Andrew Marr: Keir Starmer is on course to be the next prime minister and the Tories are running out of time to stop him
9 May 2023, 18:28 | Updated: 10 May 2023, 06:16
"That famous phrase 'coalition of chaos' seems to fall dead from their lips these days"
Sir Keir Starmer is currently on course to be the UK's next prime minister and the Conservative party is running out of time to stop him, Andrew Marr has said.
It follows last week's local elections, which saw the Tories lose 1063 councillors - worse than party chairman Greg Hands predicted.
Meanwhile, the Labour party gained 537 councillors and the Liberal Democrats won 407.
Speaking about where the results leave each party, LBC's Andrew Marr said: "After the rather grand and glorious hoopla of the Coronation weekend, politicians have been staggering back to Westminster today looking grey and thoughtful and frankly a bit hungover.
"But for many it was less the pints of English sparkling wine to blame, then the English local elections last week."
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"Those Elections - real people voting in real polling stations IN real communities - are going to change the mood of politics in the weeks and months ahead and that's my first theme this evening," he continued.
"Labour insists that it's carefully targeted performances in the areas it needs to win for a Commons majority, put it on course to form the next government.
"Others, including the number crunching experts, point to the very strong performance of the Liberal Democrats and the Greens, talk about the victory in England of the 'anyone but the Conservatives' party and suggest it's likely we may be heading to a Coalition next time."
Andrew Marr gives his expert analysis of the local election results
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Marr added: "Speaking today, Keir Starmer has conspicuously failed to rule out a coalition with the lib Dems - though his party says it would never do one with the SNP.
"The Tories are already warning of dirty deals ahead although that famous phrase, Coalition of Chaos, seems to fall dead from their lips these days. I wonder why.
"Anyway, one way or another, Sir Keir seems to be on course to become our next prime minister and the Conservatives have limited time to stop that happening."
"Should they be changing direction or staying calm?," Marr asked.
