Local election results 2024 live: Labour claims victory for Sadiq Khan

Local election results so far demonstrate Rishi Sunak has “very little to show” for his efforts to recover the Conservative brand following Liz Truss’s premiership, Sir John Curtice said.

The election expert told the BBC: “There is nothing in these results to suggest contrary to the opinion polls that the Conservatives are actually beginning to narrow the gap on Labour, and that so far at least, Rishi Sunak’s project which has tried to recover from the disaster – from the Conservatives’ point of view – of the Liz Truss fiscal event, that project has still got very little to show for it.

“That in a sense is the big takeaway.

“Now the Conservatives, as when all parties do badly in elections, they always want you to focus on the exception rather than the rule, and Tees Valley and probably the West Midlands are the exceptions not the rule.”
On Labour losses over its stance on Gaza, Sir John said: “At the moment I think what we would find if we had a general election is that Labour might well fall back in some of these seats, but because the Labour Party is already so strong, they would probably still succeed in winning the parliamentary election.

“But yep, this is a big message to Labour from these local elections, is that you are indeed now in trouble with some of your Muslim former supporters.”