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Mixture of Victory and Defeat for Labour in UK Local Elections

© REUTERS / Stefan WermuthBritain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn fields questions after giving a speech on Britain's membership of the European Union in London, Britain April 14, 2016.
Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn fields questions after giving a speech on Britain's membership of the European Union in London, Britain April 14, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Jeremy Corbyn's leadership questioned after Labour suffers humiliating defeat against the Tories in Scotland and the UK Independence Party's (UKIP) popularity rises.

The Tories, UKIP and the Scottish National Party (SNP) emerged as the winners in the UK local elections, held on Thursday (5th May), while the Labour party was weakened and lost seats in Scotland.

The UK took to the ballot box to vote for town councils and regional assemblies. For Scotland, the SNP finished first but did not win the majority, with 63 seats out of 129. Initial results have also shown that Labour had fallen to 3rd place in Scotland and Tories had over taken them in 2nd place as the main party. Until 2003, Labour was the majority party in Scotland.

Labour did however see some victory and exceeded expectations to secure a number of councils in southern England, winning Southampton, Crawley and Hastings

Deputy leader Tom Watson said the results in local government, in the South, were "definitely cause for comfort" for Labour.

"Yes these were local government elections with local conditions but these are still going to be the electoral battlegrounds in the general elections," he said.

Speaking in Sheffield, Jeremy Corbyn said, "All across England we were getting predictions that Labour was going to lose councils. We didn't, we hung on and we grew support in a lot of places."

However, these results have led many within Corbyn's own party to question his leadership and whether he is in fact the "man for the job" and can lead Labour to victory, just as Tony Blair did on three separate occasions under what was known as New Labour.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn offered a small amount of support for his leader and said:

"I don't think there is any complacency on the part of anybody in the party. We have a big task ahead, Jeremy was elected with a big mandate, our job is to support him but in the end it is the electoral test that counts.

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"And if we are going to be able to defeat this government then we have got to win more support in the months and the years ahead. This is the first stage, and we have made progress compared to last year, but we have a long way to go."

However, the most anticipated result is yet to be revealed, the election of the London Mayor, which will be announced later today is a key outcome for the Labour Party. The two main contenders, Sadiq Khan (Labour) and Zac Goldsmith (Conservative) will find out today who has won the position. It is hoped that this victory will help Jeremy Corbyn regain his flagging reputation amongst his party colleagues.

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