liverpool, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sheffield.906 They won or retained control of 68 councils, a net loss of seven, comprising five gains (Richmond-upon- Thames from the Liberal Democrats plus Craven, Gosport, Hart and Redditch from no overall control [NOC]) and 12 losses (three – Ealing, Enfield and Harrow – to Labour; one – Winchester – to the Liberal Democrats; and eight – Bury, Hyndburn, Lincoln, Mole Valley, North Tyneside, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Redbridge and Solihull – to NOC.907 And the Tories only now control 11 out of the 32 London boroughs – Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Hammersmith and Fulham, Havering, Hillingdon, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond upon Thames, Wandsworth and Westminster. Labour won 3,017 seats, 35 per cent of the total contested and had a net gain of 391 seats (see Table 11.10). The party won 50 per cent of the contested seats in metropolitan councils and 49 per cent in London boroughs; and gained 23 seats in shire district, 16 per cent of the contested seats. Labour has no representation on several shire district councils.908 Labour won or retained control of 39 councils, a net gain of 17 (three – Ealing, Enfield and Harrow – from the Conservatives, Liverpool from the Liberal Democrats and 13 from NOC, including seven London boroughs (Brent, Camden, Hounslow, Islington, Lewisham [previously with no majority of councillors, but Labour-led due to its Labour elected mayor], Southwark and Waltham Forest), three metropolitan councils (Coventry, Doncaster and St. Helens), two shire district (Hastings and Oxford), and one unitary authority (Hartlepool).909 And Labour now controls 17 out of the 32 London boroughs – Barking and Dagenham, Brent, Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Harrow, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. Mirroring its performance in the general election, the Liberal Democrats failed to take advantage of Nick Clegg’s pre-election popularity – they won 1,675 seats, 19 per cent of seats contested, and had a net loss of 208 (see Table 11.10). The party won 22 per cent of contested shire district seats, 21 per cent in metropolitan boroughs and 10 per cent in London boroughs where they have no representation in 14 boroughs.910 They won or retained control of 16 councils (Kingston-upon-Thames, Sutton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Stockport, Bristol, Kingston-upon-Hull, Portsmouth, Burnley, Cambridge, Cheltenham, Eastleigh, South Lakeland, St. Albans, Three Rivers, Watford and Winchester)911; and had a net loss of one (they gained three councils [Winchester from the Conservatives, Burnley and Cheltenham from NOC] and lost four [Richmond-upon-Thames to the Conservatives, Liverpool to Labour and Rochdale and Sheffield to NOC]).912 Other minor parties and independent candidates won 441 seats – representing five per cent of the total contested – were also squeezed by Labour and the Tories (see Table 11.10). The Greens won or retained 37 seats and had a net loss of seven councillors (including five in Lewisham where they now only have one councillor). UKIP won eight seats and had a net loss of four. seats. Respect won four seats and had a net loss of eight seats. The Socialist Party had a net loss of three councillors (two in Lewisham and one in Coventry). The fascist BNP, which stood 737 candidates in the local elections – due to the campaigning by Hope not Hate/Searchlight, Unite Against Fascism, the trade unions and Labour Party activists – won or retained 19 seats and had a net loss of 27 councillors (including all its 12 councillors in Barking and Dagenham). In Leeds the BNP's only councillor lost his seat; in Stoke, where the party had claimed to be on the verge of taking control of the council, it lost two councillors; and they also lost three councillors in Epping Forest, and two in Burnley. They averaged 9.5 per cent of the vote, which was well down on previous years. Some of the biggest declines were in its target areas. In 2006 the BNP averaged 41 per cent of the vote in the seven wards it contested in Barking and Dagenham. In these same seven wards the BNP average vote this time dropped to 23.3 per cent: but it still had its highest average share of the vote here. However, as Nick Lowles concludes: Any BNP vote of above 20 per cent in 2010 is...a potential winning vote in a non-general election year, especially with a declining economy and massive cuts among the lower skilled end of the public sector, which we are likely to see over the next couple of years. The BNP managed to obtain above 20 per cent in 25 council wards, The party solidified its strength in South and West Yorkshire....It re-emerged organisationally in Bradford but dropped back in Keighley and Kirklees. Pendle, in the North West, produced the top and third highest BNP council ward votes in the country and across the borough the party averaged 16.9 per cent, second only to Barking and Dagenham. Elsewhere in the region, the BNP averaged 15.8 per cent in Burnley, 10.2 per cent across 15 wards in Tameside and 8.3 per cent across 19 wards in Wigan, including 20 per cent in one ward that it had never contested before and where it did little this time round.913 Party control of local government Following structural reorganisation on 1 April 2009, as shown in Chapter 6, the total number of councils fell by 35 and the number of councillors by 1,312. Appendix 12 shows the party affiliation of British councillors from 1973 to 2010; and Appendix 13 shows the overall political composition and control of local government in 2010. The Conservatives had 9,447 councillors following the elections held on 6 May 2010, which was 106 fewer than in June 2009 – but still 46 per cent of the total. Moreover, the proportion of Conservative councillors has risen consistently since 1996 when they only had 19 per cent of the total (see Appendix 12). The Conservatives also controlled 226 councils – 56 per cent of the total in England, Scotland and Wales in June 2009.914 And following the May 2010 elections the Tories still control 202 councils – 50 per cent of the total in the three nations (see Appendix 13). In England the Tories control 57 per cent of all councils; 96 per cent of county councils; 44 per cent of unitary authorities, 34 per of London boroughs (down from 47 per cent in 2009); eight per cent of metropolitan borough councils (down from 28 per cent in 2009); and 57 per cent of district councils (down from 72 per cent in 2009). In both June 2009 and May 2010, however, the Conservatives only controlled two councils in Wales; and none of the 32 unitary authorities in Scotland.915 Conversely, the number of Labour councillors in England, Scotland and Wales fell by 6,502 between 1996 and 2009 from 10,929 (48 per cent) to 4,427 councillors (21 per cent) – their lowest number since the reorganisation of local government in 1973 (see Appendix 12). the number of Labour councillors in England, Scotland and Wales fell by 6,502 between 1996 and 2009 from 10,929 (48 per cent) to 4,436 councillors (21 per cent) – their lowest number since the reorganisation of local government in 1973 (see Appendix 12). Moreover, although the number of Labour councillors increased by 373 from 4,436 in June 2009 to 4,809 in May 2010, still only 23 per cent of all councillors in the three nations are Labour. Similarly, 23 per cent of English councillors were Labour in May 2010 (up from 21 per cent in June 2009); and 28 per cent of councillors in Scotland and 27 per cent in Wales were Labour. New Labour only controlled 55 councils in May 2010 (up from 40 councils in 2009) – 14 per cent (up from 10 per cent in 2009) of the total number of councils in England, Scotland and Wales. In England in May 2010, as in June 2009, they controlled no county councils; 18 per cent [up from 15 per cent in June 2009] of unitary authorities; 53 per cent [up from 24 per cent in June 2009] of London boroughs; 44 per cent [up from 36 per cent in June 2009] of metropolitan borough councils and 4 per cent [up from 3 per cent in June 2009] of district councils). And New Labour only controlled two councils in Scotland (as in 2009) and two (as in 2009) in Wales. Moreover, though in England in 2009 the Liberal Democrats with 3,746 councillors had 17 more councillors than Labour with 3,729 councillors, in 2010 Labour with 4,809 had 964 more councillors than the Liberal Democrats with 3,845 councillors in England.916 The number of Liberal Democrat councillors fell in both 2006 and 2007, but increased in 2008 to 4,467. Following the local elections on 4 June 2009 they had 4,083 councillors (20 per cent of the total) – that is, 384 fewer than in 2008. In May 2010 they had 3,844 councillors (19 per cent of the total); that is, 239 fewer than in 2009 (see Appendix 12). The Liberal Democrats also control no councils in Scotland or Wales; and in England they only control 25 councils – down from 36 in 2009.917 In May 2010 there were 362 (as in 2009) SNP, 207 (as in 2009) Plaid and 119 Green councillors (136 in 2009, and 125 in 2008). The breakdown of the 'other' 1,845 councillors (nine per cent of all councillors) was as follows: Independents 1,613 (1,633 in 2009 and 1,865 in 2008); Residents Associations 126 (120 in 2009 and 122 in 2008); fascist BNP 28 (60 in 2009 and 55 in 2008); Liberal Party 25 (24 in 2009 and 26 in 2008); UKIP 21 (16 in 2009 and 11 in 2008); Independent Community and Health Concern 10 (10 in 2009 and 11 in 2008); People's Voice eight; Respect five (15 in 2009 and 16 in 2008); Social Democratic Party four; Mebyon Kernow three (three in 2009 and seven in 2008); Socialist Alliance one (four in 2009); and Scottish Socialist Party one (one in 2009 and 2008).918 Independents controlled 12 councils following the local elections on 6 May 2010: four district councils in England (Boston, Epson and Ewell, Mansfield and West Somerset), five councils in Wales (Blaenau Gwent, Isle of Anglesey, Merthyr Tydfil, Pembrokeshire and Powys) and three councils in Scotland (Orkney, Sheltland and the Western Isles).919 And the total number of authorities under no overall control was 112 (28 per cent) – 72 (20 per cent) in England, 27 (84 per cent) in Scotland and 13 (59 per cent) in Wales (see Appendix 13).920 New Labour’s worst ever European election result In the 2009 European elections overall turnout across Europe was just under 43 per cent – the lowest ever – and the centre-left vote slumped as ‘the centre-right seized the ground from social democracy by being often more interventionist than Gordon Brown’.921 Indeed, the gap in seats between the centre-right and centre-left groups in the new EU assembly is now 100 – up from a previous 70. The turnout in Britain – with local elections held on the same day – was even lower at 34.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent less than in 2004.922 New Labour’s political crisis in local government was compounded by its being beaten into third place by UKIP; and the fascist BNP gained its first seats at Brussels. Only 2,381,760 voted Labour – 15.7 per cent, which was 6.9 per cent less than in 2004 and only 5.3 per cent of the electorate. This was Labour’s worst national election result since the December 1910 General Election when it contested 56 seats, returned 42 members and received 371,772 votes, which was 7.1 per cent of the total vote.923 Moreover, for the first time since 1918 Labour failed to come first in a Welsh election with 138, 852 votes and its share of the vote dropping 12.2 per cent from 32.5 per cent to 20.3 per cent – behind the Tories whose vote increased by 21.2 per cent to 145,193. New Labour now only has 13 MEPs out of 72 – five fewer than previously. But while the Labour vote fell by 1,336,923, there was no great enthusiasm for the alternatives. The Tory vote fell by 198,696 from 4,397,090 in 2004 to 4,198,394; and, although the highest at 27.7 per cent, was only up one per cent, and they only increased their seats by one to 27. The UKIP vote also fell – by 152,542 from 2,650,768 in 2004 to 2,498,226. UKIP’s share of the vote, despite being more than New Labour’s, only rose by 0.5 per cent to 16.5 per cent; and their seats only increased by one to 13. Similarly, the Liberal Democrats in fourth place behind New Labour got 371,714 less votes than in 2004 with their vote falling from 2,452,327 to 2,080,613; and their 13.7 per cent share of the vote, although their seats increased by one to 11, was 1.2 per cent less than in 2004. Nationally, only the Green, SNP, socialist and fascist BNP votes increased. The Green’s vote increased by 275,462 from 1,028,283 to 1,303,745; and, although they still only have two MEPs, their share of the vote rose 2.4 to 8.6 per cent. The fascist BNP’s vote increased by 135,398 from 808,200 to 943,598; their share of the vote rose 1.3 to 6.2 per cent; and they won their first two seats (one in the North West where the vote actually fell by 2,865 and the other in the Yorkshire and Humber region where it fell by 6,399). Nick Griffin, the party leader, was elected in the North West with 8 per cent of the vote and Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and the Humber with 9.8 per cent. Both won the final seats allocated in their regions with the lowest possible percentages, because of the precise way the votes for the other parties fell. In Yorkshire and the Humber, the Labour vote fell so far – to less than double the fascist BNP vote – that they only took one seat. Nearly 70 per cent of the electorate in these two regions did not vote and these disillusioned working class voters and their families – who did not believe the Labour government or party was defending jobs, incomes or public services – enabled the fascist BNP with fewer votes than in 2004 to win these two seats. The BNP did badly in the South East (4.4 per cent), South West (3.9 per cent), London (4.9 per cent) and Wales (5.4 per cent). Even in the East of England, where the party at one stage thought it might take a seat, it polled only 6.1 per cent. In Scotland, where the fascist BNP has never had much support, it got 2.5 per cent. In the West Midlands the fascist BNP’s 8.6 per cent was not enough to allow Simon Darby, the deputy leader, to win. Likewise the East Midlands, which only has five seats, gave the fascist BNP 8.7 per cent. In the North East, which sends just three MEPs to the European Parliament, the fascist BNP got 8.9 per cent of the vote. This was the fascist’s biggest election effort ever. The party poured up to £0.5 million into the campaign, hoping the investment would yield all the funding to which MEPs are entitled and the chance to link up with nazis and fascists internationally.924 Without the mass campaigning by Searchlight/ Hope not Hate and Unite against Fascism, moreover, the fascist BNP’s vote would have been even higher; and the fact that in the days following the election results over 60,000 joined the Hope not Hate campaign was significant.925 The SNP’s vote increased by 89,502 from 231,505 to 321,007; and, although they only retained their two seats, their share of the vote rose 0.7 to 2.1 per cent. The socialist share of the vote, which is further discussed in Chapter 13, only increased by 0.13 per cent from 1.9 per cent in 2004 (when just Respect and the Scottish Socialist Party stood) to 2.21 per cent in 2009 (when the Socialist Labour Party, No2EU-Yes to Democracy, the Scottish Socialist Party and the Socialist Party of Great Britain all stood): that is, by 17,273 from 313,572 to 340,805.926 The results of the general election on 6 May 2010 In the 2010 General Election only 18.9 per cent of the electorate voted Labour and its share of the vote (29 per cent) and number of seats (258) was the lowest since 1983 when Michael Foot was leader and the SDP breakaway occurred (see tables 11.10 to 11.12). And Labour’s net loss of 91 seats was the most they have lost since 1931. Conversely, at its zenith in 1997, New Labour’s share of the vote was 43.2 per cent and it had 419 seats. Labour’s support fell by 6.2 per cent compared to 2005: but the party outperformed the final opinion polls by 2 per cent, suggesting a hardening of the Labour vote in the last hours of the election. Perhaps Labour’s last minute appeals to core voters worked. Or perhaps the general strikes in Greece – mobilised in large part by its strong and militant communist party, the KKE – against savage IMF-imposed cuts shown on TV screens during the week before the election underlined the overwhelming priority to keep the Tories out of office. The results for the Tories and Liberal Democrats were also unimpressive. For, although the Tories were deprived of a Commons majority by failing to get 16,000 extra votes in the 19 constituencies they came closest to winning927 and their share of the vote was 7.1 per cent more than Labour’s and their net gain in seats was 97, their 36.1 per cent share of the vote only increased by 3.8 per cent compared to 2005 (see Table 11.11). Moreover, the Liberal Democrat share of the vote – despite being 31 per cent in the polls following the first of the three TV leaders’ debates on 15 April 2010928 – was essentially unchanged on the 2005 total (having increased only 0.9 per cent to 23 per cent): and their net number of seats fell by five to 57. Nick Clegg’s rejection of calls for tactical voting in the last two days before polling also meant the Liberal Democrats lost out to a Tory-Labour squeeze in many seats that they might otherwise have won or kept. The votes for smaller parties, as in the local elections, were also squeezed by New Labour and the Tories. For example, the UK Independence Party – though it received 919,546 votes (an increase of 0.9 per cent to 3.1 per cent of the poll) – got no seats. The fascist BNP, which got 6.2 per of the vote and two seats in the 2009 Euro elections, boasted before the general election that it could gain as many as four MPs and stood 338 candidates – a record number for a far-right party in Britain – surpassing the 303 contested by the National Front in 1979. Yet, though the BNP received 564, 331 votes and increased its share of the vote by 1.2 per cent to 1.9 per cent it did not win any seats. The BNP’s losses in the local elections also coincided with party leader Nick Griffin’s resounding defeat in the parliamentary seat of Barking where he was beaten into third place, getting 18,000 fewer votes than Labour’s victorious candidate Margaret Hodge. Moreover, in the BNP's other key target seat of Stoke Central, the party's deputy leader Simon Darby came fourth behind Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, with 2,502 votes. In other key BNP areas, such as Burnley, the BNP vote also fell. In the two West Yorkshire constituencies of Dewsbury and Keighley the BNP vote was less than half of what it was in 2005. There were also some quite significant increases in the BNP vote in other constituencies, which reflects the changing areas of support for the party. For example, in Barnsley Central the BNP polled 8.9 per cent compared to just 4.9 in 2005. In nearby Rotherham the BNP polled 10.4 per cent as opposed to 6.6 per cent last time. The BNP increased its vote across Greater Manchester, Leeds and parts of the East Midlands. However, it did not do as well as expected in the North East and East of England. The party solidified its strength in South and West Yorkshire; and half its top ten general election results were achieved in the county. Hence, as Nick Lowles concluded: British National Party leader Nick Griffin is battling for his political future amid growing disquiet over his leadership, a disastrous electoral campaign and the overall running of the party....His former right-hand man Mark Collett had been arrested for threatening to kill him, the party’s website went down in the last few days of the campaign after the webmaster walked out, the party is being taken to court by the multinational company Unilever following the childish use of a Marmite jar on a version of its party political broadcast and its London organiser has been arrested for affray after being filmed kicking an Asian youth in the head. He also had to face a far more sophisticated and determined opposition.929 Table 11.10: Share of the vote and seats at general elections (1979-2010)
Source: http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/index.html?commentary.html; Table 11.10; Table 11.11 The Green Party received 285,616 votes (one per cent of the votes cast); and, although it share of the vote fell by 0.1 per cent, Caroline Lucas was elected as its first MP. Left Labour candidates did well and there is a socialist grouping of around 20 MPs in the new Parliament. Labour Representation Committee chair McDonnell got a majority of 10,824 in Hayes and Harlington and 54.8 per cent of the vote. Jeremy Corbyn increased his share of the poll by 3 per cent in Islington North to secure 24,276 votes – a 12,401 majority over the Liberal Democrats. In Luton North, socialist economics expert Kelvin Hopkins also increased his share of the poll. He won 21,192 votes, a 7,520 majority over the Tory candidate. Veteran campaigner Michael Meacher was returned in Oldham West and Royton with 19,503 votes, a majority of 9,352. National Union of Mineworkers president Ian Lavery entered Parliament as the new MP for the north-east constituency of Wansbeck. Miners' MP Dennis Skinner achieved a comfortable majority of 11,182 over the Conservatives in Bolsover: but his share of the poll dropped by 15 per cent, with a disturbing vote of 2,640 (6 per cent) for the fascist BNP. In Newport West Paul Flynn was returned with a majority of 3,544 over the Tories. Leading Scottish leftwinger Katy Clark easily beat the SNP in Ayrshire North and Arran with a majority of 9,895. And former Morning Star journalist John Cryer was returned to Parliament with a majority of 6,416 in Leyton and Wanstead. Left MP David Drew narrowly lost his seat in the highly marginal constituency of Stroud and Gordon Prentice lost to the Tories in Pendle by a margin of 3,585. Other left MPs returning to the Commons included Diane Abbott (Hackney North), Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley), Martin Caton (Gower), Nia Griffith (Llanelli), David Hamilton (Midlothian), David Heyes (Ashton-under-Lyne), Austin Mitchell (Great Grimsby), Linda Riordan (Halifax) and Mike Wood (Batley and Spen).930 Table 11.11: General Election results 6 May 2010
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