Sir Michael Fallon warned Tories against complacency as the party seemed on course for its best local election results in 25 years.
The Defence Secretary did his best to douse excited talk of a landslide in the coming general election, insisting this morning: “There is nothing yet, really, to crow about.”
Accused on the BBC of “talking down” the gains, he pointed out that only a fifth of results were in and the picture could change, and also to lower turnouts in council elections. “This is not a prediction of a general election,” he said.
Privately, senior Conservatives said the gains were “reassuring”. But they also noted with caution that some were magnified by the Ukip collapse, while the Tory advance had proved tougher in some Labour-held cities such as Cardiff and Newport.
The results were spectacularly good for any party in government, when mid-term losses are more usual.
The first sweeping victory was in Lincolnshire, where Ukip leader Paul Nuttall will fight a general election seat but his party lost all nine seats it was defending. Conservatives also gained control of Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight and Monmouthshire. All are in regions rich with key marginal parliamentary seats.
The Tories increased their majority in Essex and won a clean sweep in the bellwether town of Harlow, visited by Mr Corbyn last week.
In Somerset the Tory leader was beaten by former Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt, but the Tories kept overall control. Conservatives replaced Labour as the largest party in Cumbria.
There was particular satisfaction in Conservative Campaign HQ that the Lib Dems did not make consistent gains in the West Country, putting a question mark over whether Tim Farron can win back seats in the Brexit-backing South-West region at the general election.
Tory Tim Bowles, who defeated Labour’s Lesley Mansell for West of England metro mayor, said: “People were saying ‘I haven’t traditionally voted Conservative, I haven’t voted Conservative before, but I will vote for you and I will vote Conservative in the general election because I want the strong leadership Theresa May provides’.”
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John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the results were already the best for the Tories in eight years and might prove to be “the best set of local election results for the Tories for 25 years or so” once the full picture is in tonight. “The Conservative party isn’t just wanting to win this [general] election, it’s wanting to win it big. It does, therefore, have to do extraordinarily well.”
