Soft Tories want to give Boris a bloody nose after Partygate, Lammy says

6 May 2022, 02:55 | Updated: 6 May 2022, 03:08

Voters have defected from the Conservatives to Labour to give Boris Johnson a “bloody nose”, a senior MP has told LBC.

David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary and LBC presenter, believes “soft” Tories in London were upset at Partygate, the Rwanda migrant policy and the cost of living crisis.

Labour is hoping to deal Boris Johnson a serious blow by seizing key London boroughs in the local elections.

With results being counted across the capital and the rest of Britain, Sir Keir Starmer’s party have eyed Wandsworth, Barnet and even Westminster in their bid to turn the local authority map from blue to red.

They enjoyed early success in a Wandsworth ward considered to be a “bellwether” seat, the Wandle ward, with full results from the borough expected later.

Mr Lammy said: “My sense is, knocking on doors in London, the undecided category of voters are coming over to Labour.

“I think, in London, there were, if you like, soft one nation Conservatives who have been very uncomfortable really since Brexit, but certainly uncomfortable with both the rule breaking of Boris Johnson, policies like Rwanda that they’re not comfortable with, and certainly in London a sense that cost of living is cutting through and want to give Boris and the Conservatives a bloody nose, and are voting Labour.

“It's what I saw in Wandsworth, it’s what I saw in Barnet, I think in Westminster.”

Read more: Local elections 2022 live: First results in as Britain makes call on Boris

LBC’s Ben Kentish was told by Tory sources that they believed Barnet and Wandsworth would turn red – the latter having been Tory since 1978 – and Westminster might go too.

Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, told the BBC: "The further away you get from London, our sense is that the picture is better for us."

He added: "We've certainly thrown everything at it."

After results from 30 councils, Labour took Cumberland from no overall control.

But they suffered a setback in Hull, where the Liberal Democrats took the council from Sir Keir's party.