The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has admitted that the results of local government elections held in many parts of England on Thursday are “disappointing” for the Conservative party.

If the voting trends are repeated at the general election, it is likely he will be replaced by the Labour leader Keir Starmer as Britain’s next Prime Minister after 14 years of Tory rule. Labour has wrested Tory-held local authorities in Medway in Kent, Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent.

However, people in the UK frequently “punish” the incumbent government in local elections only to revert to traditional loyalties in a general election.

This is the first time voters have required photo ID cards such as a driving licence or a bus pass for people over 60 in order to vote.

With counting still continuing into Friday, Tory losses were mounting up. But the Labour Party was having to share the gains with some of the smaller parties such as the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.

Rishi insisted that the Tories were making progress in “key election battlegrounds” and he wasn’t too worried about opposition gains.

“I’m not detecting any massive groundswell of movement towards the Labour Party or excitement for their agenda,” he said. A former Tory MP and now a peer, Graham Barwell, said the results so far reflected “the damage (Boris) Johnson and (Liz) Truss did to the Conservative brand”.

“I think the problem is not actually the current government,” he commented.