Crushing Defeat For Labour In Britain

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 13

Crushing Defeat For Labour In Britain

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright;

LONDON, May 10.

A crushing defeat for the Labour Party in local council elections throughout Britain have cast fresh doubts on the future of the Prime Minister (Mr Harold Wilson).

Results of municipal elections throughout England and Wales yesterday left the party in control of only two major cities Swansea and Stoke-on-Trent.

Labour showed a net loss of 1269 borough council seats and the Conservatives gained 1282. Labour, even in its long years out of national power, had prided itself on almost unrivalled sway over the day-to-day domestic issues in nearly all Britain’s towns and cities, but yesterday the country’s largest industrial work-ing-class areas switched allegiance to the Conservatives in a stinging rebuff to socialism.

Labour even crashed to humiliatiing defeat in the London boroughs it had governed for nearly 40 years. Labour yesterday controlled 20 of the 32 boroughs in the Greater London area, but results flooding in today showed they were now in control of only four.

One major disaster for Labour was at Hillingdon, an area near London Airport with a large coloured immigrant population. The Conservatives made a clean sweep

of all 60 Hillingdon seats.

Another setback was the losSf of power in the great steel town of Sheffield, which has been Labour-controlled for 40 years. There the Conservatives snatched power by capturing 56 seats to Labour’s 52. The pattern was repeated all over the country in the working-class areas in which Labour was given massive support when it swept to power in the 1964 General Election.

Government Ministers today readily admitted that the setback for the party's hopes was the worst they could remember. In the contest, the Conservatives picked up nearly 600 new seats, while 530 slipped from Labour’s grasp. Doubts about the future of Mr Wilson’s leadership of the Labour Government were published on the front pages of many newspapers.

The “Daily Mirror,” with the headline, “Labour Plunge to Election Disaster,” declared: “Enough is enough.” A front-page article by the publisher, Mr Cecil King, said: “Mr Wilson and his Government have lost all credibility, all authority.” In the article, duplicated in the “Sun,” a stabiemate of the “Daily Mirror,” Mr King, who heads the world’s largest

publishing empire, said it now was up to the Labour Party to elect a new leadersoon.

The “Daily Mirror,” which claims nearly 15 million readers, traditionally supports the Labour Party, and Mr King’s harsh attack shows that the newspaper’s breach with the party—at least, while Mr Wilson is leader, is complete and irretrievable.

Mr King said: “The Government, which was voted into office with so much good will only 3) years ago, has revealed itself as lacking in foresight, in administrative ability, in political sensitivity, and in integrity.” The attack revived speculation that Mr King may be working behind the scenes for the creation of a national coalition government, which he is reported to consider the best solution to Britain’s economic problems.