John McDonnell apologises to Labour councillors who lost their seats in local elections

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Louise Thomas

Editor

John McDonnell has apologised to Labour councillors who lost their seats in local elections last night, blaming unbalanced media coverage for Labour’s losses so far.

The shadow chancellor said it was important to wait and “see what the rest of the results are” before jumping to conclusions about his party’s performance but admitted that the evening had been “tough” for Labour.

“My message to the party is I’m sorry for those Labour councillors who have lost their seats because they’ve worked so hard,” he said.

“I’m really pleased at the level of engagement and campaigning that’s gone on by party members and supporters and I’m grateful for the support that we have.”

Mr McDonnell said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had been an asset in some areas such as Cardiff where he had campaigned and seen Labour hold onto control of the city council.

But he appeared to accept that in some cases “the image that people have of Jeremy Corbyn at the moment” was making it difficult for the party to win.

“What’s interesting is this is when we have a general election we have balance airtime in the broadcast media. As a result of that people can hear more about our policies, more about our candidate and more about our leader,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“I think the more they can make a fair judgement and what we’re finding is that what comes across is people like the policies and then they see Jeremy Corbyn is an honest, decent, and also principled man – and that’s the kind of leader they want.

“What I’m saying is it’s not the image that’s the problem: the unbalanced media coverage of Jeremy Corbyn for the last two years has given a distorted view of him. The more he’s toured around, the more people get the know of him, and they more they give us their support.”

An incomplete picture of results so far shows Labour has lost control of Blaenau Gwent and Bridgend, but held onto Cardiff, while the Conservatives have taken Warwickshire and Lincolnshire.

In total 4,851 council seats in 88 councils were up for election: all local authorities in Scotland and Wales and 34 in England. Many councils, including all those in Scotland, will not begin counting their votes until Friday morning.