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Gut check for Labour Party leader as England votes

UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.

UK Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.

REUTERS/Toby Melville
Willis Sparks
By Willis SparksMay 02, 2023
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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On Thursday, millions of voters across England will cast ballots in the last set of local elections before a general election next year. At stake are more than 8,000 council seats … and the reputations of the two men leading the largest two parties.

For now, the Labour Party still holds a double-digit polling lead across the UK, but the party’s leader, Keir Starmer, faces doubts about his personal appeal.

As votes are counted in coming days, Labour hopes for local gains of at least 600 seats – though election experts insist the location of the seats matters too. Falling short of that number would leave Labour far less confident headed into next year, particularly at a time when doubts over Starmer’s likeability remain, and as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has restored some of the appeal his Conservative Party lost during the hyper-tumultuous premierships of David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss.

Local elections will follow two weeks from now in Northern Ireland, though there are no votes scheduled in Scotland or Wales.

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