Labour to target south of England at general election, campaign chief says

The shadow cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Labour was advancing in southern Tory heartlands and it was wrong to think the Lib Dems were the only challengers to the Conservatives in the south.

Speaking to the Guardian, he said it was now the case that Labour “controls twice as many councils in the south-east as the Tories”, pointing to gains in Rushmoor, Crawley, Swindon, Thurrock, Basildon and Southend.

Labour’s targeting of the south shows its spreading ambition after winning convincingly in the local elections across much of the “red wall” in the north and Midlands won by Boris Johnson in 2019.

Braverman called for a campaign to leave the European convention on human rights and set a migrant cap, but acknowledging it was too late to oust Sunak while admitting she regretted having backed him for the leadership.

Photograph: Molly Darlington/ReutersThe transport secretary, Mark Harper, one of Sunak’s supporters, pointed to analysis by the polling expert Michael Thrasher saying the local results showed Labour only had a nine-point lead.

McFadden said Labour had pursued a strategy that was “ruthlessly focused on the seats and the councils that will make a difference and there was no better example than in the West Midlands where we put a lot of resources in knowing it was on a knife edge.