UK update

Both parties in the coalition government suffered heavy losses in the 2012 local elections. The Liberal Democrats had borne the brunt of public dissatisfaction for much of the first 2 years of the coalition. They had seen their opinion poll ratings fall below 10% and had performed badly in the 2011 local elections. Support for the Conservatives had held up until it fell sharply in the spring of 2012. The 2012 budget ‘omnishambles’ (e.g. the cut in the 50% tax rate for top earners, the ‘granny tax’ and ‘pasty tax’ — see PoliticsReviewOnline), the double dip recession and revelations about close links between ministers and News International at the Leveson inquiry made the government appear incompetent and revived negative stereotypes of the Conservatives as a party promoting the interests of the wealthy few rather than the many.

Labour established a double digit lead in the opinion polls and made a net gain of 32 councils in the local elections (Table 1), taking Dudley, Great Yarmouth, Harlow, Plymouth, Redditch and Southampton directly from the Conservatives. The Conservatives also lost a further seven councils and the Liberal Democrats one to ‘no overall control’. Labour’s share of the vote rose by an average of 16%, and it did better still in seats held by the Liberal Democrats. Its estimated national equivalent share of the vote was 39%. Turnout of only 32% in England suggests that many Conservative supporters stayed at home. Others defected to UKIP which averaged 12% where it fielded candidates but could not add to its small total of councillors.