London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Elections reflected Britain’s deep divisions over Brexit and Scotland’s future

Elections reflected Britain’s deep divisions over Brexit and Scotland’s future

Conservatives ride high in leave-voting areas of England, but face a challenge from Scottish nationalism
The Conservatives are on a high but are at risk of presiding over the breakup of Britain; Labour has yet to develop an effective political strategy to challenge Boris Johnson, while the Liberal Democrats are still stuck in the doldrums.

These were the key messages that emerged from Thursday’s bumper crop of local and devolved elections, whose results have now all been declared.

Typically, voters give the incumbent government a kicking in local elections – they represent a chance to protest without letting the opposition in. However, the Conservatives are enjoying a six-point lead in the opinion polls and that lead was fully reflected in the local ballot boxes.

The Conservatives made nearly 300 gains of English council seats, while Labour lost more than 250. Most of the turnover occurred where the elections should have been held last year but were postponed because of the pandemic. When they were last fought in 2016, Labour and the Conservatives were roughly even in the polls.

In contrast, the elections that should have been held this year were last fought in 2017, when the Conservatives had a double-digit lead. In these elections, there was actually a small swing to Labour – but that reflected how badly Labour did last time rather than provide evidence that the party had not done so badly after all.

The Conservative advance was much stronger in leave-voting areas than in remain-supporting ones. Rather than showing signs of disappearing, the Brexit division that led to the collapse of Labour’s red wall in 2019 was still very much in evidence.

That explains why, for example, Labour lost the (pro-Brexit) Hartlepool byelection and Durham county council, but had relatively little difficulty in getting Sadiq Khan reelected as mayor of (remain-voting) London and gained a new mayor in Cambridgeshire.

Labour has spent most of last year questioning Boris Johnson’s competence. That brought some dividends until the government came up trumps on vaccine delivery. At the same time, the party had hoped that now that Brexit was done, voters would put it behind them, too – but they have not.

The party has failed to develop a vision that poses a challenge to a Conservative government that is more interventionist than its predecessors, and which is happy to trumpet the benefits of Brexit. It might be wise to draw on the experience of the party in Wales, which largely withstood the Conservative tide and scored one of its best performances yet in a Senedd election.

Although the Liberal Democrats performed better in the local ballot boxes than their current standing in the polls, as they always do, they did little more than tread water. Their vote was up a point on 2016, but down one on 2017.

But if Johnson faces a weak opposition in Westminster, he is now confronted by a strong nationalist challenge in Scotland. Although the SNP narrowly failed to secure an overall majority at Holyrood, between them the nationalists and the Greens have a majority of 15 – and are pledged to hold another independence ballot.

The election results affirmed the message of the polls that Scotland is now divided down the middle on the independence question. A little more than half the constituency vote went to the three main unionist parties, while a little more than half of the list vote was secured by the three main nationalist parties.

This means that support in Scotland for staying in the UK is still significantly lower than it was before Boris Johnson embarked on a Brexit with which most voters in Scotland are out of sympathy. He now needs urgently to try to change their minds.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×