Labour won’t govern based on these results

The Tories in England and Wales have reason to be grateful to Jeremy Corbyn. The concentration on Labour in his first electoral test as party leader diverted attention from their own lacklustre performance.

In London, Wales and the English districts they ended up with a smaller share of the vote and fewer seats than the last time these particular elections were contested, in 2011 and 2012 — also in the mid-term of a Cameron government.

In Wales, the intervention of Ukip led to a drop in vote for all three other UK-wide parties. Labour, however, kept its nose in front and comfortably retained the two Welsh assembly constituencies — Gower and Vale of Clwyd — whose Westminster equivalents the Tories snatched from it at last year’s general…