The Conservatives delivered a serious body blow to the Labour government yesterday when they staged a significant recovery in local council elections across England, winning nearly 600 seats in their best local election result in nearly 10 years.
But it was not entirely good news for the Conservatives, with the party dramatically losing the Romsey by-election, forced by the death of the former Conservative MP, Sir Michael Colvin, to the Liberal Democrats.
As Labour suffered the humiliation of witnessing Mr Ken Livingstone's election as the first directly-elected Mayor of London, there was more disappointment for the party when it became clear that its core voters in England had not turned out to vote and the Conservatives swept the board in the local elections.
The Conservatives had predicted that if they won 400 seats in the English councils it would be evidence of the party's revival in the face of a possible general election next year. And with 152 results declared (with one seat left to declare tomorrow) and Tory gains of 593 seats alongside Labour losses of 568 seats, the Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, claimed a major success for his tough line on popular policies such as law and order and asylum seekers.
The turn-out in the local elections was low, about 30 per cent. The Conservatives gained control of 16 councils, including Solihull in the west Midlands, a traditional Conservative stronghold.
The "darkest day" for New Labour saw the party lose control of 15 local councils in traditional Labour strongholds. Mr Livingstone described the disastrous local election results as a "wakeup call" for Labour, but the party's leader in the Commons, Ms Margaret Beckett, played down the losses.
"These are seats that were very good results for us four years ago. In 1996 we made hundreds of gains and the Tories lost almost 700. We recognised that we might well lose some of them this time and that is what has happened."
The Romsey by-election, however, was a disaster for the Tories. Defending a majority of 8,585 from the 1997 general election, the party lost out to the Liberal Democrat candidate, Ms Sandra Gidley, who achieved a staggering swing of 12.56 per cent from the Tories to win a 3,311 majority over the Conservative candidate, Mr Tim Palmer. The Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, described the result as a "fantastic launch pad for the general election".