THE local election results are still coming in, but overall it looks like a good night for Labour and a truly dismal night for the Tories.
 
Labour must now be taken seriously as the party which will at least lead the next government, while the Tories will probably be unable to resist another round of turmoil and upheaval.
 
On recent form, there are bound to be calls from within the Tories that Rishi Sunak must go. But there is an even bigger call from the voters that the whole shower must go, and go soon.
 
Of course, local elections are not the same as a general election. The very different types of turnout, and the fact that only a proportion of local elections take place each May means that they are in effect two different electorates.

But at the same time, they are not completely divorced from each other. May elections in a general election year are usually a very good pointer to the outcome of the national poll (and surely not even these Tories will dare to hang on until January 2025, as they legally can).
 
Labour activists across the country can and should feel very proud of themselves. They did a great job. Naturally, in our politics, most of the plaudits will go to Keir Starmer. He is entitled to enjoy them. But there must also be an honest accounting of the loss of Oldham council and other seats over the issue of Gaza.
 
It is important to take a step back to understand the period we are in. Only a realistic appraisal of the current situation allows us to shape it.
 
We are in a period of significant political upheaval and turmoil. If, for example, Sunak is forced to step down because of these results, and does not call a general election in revenge, we will then be on our fourth Tory Prime Minister in less than two years. This follows a general election victory in 2019 which gave the Tories an 80-seat majority which most pundits said at the time was unassailable, and would take at least two parliaments to recover.
 
In case anyone in Labour is inclined towards complacency and thinks that this is all happening solely to the Tories, it should be noted that there is now a similar revolving door at the entrance to the office of the First Minister of Scotland.
 
The Tories and the SNP are very different parties. But what they have in common currently is that they are parties of government. All across the Western world, it is not an easy time to be in government. The difficulties have reached such extremes that Joe Biden is even struggling to get ahead in the opinion polls against Donald Trump of all people.
 
There is a relatively simple explanation for the political upheaval, even though it may yet have many unforeseen consequences. Most people are struggling economically, and Britain is among the worst. A recent report from the TUC shows that average pay is now lower in most regions of the country than it was in 2008 in real terms, once inflation is taken into account.
 
We also know that benefits have been cut in real terms and taxes have risen, so the broader picture for living standards is even worse for ordinary people.
 
In addition to falling living standards, we are faced with a rising number of wars, the threat of climate change, deteriorating public services and a government determined only to make matters worse. No wonder the slogan “Get the Tories out” is having a big revival.
 
So, anyone expecting an easy ride either into the general election or an easy time in office should think again. It is widely understood that the economic and social inheritance from the Tories will be dire.
 
But neither repeating that truth nor the possibility of a huge parliamentary majority will prevent voters from demanding something better than this. They would be right to do so. As Harold Wilson once said, “Labour is a moral crusade or it is nothing.” This is what both our staunch and our recent voters believe too, and they will expect nothing less when they are struggling so badly.
 
In fact, a very large majority in Parliament can only add to expectations. There is no-one else to blame if the government lets down the voters, although I am certain Johnson, Truss and Sunak all blame everyone but themselves.
 
So, after these local results and hopefully more success at the general election, the key question is: how can Labour succeed against such a grim backdrop?
 
The stakes are very high as our opposition is likely to be a Tory rabble, lurching to the far right, keen to bring in Farage, with new “leaders” vying to outdo each other on racism, law and order, nationalism and war.
 
Analogies will fail us, along with copying past nostrums. Tony Blair lost four million votes after 1997. But he did so slowly, over the next eight years. Because his economic inheritance from the Tories was 4 per cent GDP growth and 2 per cent inflation. And this was before the Iraq war. Climate change was more denied than explained on the BBC. Things are very different now.
 
A serious crisis calls for radical policies. This is simply because tried and failed policies will fail even more spectacularly. Our guiding principle should be, does this benefit the overwhelming majority of people in this country, or not? If not, why are we doing it?
 
That means not accepting the Tory inheritance as it is bequeathed to us. It is said there are a lot of areas for which there is no money left. But there is money, tens of billions of pounds according to the House of Commons library, for subsidies to fossil fuel companies, including for new exploration. There really is no money left for fossil fuel companies and no Carbon Budget either.
 
The same approach needs to be taken in regard to unproductive tax breaks for companies (as has been shown on subsidies for investment), or for tax cuts for the rich, tax breaks to benefit the banks, money for Trident renewal or to increase the military Budget. There is also no room for the vast subsidies to “privatised” industries.
 
This should all be self-evident when living standards are falling, our schools are falling apart and the NHS crisis is both chronic and acute. Our infrastructure needs enormous improvement, workers in the public sector and elsewhere need decent pay and no-one else but the public sector is willing to build affordable homes on the scale required.
 
There is a lot of work to be done.
 
Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Follow her on X @HackneyAbbott.