Tories reaping what they sowed in English council election drubbing, says DUP MP Sammy Wilson

The Conservative Party has suffered a string of local election defeats, losing control of 10 councils and over 470 council seats.

The DUP veteran says that while it now looks certain that Labour will move into Government in the forthcoming general election, it will be small comfort to unionists - because while the Tories have proven they "couldn't care less" about Northern Ireland, the attitude of Labour towards the Province will be no less certain.

"They expected they were going to lose half their seats and so they did," he told the News Letter of the Conservatives.

He thought some mildly successful Tory mayors might have held their seats, but the fact they didn't shows people "are just so fed up with them that they are not going to back them".

He added: "To a certain extent they deserve everything they get. A government that has an 80 seat majority that throws things away in such a way and fails to live up to the core values of their own electorate have only themselves to blame.

"The number one issue they failed on was the economy. That's the one that has annoyed their voters most - they expected they would be more willing to let people keep more of their own money.”

He also believes they have failed their electorate on immigration.

The East Antrim MP said Rishi Sunak boasted last week that the government had persuaded one immigrant – who had never come to the UK - not to come here by with £3,000 cash, which Mr Wilson said did not fool voters for a second.

The implications for Northern Ireland of a Labour government will depend on how big a majority Labour gets, he believes.

While the Labour leader Keir Starmer understands NI well - having been a legal advisor to the PSNI - a large Labour majority could see the left wing of the party exercise too much influence, the MP said.

Such a situation will be a threat to the UK as a whole he said, because the party is "careless" about Scottish independence and does not like Northern Ireland at all, he adds.