Local election results: Sunak breaks silence on ‘catastrophic’ vote collapse

Rishi Sunak has congratulated re-elected Tory Mayor Ben Houchen despite the Tees Valley candidate not acknowledging him during his victory speech.

Mr Sunak welcomed his “friend” and claimed Tees Valley wanted the Tory party to stick to the “plan that’s working” in a post on X.

This is despite Mr Houchen avoiding any mention of his party or Rishi Sunak as he thanked voters for “backing my plan for the next four years”. He also claimed to have forgotten to wear a blue rosette during the speech.

Mr Sunak said on X: “Huge congratulations to my friend Ben Houchen. Tees Valley want us to stick with the plan that’s working: Jobs up. Airport saved.

“Steelmaking back. Darlington Economic Campus. Excited for Ben to keep delivering more jobs and opportunities for local people.”

A defiant Rishi Sunak has argued that he can still win the general election, despite predictions he is on course to lose a near ‘catastrophic’ number of council seats. He pointed to results in Harlow and the Tees Valley.

Asked whether he needed to convince his own party he could do better when it came to a general election, a defiant Mr Sunak said: “If Keir Starmer was in Harlow on Wednesday saying that that was a place he needed to win in order to win the next general election – that hasn’t happened.

“We still haven’t got results from places like Tees Valley with the mayoralty results, which again is a key battleground.” Just minutes later his party won the race for Tees Valley mayor.

Ben Houchen has told Sky News that he “forgot” to wear a blue rosette when he went up to accept his victory in the Tees Valley mayoral race.

He said: “I was wearing a blue tie and blue socks”. Houchen held on over Labour’s Chris McEwan with 53.6 percent of the vote in the north east region around 20 points less than he got in 2021.

However, in his speech he avoided mention of his party or Rishi Sunak as he thanked voters for “backing my plan for the next four years”. Later on Sky News, he conceded that it had been “a shared effort”.

Lord Houchen got 81,930 votes (53.6 percent) and his Labour rival Chris McEwan 63,141 (41,3 percent). Lord Houchen nevertheless saw a collapse in his vote which was 78.8 percent in 2021.

Speaking in North Yorkshire, Mr Sunak told Sky News that Tees Valley was “a key battleground in a general election” and victory shows that he can lead his party to victory.

But Mr Houchen made it clear he would work with whoever becomes prime minister including Sir Keir Starmer.

Former Tory deputy party chair and now Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has insisted his party will win seats at a general election following success in the local elections on Thursday.

His new party narrowly lost out on second place during the Blackpool by-election by only 117 votes.

Mr Anderson – who defected in March – told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his party’s vote is “going up and up and up” and “the Tory vote is going down and down and down”.

Our political correspondent Zoe Grunewald has the full report:

Labour has conceded defeat in the hotly contested Tees Valley mayor race with a result which could save Rishi Sunak from facing a vote of confidence.

A Labour source told The Independent: “We would have needed a 23 percent swing to defeat Ben Houchen but we are well on the way to the 12.5 percent we would need t win every constituency in the region. This is little comfort to Rishi Sunak.”

Our political editor David Maddox has more in this breaking report:

Patrick Maguire of The Times reports a Labour source in Birmingham as holding out little hope for Labour candidate Richard Parker.

It comes as Tory Tees Valley candidate Ben Houchen receives a boost in Hartlepool.

The Liberal Democrats have gained the Chadlington and Churchill ward in West Oxfordshire from the Conservatives.

Foreign secretary David Cameron lives in that ward meaning he now has a local Lib Dem councillor. It is also home to Jeremy Clarkson’s farm.