LIVE UPDATES: UK local elections

LONDON – For the past 44 years, the Conservative Party has run council in Wandsworth, south London.

But after Thursday’s vote, that all changed, with control of the council shifting to Labour. The vote came at a particularly fraught time for the Conservative Party, which has been embroiled in controversy for weeks. Concerts in Downing Street Who broke the government’s coronavirus restrictions and A number of other scandals.

As few voters headed to district polls Thursday morning, many expressed public dissatisfaction with the state of national politics, a glimpse into the uphill battle faced by the region’s conservatives.

“I would always define myself as a Conservative, but this vote today was a vote to show that I don’t get along with the government,” said Marcel Aramburu, 62, who has lived in the area for decades.

While he is pleased with the way domestic issues have been handled for the most part under the Conservative Council, he felt it was time to vote Labour after becoming increasingly frustrated with the Conservative Party.

“I am not satisfied with the people who run this country,” he said. “Everything that comes out of their mouths is a lie.”

Dean Crossley, 45, who cast his vote at the same small community church across from Battersea Park as Mr. Aramburu, was also moving from the Conservative Party, in favor of the Greens. He said that was partly due to local issues and partly because he wanted to see better initiatives to tackle climate change.

He also said his vote – usually for Conservatives – is likely to change in the next general election as well.

“It’s the same old age, doing whatever they do, and it’s not going to work,” he said, referring to the conservatives.

Lucinda Levison, 65, who brought her dog to the polling station, has lived in Wandsworth for decades. She said that a lot has changed in the region, much of it for the better, and it has also evolved in recent years. At the end of the road where she was voting, cranes swarmed into the horizon above a major redevelopment project in Abandoned Battersea Power Station and surrounding area.

She said she would continue to support the Conservatives despite the recent scandals. “They’re the best in a bad bunch,” she said.

She added that she felt Prime Minister Boris Johnson had done well in responding to the coronavirus pandemic and had shown a strong response to it. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Another voter, Viviana Turturro, 39, said national politics influenced her decisions at the local level, after watching those in the ruling Conservative Party “say one thing and do the opposite”.

She said she was not satisfied with Recent policies on immigration And that the Downing Street parties left her angry.

“I was scrambling at the time, so I find it offensive and insulting,” she said of the closing gatherings. “They should have been the first to follow the rules they set.”