DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Beware the perils of a Partygate protest vote

With the weather forecast to brighten, there may be a million and one things more alluring to do than vote today. But the Daily Mail urges every reader to cast their ballot. For these local elections matter.

They not only allow people to have their voices heard on vital local issues such as bin collections, planning and traffic schemes, but they are an important gauge of the national political mood.

What with cake and wine tomfoolery in No 10, pornography-watching MPs, the soaraway cost of living and a woeful failure to tackle the armada of Channel migrants, this is hardly the moment the Tories would have chosen for the elections.

Party chiefs are braced for a horrendous drubbing, fearing Conservative voters will protest by staying at home in droves – or, worse, mark their ‘X’ next to another party.

Boris Johnson is no saint, but he’s got the big decisions right

But this paper asks people to look at the broader picture of the political landscape.

Sir Keir Starmer worked himself into a self-righteous lather over Boris Johnson being fined for an impromptu lockdown-busting birthday bash – held between work meetings – in Downing Street.

Yet was that ‘offence’ really a more serious breach than Labour’s leader enjoying a £200 curry and beer feast with up to 30 activists when indoor socialising was banned?

Sir Keir pompously promotes himself as a principled QC. But rather than being transparent about Beergate, he shiftily keeps changing his story. If he’s done nothing wrong, why writhe like a scorched moth?

And for him to whine about Tory ‘mudslinging’ is truly pathetic. He’s been the chief mudslinger over Partygate.

If only he hadn’t spent months sanctimoniously demanding the Prime Minister resign over an untouched cake, he might not have found himself in such a discomfiting predicament.

Sir Keir’s attitude is a perfect metaphor for Labour: Hypocritical, dissembling and dripping in double standards.

As the country goes to the polls, he is already plotting a class war on business and Middle England, with crippling tax rises. But such economically innumerate madness would wipe thousands of pounds off the value of ordinary workers’ pension pots.

Meanwhile, the truly wealthy would beat a hasty retreat from Britain, taking with them jobs, investment and their taxes – eventually reducing the amount available for ministers to spend on public services.

Across the country, there are vivid examples of Labour misrule. Look no further than the bankrupt basket case that is Croydon Council. Meals on Wheels: Axed. Budgets for the poorest: Axed. Payment for its outgoing chief executive: An eye-watering £600,000. It is iniquitous.

From seeking to thwart Brexit and install Jeremy Corbyn in No10, to demanding Britain remain under gruelling Covid curbs, insipid Sir Keir has made the wrong calls again and again. He can’t even bring himself to say that women don’t have penises.

Contrast that with Mr Johnson. He’s no saint, but he’s got the big decisions right. He delivered Brexit, won an election landslide, presided over a world-leading vaccination programme and steered Britain first out of lockdown. On Ukraine, his leadership has been exemplary. And he has dished out many billions to help families with the painful cost of living squeeze.

So we urge all Conservative voters not to lose faith. While withholding a vote may give a scintilla of satisfaction, it would be an act of self-harm to take out frustration on hard-working and effective councillors.

Tempting as it is to give the Tories an electoral kick in the pants, that could trigger a successful coup against Mr Johnson. When Britain needs stability, it risks a general election and a diabolical coalition of Labour and the SNP.

To those contemplating resorting to a protest vote, the Mail respectfully says: Be careful what you wish for.