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Rishi Sunak suffered devastating losses of more than 1,000 Tory seats in the local elections, while Labour claimed that the party is on pace to take power at the next general election. The prime minister acknowledged the English council results were "disappointing" on Friday, but he was met with a harsh response from some of his MPs and the first signs of a challenge to his leadership from Boris Johnson's allies.

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Gaining more than 500 seats gave Labour leader Keir Starmer encouragement, and the party believes that with its anticipated vote share, it will be in a position to take power in 2024 for the first time in 14 years, reported the Guardian.

According to projections made by the BBC, using just local results from England, Labour received 35 per cent of the vote, followed by the Conservatives (26 per cent), the Lib Dems (20 per cent)), and other parties with (19 per cent).

With an equal vote share advantage of eight–nine per cent over the Tories, Labour anticipated this would be its best local election performance since 1997 on Friday night. If this happened again in a Westminster election, according to Labour sources, it might lead to a Starmer majority government. 

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In addition to gaining ground on the Conservatives in the north and the Midlands of England, Labour also won control of southern councils like Plymouth, Swindon, Dover, and Medway. This has not happened since the days of the local government's inception.

The party achieved unexpected victories in Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, the residence of Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, when the Tories lost overall control of the council.

The Tories lost more than 1,000 council seats by the end of Friday as bad news kept coming in throughout the day, and other councils were yet to publish their results.

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“Make no mistake, we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election,” Starmer stated, after previously warning his shadow party to exercise care and not becoming complacent about their chances of success.

More than 400 seats won by the Liberal Democrats against the Tories in the south of England raised their aspirations of being kingmakers in any hung parliament at the next election.

Their wins included Stratford-upon-Avon, the residence of the former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, and Windsor and Maidenhead, the local council of the former prime minister Theresa May.

A hung parliament was also predicted by the Scottish National Party, whose leader in Westminster, Stephen Flynn, asserted that it was "increasingly clear the SNP can hold the balance of power after the next election".

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