Copyright: PA Media
Here’s a peek into my WhatsApps and scribbles in my notebook
from talking to folk inside the parties tonight.
Labour are sounding very confident about winning the
parliamentary by-election in Blackpool South.
The Conservatives acknowledge they expect to lose but aren’t
sounding too worried about Reform UK.
A Reform source has said to me the Tory vote on the
Lancashire coast was “as stable as a sandcastle at low tide”.
Labour are claiming what matters most to them is Blackpool
and the council races, rather than the mayoral ones.
Some sources are talking up how well they might have done on
Rushmoor Borough Council, Hampshire. If they were to win it outright it would be
their first ever victory there.
One Labour source suggests they expect incumbent mayors
to win.
If that were to happen, it’d mean the Conservatives holding
the Tees Valley and West Midlands mayoral roles.
For their part, the Tories sound optimistic about the Tees
Valley and reckon the West Midlands is on a knife edge.
The Conservatives think many of their voters in rural areas
haven’t bothered to turn out, but they are more hopeful elsewhere.
As for the Liberal Democrats, they sound chipper about their
performance in places where they are in direct competition with the
Conservatives – the key battle for them come the general election.