Tories and Labour hail local elections as positive forecast for national vote in Peterborough

Both Peterborough’s Conservative MP and Labour parliamentary candidate say the local election results bode well for them at the upcoming general election.

Paul Bristow and Andrew Pakes will be among the candidates vying to represent Peterborough in Westminster when the election is called some time over the next nine months.

Mr Bristow said after last week’s council election results that “the good news for the Conservatives in the Peterborough constituency is that we have won the popular vote”.

“If you look elsewhere in the country, the share of the vote will be way down, but in Peterborough, I’m beating the Labour Party which tells me it’s game on come the general election,” he said.

“All I need to do is get the same result and I’ll stay the MP for Peterborough.”

The Conservatives indeed took 29.5 per cent of the overall vote across Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) 22 electoral wards at the local elections, ahead of Labour which took 27 per cent.

But Labour gained five seats, bringing their total on the council to 19 out of 60, while Conservative numbers were slashed in half, from 22 to 11.

Some of their margins were nail-bitingly close: Labour took Park ward from the Conservatives by two votes and Dogsthorpe by six.

‘Clutching at straws’

Mr Pakes said the Conservatives are “clutching at straws if they’re trying to turn it into a victory for themselves”.

“All parties should regard them with a degree of humility, but the results show Peterborough is turning its back on the Conservatives and Labour is making steady and positive progress,” he added.

Labour became the largest group on the council, but Peterborough First, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens also made gains.

Mr Bristow and Mr Pakes will also face challenges from other parties at the general election, with Nick Sandford running for the Liberal Democrats, Nicola Day for the Greens and Sue Morris for Reform UK.

But the overall share of the vote at the local elections was split between more parties – such as Peterborough First – and independents; not to mention that turnout at general elections tends to be at least double that of local elections.

“There’s more to do,” Mr Pakes said. “No votes have been cast in the general election yet. Peterborough is going to be one of the most tightly fought elections in the country.”

Mr Bristow said the “overall result” at the local elections was positive.

“While we’ve lost votes in places like Dogsthorpe and Park and Bretton and that’s disappointing, the overall result means we’ve got more votes than the Labour Party and that’s definitely a positive thing,” he said.

“I was concerned coming into this election, I thought we’d do far worse than we did,” he added.

Which party or parties will run PCC is yet to be determined.