LABOUR apologist MJ Warner (SA June 4) cannot have been present at the Oasis on election night to see the mournful faces of Labour activists as they realised that not only would they not be regaining control of the council after 11 years in opposition, but that the Conservatives, after a splendid decade of achievement under Councillors Bawden, Bluh and Renard, had actually increased their majority against the national trend.

To suggest that UKIP, who failed to win or come close to winning a single seat, despite their leader having talked of 10 gains beforehand, were the Tories’ saviour is wilfully to misread the statistics.

In the marginal wards the Conservative vote rose significantly despite the UKIP challenge, the deserved result not only of 10 years’ outstanding stewardship but also of dynamic campaigning, not least by Justin Tomlinson, whom Mr Warner presumes to criticise.

There is clear evidence that senior figures in the Labour Party are extremely unhappy about the performance of Ed Miliband, whose lacklustre personality and left wing policies do not enthuse the electorate.

Past history shows that an opposition on its way into Government should have done far better nationally at this point in the electoral cycle, when the government of the day often sustains far heavier losses.

Charles Linfield, Bakers Road, Wroughton