This election bloodbath was bad enough for the Tories – tactical voting could make it far worse

Labour is bridging the Brexit gap but is not yet poised to win a general election. One thing could change that…

Rishi Sunak will be grateful that the coronation bank holiday weekend diverts attention away from the electoral bloodbath his party suffered on Thursday. More than 1,000 Conservative councillors lost their seats, and 48 Tory administrations were swept out as voters turned against the government in local authorities across the length and breadth of England.

The BBC’s projected national share – which estimates how parties would do had the whole country behaved in a similar way to the places voting last week – put the Conservatives on 26%, down two points on an already awful 2019 performance. Labour won a projected 35 points, up seven on 2019. The nine-point projected Labour lead is the largest in two decades.