Labor Scores Big in British Local Councils Vote

In a near-record showing, Britain’s resurgent Labor Party seemed to be reaping nearly half the votes cast for local councils Thursday, supporting predictions of a trouncing for Prime Minister John Major’s Conservatives.

With results declared in 280 of the 346 councils at stake in England and Wales, Labor controlled 133 councils, the Conservatives seven, and the centrist Liberal Democrats 37. Among the rest, no party had overall control.

In Wales, the Conservatives lost their only local authority, Monmouthshire, making it almost certain that--as in Scotland--they will control no local authorities.

“It’s looking extremely good,” said Labor leader Tony Blair, whose reforms have made the left-of-center party more attractive to middle-class voters.

A BBC computer analysis predicted that Labor would finish with 47% of the vote, with the Conservatives crumbling to 24%, their worst-ever showing, and the centrist Liberal Democrats getting 23%.

The Conservatives appeared on course to lose about 2,000 seats altogether in town halls, which some analysts believe could trigger a challenge to Major’s leadership of the party.

Thirty-four million Britons were eligible to vote.

After two successive debacles in annual municipal ballots, the Conservatives were down to running 66 councils before the vote, compared to 93 for the opposition Labor Party. The Liberal Democrats, traditionally strong in local elections, had 31.

Despite economic revival under the Conservatives’ 16-year leadership, most Britons do not believe things are getting better. Labor, reformed to appeal to the middle class, is racing ahead under Blair, its new leader.

In national polls, Labor has been ahead of the Conservatives by 28 points or more for the last 10 months.

National elections must be held by the spring of 1997.