Mubashar Hasan
BDNEWS UK Correspondent
London, May 5 (BDNEWS) – Turning the all predictions true, Tony Blair-led Labour Party lost 250 councillors in Thursday's election, worst local election results in terms of expected share of the national vote since the Falklands war in 1982.
Blair is now reshuffling his cabinet on the face of defeat, local media said.
Conservative won 1,650 councillors seat whereas Labour won only 1,115, Liberal Democrat won 813 and other parties won 175 seats, which led the Conservative to establish total control in 68 councils, Labour in 26 councils and Liberal Democrat in 13 councils, as the results from 168 available out of 176 councils.
Residents association won 22 councillor seats, while Green party 21 and racist BNP won 13 seats in East London's Barking and Dagenham area.
Election results from Tower Hamlet Council in London, where majority of Bangladeshi live, are yet to be made public.
Thursday's local election projected the biggest ever win for David Cameron led-Conservative party, who in his election campaign put preference on environment. The British National Party doubled its councillors, including winning 11 seats from Labour in Barking. The Greens also made gains.
Meanwhile BBC reported that Mr Clarke, British Home secretary will be replaced by Defence Secretary John Reid. Margaret Beckett is the new foreign secretary, with Jack Straw becoming Commons leader.
John Prescott will stay as deputy prime minister but lose his department. Trade Secretary Alan Johnson gets education.
Detail of the cabinet reshuffle will be announced Monday.
The Guardian predicted that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt will be in the line of fire.
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer was on BBC radio Friday morning said "it was a warning shot.'
The defence secretary, John Reid, asked for a sense of perspective: "In 2004 we got 26% of the vote and we won the general election a year later. In the last fortnight we have seen a lot of good campaigning damaged pretty badly."
The Liberal Democrats insisted the result had made three-party politics a reality across London for the first time and predicted that Labour had lost its flagship council of Camden in north London, which they have controlled for 35 years.
The projected vote-share if the polls were held nationwide shows that the Conservatives on 40%, Liberal Democrats 27% and Labour 26%. Turnout is estimated at 36%, down three points from 2004.
The result is one of the worst on record for Labour in a local election but the party said it was not the "meltdown" some had predicted.
Media here already started to broadcast whether Blair should resign or not.
BDNEWS/2000 hrs
