Last week’s local council, mayoral and Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections were the last major electoral event before the general election.
Of course, local elections are primarily about local government and local services, but people vote on many different criteria, and often national politics plays an important role.
Not all councils run to the same timetable or cycle. In East Hampshire we didn’t have council elections this time, at either the district or the county tier. But there was the PCC election for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
I was pleased to see Donna Jones re-elected (pictured above with me). Donna has been very effective in the role and has a strong focus on rural crime and the importance of visible local policing. I’m looking forward to continuing to work closely with her.
But nearby council results were disappointing from a Conservative perspective, with the loss of Havant council (to no party having an overall majority), and Rushmoor to Labour. There were disappointments further afield, too.
There is no getting away from the fact that the implied national vote share between Labour and Conservative – calculated by the BBC at nine percentage points – even if not quite as large as opinion polls have had it, is still large.
Electoral results must always be taken with proper humility, and I do.
Over the weeks ahead there will be discussion about what opinion polls mean for the general election.
But MPs are participants, not commentators. Our job is not to predict the result; it is to give people reason to change the result.
There are only a few months to go until the general election – which will have a much higher turnout, and fewer people opting for independent candidates. There will be a clear choice.
It is incumbent on us in government to demonstrate in the meantime, our continued focus on what matters most to people – the economy and jobs, schools, healthcare, crime. And we must further deliver on what we know are their priorities – from getting inflation further down, to reducing NHS wait lists. It is about hard work and unity of purpose.
