2012.05.04 04:05:06 UK Labour Party Gains In Local Elections

--Labour makes gains as coalition parties lose seats --Conservative Party co-chairman forecasts 'bad night' --Government parties tend to suffer in midterm elections LONDON -- The opposition Labour Party looked set to win a large number of seats in U.K. local elections, early results showed Friday, delivering a fresh blow to Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition government following a series of policy mishaps. With the economy contracting, Cameron's center-right Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, the smaller centrist coalition partners, are expected to lose ground in the contest for almost 5,000 seats in local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales. "It's going to be a bad night for the Conservatives," Sayeeda Warsi, the co-chairman of the party, said on BBC television shortly before early results showed Labour making gains at the expense of the coalition parties. Opinion polls suggest Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor of London, may buck the national trend and beat veteran Labour Party challenger Ken Livingstone to win a second term, giving the prime minister something to cheer about. But heavy criticism in recent weeks of the government's March 21 budget, which was seen as favoring the rich, and of its mishandling of a threatened strike by fuel tanker drivers has hit support for the coalition parties. Scandals involving party donors and relations with the press also suggest Cameron may suffer a harsher-than-usual midterm review. Early results posted by the BBC showed Labour winning 586 council seats, 246 of them at the expense of other parties. By contrast, the Conservatives had 330 council seats after losing 167 to other parties, while the Lib Dems had 133 after dropping 69 seats. Elections were held Thursday in 128 English councils, all 32 Scottish councils and 21 Welsh councils. The results are due through Friday, with the announcement of the winner of the high-profile London mayoral ballot, the U.K.'s biggest electoral contest, expected late in the day. Experts say Labour needs to seize some 700 local government seats from other parties to show it is capitalizing on the government's recent slump in support and party leader Ed Miliband will be a contender in the next general election in 2015. Heavy losses for the Conservatives or another poor showing for the Liberal Democrats, which suffered their worst local elections defeat for decades last year, could cause friction in the coalition. That may worry bond investors, although they appear reassured for now that the government intends to stick to its austerity program, whatever the near-term political costs. Like other governments pursuing austerity programs around Europe, the coalition parties appear to have lost votes and seats. But even in the best of times, U.K. governments tend to lose out in midterm local elections, which give voters an opportunity to remind politicians who's boss. "Traditionally, government parties are hammered midterm," said Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Lib Dems. Experts say it is worth remembering that both Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair suffered midterm local election defeats as prime ministers before going on to win the next general election. A YouGov poll published Thursday of people who said they would vote in the elections put the Conservatives on 34%, Labour on 47% and the Liberal Democrats on 7%, on a par with the anti-European U.K. Independence Party. However, it also showed Johnson winning the London mayoralty with 53% of the votes to 47% for Livingstone. -By Nicholas Winning, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9498; nick.winning@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires May 03, 2012 20:05 ET (00:05 GMT)