UK’s May unleash scathing attack on Britain’s main opposition party

Prime Minister Theresa May unleashed a scathing attack on Britain’s main opposition party on Thursday, launching a campaign for local elections scheduled for May that will be the biggest electoral test so far of her leadership and her plan to leave the EU.

Pressing home her advantage over Labour in opinion polls, she told voters to choose between the “competence” of her Conservatives or the “chaos” of the rest in the May 4 elections when voters across Britain will elect thousands of local authority councillors and six new mayors.

She told supporters in the central city of Nottingham: “when you look at it closely, these local elections present a clear and informative choice.

“The competence of a strong Conservative council, focused on the priorities of local people, keeping local taxes down and delivering high quality local services.

“The chaos and disarray of the rest, political parties motivated not by what is best for local areas, but what best for their own partisan political interest, and without a plan for our country or our local communities , just a recipe for chaos and failure.”

The prime minister said the opposition was out of touch with the concerns of the British people and had betrayed the Jewish community by only suspending a leftist former London mayor for saying Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism.

May also said the government is prepared to intervene in consumer markets to reduce costs for bill-payers.

She has highlighted energy as one sector that she says is not working for consumers.

May’s Conservatives 18 points ahead of Labour in polls.

The ballot will also show whether opposition Labour has managed to defy the opinion polls, where the party’s standing has sunk since veteran lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn took over 18 months ago to lead the party further to the left.

With little formal opposition in parliament, May, has yet to face election after being appointed prime minister following Britain’s referendum on EU membership.

She has been able to claim much of the political centre ground, something she must try to maintain before parliamentary elections in 2020.