UK Conservatives lose London strongholds, in blow to Johnson

Britain’s governing Conservatives have suffered local election losses in their few London strongholds

LONDON -- Britain’s governing Conservatives suffered local election losses in their few London strongholds, according to results announced Friday that will pile more pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson amid ethics scandals and a worsening economic picture.

Voting held Thursday for thousands of seats on more than 200 local councils decided who will oversee garbage collection and the filling of potholes, but were also an important barometer of public opinion ahead of the next national election, which must be held by 2024.

The main opposition Labour Party, which has been out of power nationally since 2010, won control of Wandsworth, Barnet and Westminster, three London boroughs long held by the Conservatives.

Johnson’s party also lost ground to the centrist Liberal Democrats in the Conservatives’ southern England heartlands, where many middle-class voters are opposed to Brexit — a cause Johnson championed — and dismayed by lockdown rule-breaking by the prime minister and sexual misconduct allegations against other senior Tories.