Conservatives Get a Drubbing in Local Polls

The Conservatives are taking a beating in the local elections, the first round results show. The coalition is clearly facing the wrath of the voters for the state of the economy and the increasing unemployment.

The results from the regional council election show the Labour is well ahead of the Conservatives in key regions including Central and Southern England.

Some major councils including Southampton, Birmingham, Norwich, Thurrock and Harlow have been won by Labour.

In more bad news, Manchester, Nottingham and Coventry rejected the proposal for direct mayoral election in the referendum; results from other cities are also expected to be the same.

With 92 of the 181 council seats being declared across England, Scotland and Wales, Labour is leading with 428 seats while the Conservatives' figure is 243.

Analysts are predicting that Labour can secure more than 700 gains.

Although the Conservative's Boris Johnson winning the London mayor post will be a consolation prize for the party, the full-blown defeat is expected to see some significant changes in coalition politics.

Even the Lib Dem of the ruling coalition lost 125 seats across the UK.

Bernard Jenkin, a senior Conservative, said the party should focus more on improving the economy rather than allowing the opponent to dictate the agenda for them. "The coalition is going to look completely stupid if it follows through on Lords reform," the Press Association quoted Jenkin as saying to BBC.

The Guardian quoted the Centrist MP, Gary Streeter, as saying: "There has been a huge vote for UKIP tonight. We need to work out a strategy for traditional Conservative voters shuffling off and voting UKIP because they don't think our leadership is Conservative enough.

We need to show the decisiveness and stubbornness we have shown in the past... the UKIP vote is about a hard core of traditional Tory voters saying 'we don't like the liberal decisions this government is starting to take'."

Lib Dem hit back: "The Conservatives would be making a big mistake if they sub-contract all the liberal elements and become a hardcore right wing party that are in the market competing for UKIP votes, rather than in the centre ground for votes," the Guardian reported Lib Dem Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Browne as saying.