Local elections: Former Tory minister reveals he voted Labour for first time since 1997

‘First time I’ve voted Labour since an equally glorious May morning in 1997’

Former Tory MP Nick Boles

Former Conservative minister Nick Boles has revealed he voted Labour for the first time since Tony Blair’s 1997 general election landslide.

It comes as polling stations closed in the local elections across England, Scotland, and Wales, with voters casting their ballots in thousands of council seats to select local representatives.

Mr Boles – the former Tory MP for Grantham and Stamford – tweeted earlier on Thursday: “First time I’ve voted Labour since an equally glorious May morning in 1997”.

Mr Boles, who served in David Cameron’s government, quit the Conservatives in April 2019, after accusing his former party of failing to compromise over Brexit and walked out of the Commons chamber.

First elected under the Tory banner at the 2010 election, he remained as an Independent MP until November 2019 before deciding he would not seek re-election as a snap election sought by Boris Johnson.

After sharing his decision to vote Labour on Thursday, Mr Boles also retweeted a message from Sir Keir Starmer, which read: “Today is our chance to send the Tories a message they can’t ignore: Britain deserves better.”

“Make a plan to vote and tell your friends and family to do the same,” it added.

In England, more than 4,000 councillors in 146 councils were standing for election in major cities including Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and all 32 London boroughs.

All of Scotland’s 32 councils – last contested in 2017 – and 22 Welsh councils are also up for grabs.

With counting now underway, the first results, including major Labour London targets of Wandsworth and Barnet, are expected to declare in the early hours of Friday morning.

The results will be considered a major mid-term test for the Conservatives amid the ongoing Partygate scandal, with police still investigating events in No 10, and the deepening concern over the cost-of-living crisis.

Writing for The Independent before voters headed to the polls, the polling expert professor Sir John Curtice claimed: “At first glance, the omens are not good for Boris Johnson.

“His party shows no sign of recovering the poll lead it enjoyed in this parliament until his probity and ethics became the subject of controversy. On average the Conservatives currently trail Labour by six points. That represents as much as a nine-point swing since the 2019 general election.”

He suggested the election could “well produce Tory losses of a few hundred seats – but it would not necessarily look like a tsunami that threatened to sweep Johnson out of Downing Street”.