The UK local election

The local election in the UK has ended and the result I think largely reflects the population’s feelings about the government and the Parliament’s Brexit progress. Brexit has not made any real progress, and the population has a reason to blame the majority party, which is the Conservative party. The Conservative party suffered the worst local election in the last 20 years that the party lost 37 councils and more than 1000 seats. Usually the loss of the party in power means the win of the biggest opposition party; however, ironically the Labour Party also lost 86 seats in the local election. The defeat of the two parties I think was caused by the population’s disappointment about the current Brexit progress. The Conservative party does not have clear Brexit plan or strategy that though the Prime Minister has proposed a Brexit deal, the deal has faced a wide opposition within the Conservative party. In addition, it seems that the Labour Party does not want to cooperate with the Prime Minister who was looking for the support from the Labour Party. In addition, neither party is willing to form a cross-party cooperation to make any real progress on Brexit. Furthermore, given the current situation, the supporters for remaining in the EU are much angrier and the support for the Conservative party in the area where the majority supports remaining in the EU fell by a third based on the election rate.

On the other hand, the Liberal Democrats are the biggest winner of the local election. However, based on the current electoral system, the Liberal Democrats may further expand its political power in the next general election, but the expansion could be relatively limited.