Local elections: Conservative gains could backfire and harm Theresa May's chances in June, suggest Tories

Senior politicians have been urging people not to think they've won

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks outside 10 Downing Street after traveling to Buckingham Palace to visit Queen Elizabeth after Parliament was dissolved ahead of the general election, in London May 3, 2017 (REUTERS/Toby Melville)

The Tories have had a night of surging gains in the local elections overnight. But senior Conservatives are refusing to accept that they won.

Senior politicians have been making appearances across the media to deny that they have done well in the election.

Conservative spokespeople appear to be concerned that the very positive results – which would suggest that Theresa May will win a landslide in the general election next month – might spur complacency and lead to the party having peaked too soon.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon acknowledged that the Tories had made "encouraging process" but repeatedly refused to accept that the party had done well in the election.

"The reason we are not crowing is there is nothing yet, really, to crow about," he said, urging people not to use the local election results to predict what will happen on 8 June.

"Only a quarter of the votes have been counted and the turnout is only half what you get in a general election," he told ITV's Good Morning Britain.

"So it is far too early to predict - even from last night - what is going to happen by the end of today and it is five more weeks to the General Election."

Mr Fallon refused to accept on the Today programme that the party was likely to bring a landslide. That was despite such predictions from a range of experts.

Tory minister Brandon Lewis said Mrs May would "take the view that the results thus far are encouraging but there are still a lot of councils to declare".

"We can't assume that what happens in local elections will automatically be replicated in general elections," he told the BBC.

"There's a long way to go, there's a lot of work to do, we have got to work for every vote out there to make sure that we return Theresa May with a clear mandate on June 8."

The Labour party has been positive about the results, despite losing ground.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell acknowledged that Labour had suffered a "tough" night as it struggled in some of its Welsh heartlands and failed to resist Tory advances in England. But he told ITV1's Good Morning Britain the results were not "the wipeout that people expected" and insisted it is still "all to play for" in the General Election in just five weeks' time.

Spokespeople have pointed to success in Wales and a slimmer than expected loss in the West of England as evidence of Labour's potential success.