Culture Secretary blames Tory local election losses on pandemic and Putin's invasion of Ukraine

Cultural Secretary Lucy Frazer has blamed heavy Tory losses in this week’s local elections on the pandemic and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Sky News this morning (May 7), Ms Frazer said she understood that voters were ‘frustrated and angry’ and acknowledged that the party now needed time to reflect following the results of the local ballots.

The Conservatives shed 960 councillors in Thursday’s poll, including nine seats in Bolton where every seat was up for grabs. Before the election, the Tories were the largest party in the borough and had run the council as a minority administration but they now sit in second place behind Labour, who gained seven seats.

READ MORE: Join the FREE Manchester Evening News WhatsApp community

Appearing on Sophy Ridge On Sunday, the Culture Secretary said that the disruption caused by the pandemic and Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine was having a toll on voters.

“If we could look at the context for the whole local election, we’ve been in power for a long time,” Ms Frazer told Sky News.

“We’ve just had a pandemic which has disrupted many people’s lives and has had consequences for the economy, as has the war in Ukraine, which is going on.”

Pressed on whether she understood the scale of her party’s losses, she said: “Totally, it’s really important that we listen to people. I know people are frustrated and angry.”

Explaining how she recognised the results were “not good”, she added: “I totally understand that we need to do better and I think we are going to deliver.”

Despite the results, Ms Frazer claimed that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was starting to regain the public’s trust by delivering his five priorities, including curbing inflation, in a “quiet way”.

“I