“Bad night” of results for Labour says Blunkett
The Home Secretary has admitted that the local election results are bad news for the Labour Party.
However he emphasised that though bad, they do not represent a “melt down”.
With around 90 per cent of the results in Labour has lost over 400 council seats.
They now control 37 councils to the Conservatives 45, having lost a net of six councils.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott later said the electorate had given Labour “a kicking”.
David Blunkett told the BBC this morning that: “I am mortified that we aren’t doing better than we have done.
“We know it has been a bad night.”
“It was a bad night for us but not melt down. There is no take-off for the Conservatives.”
The Conservatives gained overall control of 11 new councils.
Later in the afternoon, Mr Blunkett expressed his “relief” that Labour has held his home town of Sheffield.
Reflecting on the results, which many in the Labour Party are seeking as an Iraq backlash, Mr Blunkett said that the Government knew they were taking an “enormous risk” in invading Iraq.
He told Sky News that Labour must now “prove that we were right” in taking the UK war. Then he said the focus can return to domestic policies.
Mr Blunkett said there had also been an emotional reaction on the doorsteps to the publication in the Mirror of the faked photographs which purported to show British soldiers of abusing Iraqi prisoners.
He said: “That kind of emotional shock has an impact” and voters have not yet recovered.
The Labour Party’s priority now would be to “rebuild the confidence and morale at local level.”
