Read more<\/p>\n
The party is down more than 100 seats so far, has lost majorities on three Welsh councils and has been replaced by the Conservatives as the largest party on Cumbria County Council. Labour has lost overall control of its traditional stronghold of Glasgow City Council for the first time in nearly 40 years.<\/p>\n Despite the apparently dismal showing, Labour MPs have been advised to say the results are merely \u201cdisappointing\u201d<\/em> and that the party has done \u201cbetter than people were predicting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSome of the predictions of doom and gloom across the board aren\u2019t quite panning out as some thought,\u201d<\/em> the script said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some disappointing results, but there are good ones too such as holding on to the councils in Neath Port Talbot and Newport.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n One success the party will be stressing is retaining Welsh seats in Swansea, Cardiff and Newport councils, the latter of which the party will say was a Tory target. Candidates are also being told to suggest the Tory surge is down to the UKIP collapse, and say the results are being judged against a high point for the party in 2012.<\/p>\n As polls close in local elections, I would like to thank everyone who has worked so hard for The Labour Party in these campaigns. pic.twitter.com\/s7sstZlIzy<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) May 4, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell remains staunchly behind Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has been tough, there\u2019s no doubt about that, but it hasn\u2019t been the wipeout that some people predicted or the polls predicted \u2026 In areas it\u2019s quite mixed,\u201d he told Radio 4\u2019s Today program.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not underestimating the challenge that we face right the way across the country. But what I\u2019m saying is, to try to be as objective as I possibly can, it isn\u2019t the wipeout that many predicted. It is much better.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Speaking to Sky News, Labour MP Diane Abbott said the defection of UKIP supporters to the Tories was \u201cone of the pivotal factors\u201d in Thursday\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n She conceded that \u201csome of those UKIP voters that are going to the Tories are former Labour voters,\u201d<\/em> and said that in a general election \u201cwe have to turn them out and get them to vote Labour.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Abbott said overall the morning\u2019s results had been \u201cdisappointing\u201d<\/em> but stressed \u201cyou cannot extrapolate from local elections to the general.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n She added the results \u201ccertainly don\u2019t mean that the general election [of June 8] is done and dusted for Theresa May.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n Stephen Kinnock, Labour MP for Aberavon, was a dissenting voice, however, going against the party line. He criticized the party\u2019s performance and the impact of Corbyn\u2019s leadership, saying the results painted a \u201cdisastrous picture.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s simply not good enough for a party that\u2019s been in opposition for seven years, that\u2019s heading towards a general election in five weeks, to not be picking up seats and not be making forward progress,\u201d<\/em> he said, according to the Mirror.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we need to do is recognize that we have got a mountain to climb over the next five weeks and it\u2019s about time we started climbing it.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI think we can\u2019t just put a spin on this \u2013 the fact of the matter is that Jeremy\u2019s leadership does come up on the doorstep on a very regular basis. What we have to do is make this election about more than leadership, we\u2019ve got to make it about the future of our country.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Labour is playing down its sweeping local election losses, with MPs advised to call the results a \u201cmixed picture\u201d and to stress Tory gains in Wales have \u201cfailed to materialize,\u201d the party\u2019s leaked election script reveals. Read more The party is down more than 100 seats so far, has lost majorities on three Welsh councils […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":306782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-306781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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