Tories 'broadening appeal'

The Conservative leader David Cameron today said his party was " broadening" its appeal as he reflected on his party's substantial gains in the local elections.

The Tories have claimed their share of the overall vote will pass the 40% mark and they will gain well over 200 seats.

The local election results are the worst since Prime Minister Tony Blair came to power.

The Labour Party is expected to have lost more than 250 councillors across England as well as control of more than a dozen town halls.

Mr Cameron speaking on GMTV stated: "We've also made gains across the country and shown that in cities, like here in London, we really can get back in terms of winning councils. We won seven councils across London - far more then we expected.

"I'm pleased with that. Now the hard work has to start. We're going to be running a lot more areas in terms of local government - so serious work, and I'm very determined we won't let a lot of people down."

Asked about his party's poor showing in cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle, he replied: "If you look at the Greater Manchester area, we did actually win seats in places like Wigan, and we won seats in Bolton and Bury, and in the North West more generally we took control of Chorley Council.

"Overall now I think we've won net an extra 12 councils. We've got gains, in terms of extra councillors, of almost 250 and I think that's above most people's expectations.

"I'm not claiming this is going to easy from here on. Of course it isn't. We've got a lot of hard work to do, not least in places like Manchester and Newcastle, as you say.

"But I think this shows the Conservative Party is broadening its appeal, that it's attracting new voters, and I think we see a Labour Party that is in some sort of serious meltdown, with people coming straight from Labour to the Conservatives."