Cameron: We will not let voters down
David Cameron welcomes 'pleasing' results in local elections
Friday, 05, May 2006 12:00
David Cameron has welcomed the "very strong results" in last night's council elections in England, after the Conservatives won 40 per cent of the national vote.
The party leader set this share as his target when he was elected just five months ago, and this morning was celebrating winning 238 council seats across the country.
The Tories made a net gain of ten councils, and now has a majority of boroughs in London, although they failed to make a major breakthrough in the north of England.
"Now the hard work has to start. We are running more areas in local government and I am determined that we don't let people down," Mr Cameron said.
"We have shown that the Conservative party is broadening its appeal and attracting new voters, while we see Labour in some serious meltdown and people coming across to the Conservatives."
Shadow foreign secretary and former Tory leader William Hague admitted there was "more work to do", particularly in the cities, but insisted there had been some "very surprising gains", citing Coventry, which they won from no overall control.
The Tories still have no presence in Liverpool or Sheffield, but they pointed to major gains in London, in particularly breaking Labour's 35-year hold in Camden, as proof that they can appeal to voters in urban areas.
"We've shown we can win in the cities, we now have control in London seven boroughs which is a terrific result," Mr Cameron told BBC Breakfast.
"I'm not going to say now it will be easy work - more changes need to be made, we've shown in the Greater Manchester area [Tories took control of Chorley] that we can do it, but it takes time.
"We've got to show organisation and show commitment to those areas - some of our policies, such as a focus on basics in education and more police on the streets, are attractive policies in the cities."
The Conservatives took control of Hammersmith and Fulham for the first time since 1968; Coventry for the first time since 1978; and Chorley and Havering for the first time since 1982. However, they lost Richmond-upon-Thames to the Liberal Democrats.