Local elections 2023 – live: Tory backlash over ‘terrible’ results as PM urged to ‘do better’

Namita Singh,Matt Mathers and Emily Atkinson

Fri, 5 May 2023 at 3:12 pm BST

Rishi Sunak is facing pressure from senior Tories MPs to “deliver” on key issues if the party wants to avoid defeat at the next general election.

The prime minister had to show voters his party had made improvements in areas including the economy and the NHS before they go to the polls again, they said.

One former cabinet minister, who supported Mr Sunak’s bid to become Tory leader, told The Independent he now had to “deliver on his five priorities”, which included lowering waiting lists and inflation.

Lord Barwell, a Tory peer who served as Theresa May’s chief of staff in No 10, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Mr Sunak now had a “hell of a job” to undo the “damage Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have done to the Conservative brand.”

The Tories have suffered heavy losses across England, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats both making gains in what another Conservative MP described as a “terrible” night for his party.

The contests were the first to be fought under new rules requiring voters to carry photographic ID, and the elections watchdog said “regrettably” some people were turned away from polling stations as a result.

Key Points

• PM under pressure to ‘deliver’ on key priorities
• Disappointing to lose ‘hard-working’ colleagues – Sunak
• Starmer – Labour ‘blew doors off’ with Medway win
• Davey hails Lib Dem gains
• ‘Terrible’ night for Tories as Labour and Lib Dems make sweeping gains
• Voters ‘turned away for not having correct ID’
• Results coming in for local authority and mayoral contests across England