Labour Urges UK Election After Tory Losses

Britain's Labour party on Friday urged beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call a general election after making huge gains in English polls that included a seat in parliament

London, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 3rd May, 2024) Britain's Labour party on Friday urged beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to call a general election after making huge gains in English polls that included a seat in parliament.

Labour, out of power since 2010 and trounced by Boris Johnson's Conservatives at the last general election in 2019, won a host of local council seats and mayoral contests as well as the Blackpool South parliamentary seat.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said the emphatic victories nationwide, which included winning a new mayoral post encompassing Sunak's own northern English constituency, sent the prime minister a clear message to hold a nationwide vote.

"Voters in Blackpool South have sent a direct message to Rishi Sunak: make way, let's have a general election," he said after visiting Blackpool to congratulate the new MP there, Chris Webb.

Sunak must order a general election to be held by January 28 next year at the latest.

He insisted voters will re-elect his Conservatives, as he sought solace in a Tory mayor winning a third term in Tees Valley, in northeast England, albeit with a vastly reduced majority.

"Come a general election, (voters) are going to stick with us too," Sunak said, as he celebrated the rare Conservative win, for Ben Houchen, on an otherwise dismal day of results.

Labour enjoys a lead of around 20 points over the Tories in polls.

The embattled prime minister, in charge since October 2022, had earlier conceded results were "disappointing" so far but noted many were still to be announced.

"I am focused completely on the job at hand: that's delivering for people across the country," he told reporters.