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Now that the local election results are all in, it is possible to interpret the message that the voters have sent to the parties. The Conservatives would be foolish to ignore the drubbing

they received in London. Candidates in Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet reported that on the doorstep the generally excellent performance of these councils was seldom mentioned. It was,

they say, mostly about Boris — and not in a good way. In rural regions of the south, such as Somerset, resentment at having been ignored by the Government’s levelling up agenda played its

part. The Liberal Democrats are clearly back in business as a temporary refuge for Tory protest voters. In the northern former “Red Wall” regions, though, Labour made little progress and

even fell back in some places. They took Cumberland, but lost to the Lib Dems in Westmoreland and to the Tories in the West Midlands authority of Newcastle-under-Lyme. The loyalty of ethnic

minority voters to Labour was called into question: in outer London they lost control in Harrow and Croydon, while in Tower Hamlets they were humiliated in the mayoral race by the

Bangladeshi-born Islamist Lutfur Rahman. The former Mayor, who was removed from office in 2015 for electoral fraud, made a triumphant comeback after the expiry of his five year ban. Seen in

the round, these results suggest that the Conservatives are not only suffering from typical mid-term unpopularity, but are failing to appeal to younger, aspirational electorates in the

capital and elsewhere. Many Remainers have not forgiven them for Brexit and inflation is beginning to affect living standards. Labour has made progress among voters who were alienated by

Jeremy Corbyn’s extremist politics, notably his far-Left anti-Semitism, but they too have not been forgiven by voters who deserted them over Brexit. Both parties have a leadership problem:

neither Boris Johnson nor Sir Keir Starmer is much of an asset to their parties at the moment. Nor is there an obvious alternative in either case: voters (rightly) blame the Chancellor at

least as much as the Prime Minister for the cost of living crisis, while most would struggle even to name members of the Shadow Cabinet. If there is one conclusion that may be drawn from the

politics of the past six months, it is that dragging the police into the maelstrom of Westminster has spectacularly backfired. For this, Sir Keir is at least partly to blame. As a QC and a

former Director of Public Prosecutions, he may have underestimated the risks involved in first exaggerating the scandalous nature of parties in Downing Street and then turning the issue into

one of legal or constitutional significance. Voters were unimpressed at the spectacle of their democratic role being usurped by civil servants and police officers. Now it appears that not

only the PM but also the Leader of the Opposition may have broken lockdown rules. The electorate’s verdict on Partygate and Beergate seems to be: a plague on both your houses. The country

has much graver and more urgent concerns than who ate cakes or curries and drank wine or beer with whom whenever. The war in Ukraine is a much more relevant test of statesmanship; the unique

status of the British Prime Minister among foreign leaders has been reinforced by the warm reception given to him by President and parliament in Kyiv. As against this indubitable

international success, however, Boris Johnson has yet to persuade voters that he has a plan to turn the economy round, bring inflation back under control and avoid a recession next year.

Tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech will give him a chance to move on from Westminster in-fighting, but it won’t be enough by itself to dispel the impression that ministers are deaf to the

tribulations of middle Britain. Does Boris really need telling that it’s the economy, stupid? As for Sir Keir Starmer: having been hoist by his own petard, he too would be well advised to

move on. If the media cannot convince him to cease his grandstanding and to desist from demands for his opponent’s resignation, then his party’s underwhelming result in the local elections

should do so. If the electorate wanted the PM to be fired at the behest of Sir Keir, or for that matter of Cressida Dick or Sue Gray, it would have voted rather differently. Outside

Westminster, few have ever seen lockdown fines as a resigning matter — especially now that both party leaders are under investigation. Indeed, for either Johnson or Starmer to resign now

would be an unforgivable abdication of responsibility. Nobody needs reminding that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones and in politics accusations of dishonesty tend to

come back to haunt the accuser. Honesty is still the best policy, but there is something disingenuous about the faux outrage generated over minor breaches of defunct regulations. The honest

course for both main parties would now be to call a truce and focus instead on the task in hand: for the Tories, running the country; for Labour, holding ministers to account. Neither party

has been conspicuous by its attention to detail over recent months, otherwise inflation would not now be heading for double digits. The message from the voters last week can be summarised

thus: sort out the economy, stop Putin and leave us to decide who should lead the nation when the time comes. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to

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