Labour risks losing hundreds of seats in spring town hall polls in a “sequel to the horror movie of the general election”, party chiefs were warned today.
A senior Labour MP said that continuing the “Corbyn Project” risked putting in peril many councillors in the May elections, which will be the first since the Tories smashed through the “red wall” of previously Labour stronghold constituencies running from the North through the Midlands to Wales.
Conservative MPs, who won in constituencies held by Labour for generations, would now be focused on building party bases in local government, he added, to consolidate on their victories.
“By blindly blundering on with the Corbyn Project, the party head office are throwing local councillors in the North and Midlands under the municipal bus,” said the MP.
“They are making a sequel to the horror movie of the general election. Hundreds of seats could be lost. Carry on with the Corbyn Project and voters will say ‘you did not listen to us — maybe we need to give you the message again’.”
Labour performed dismally in this year’s local elections, losing six town halls and 84 councillors, with the Tories being ousted in 44 councils and losing 1,330 councillors, and the Liberal Democrats gaining 10 town halls and 706 councillors.
The Tories will be seeking to make gains in May at Labour-controlled Bury council, having won both the Bury North and Bury South constituencies in the general election, as well as in Labour-held Wakefield where they gained the parliamentary seat.
They will also be targeting Peterborough and Stroud, and Labour-held Wolverhampton, having won Wolverhampton North East and Wolverhampton South West.
Local elections are set to take place in Barnsley, Bolton, Burnley, Bradford, Wigan, Sunderland, Hartlepool, Gateshead, Newcastle, Oldham, North Tyneside as well as in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and dozen of other town halls around the country, but not in London.
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After Labour crashed to its worst general election result since 1935, a major review has been launched. It will be led by senior figures including former leader Ed Miliband, ex-shadow education secretary Lucy Powell and Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood.
With camps already building around hopefuls to succeed Jeremy Corbyn, including Left-winger Rebecca Long-Bailey, Sir Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry, Ms Powell said the review must not “retreat into a factional-based analysis”.
The commissioners behind it said it was “wrong” to blame only the leadership or the position on Brexit for the heavy defeat. Apart from Tony Blair’s victories in 1997, 2001, and 2005, Labour has not won a general election for more than 40 years.