Tories are hopeful local elections will ONLY lose them ‘500 to 600’ seats over Brexit shambles

TORY chiefs’ hopes are growing that they can duck a council elections wipe out today as voters go to the biggest local polls since 2015.

Control of a total of 259 local authorities are up for grabs across England and Northern Ireland, with 8,804 councillors to be elected.

Conservative MPs have feared a vicious drubbing as angry Leave as well as Remain voters take revenge on the Government for the Brexit shambles.

Some Cabinet ministers have even predicted more than 1,000 council seat will be lost.

But CCHQ insiders now say they can limit the losses to “around 500 to 600 on a good night”.

A Tory figure told The Sun: “The private estimate is our vote will be more resilient than is generally thought.

“Much of the voting is in rural areas, where Labour haven’t made many in-roads in the last few years.

“The doorstep experience is also better than the national narrative.”

In contrast, then-PM John Major’s Tories lost more than 2,000 councillors in 1995 in a massive midterm wipe out.

A variety of hidden electoral factors are also expected to help hold up the Tory vote despite the Brexit anger, including a low turnout.

The doorstep experience is also better than the national narrative.

Tory insider

Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and the pro-EU Change UK party are only standing in the euro elections on May 23.

And a badly depleted UKIP is only managing to contest one in six local seats.

Instead, the Lib Dems are expected to be today’s big winners, having lost 400 councillors the last time the seats were fought in 2015, when Tory leader David Cameron also put on 500.

Much of rural England is up for grabs today, but the big cities of London, Birmingham and Bristol as well as Wales and Scotland are not voting.

In a blow to Labour, longterm supporter and Simply Red star Mick Hucknall declared he will abandon Jeremy Cobryn’s party.

The singer tweeted: “I won’t vote for Labour under the leadership of an anti semitic Brexit leaver. I won’t vote Conservative or fascist Farage. As the Chuka party refuses bring remainers together, I can’t see any other option than to vote Lib Dem or Green”.

Theresa May clashed with Jeremy Corbyn over today’s poll during PMQs.

The Labour leader insisted: “From social care to crime, from life expectancy to poverty, things are getting worse under her Government”.

But the PM hit back: “What do we see from Conservative councils up and down the country? Conservative councils give better services; they recycle more; they fix more potholes and they charge lower taxes.

“A vote for Labour is a vote for mismanagement, worse service and higher taxes. It’s Conservative councils that give better services and charge you less.”

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