The Labour Prime MinisterTony Blair came to Milton Keynes to launch his party's local election campaign.[3] Labour were defending control of Milton Keynes council, but before the election were relying on the casting vote of the mayor to keep control, after 2 Labour councillors left the party to become independents.[4]
The election in Milton Keynes saw a relaxation of the rules for requesting a postal vote, allowing anyone who wanted to vote by post.[5] As a results the number of postal vote requests increased from the normal 1,100 to 3,600.[5]
Election result
The results saw no party win a majority on the council, with Labour losing seats, including 3 to the Conservatives.[6]
^"Blair goes on offensive in run-up to elections". Financial Times. 14 April 2000. p. 4.
^Salman, Saba (25 April 2000). "Local voters set to kick Blair over mayoral 'fix'". Evening Standard. p. 22.
^ abWainwright, Martin (15 May 2000). "Comment & Analysis: Analysis: Making it easy: Experiments to improve the turnout in local elections have had an impact, although some voters still want to use a polling station". The Guardian. p. 17.
^Salman, Saba (5 May 2000). "Labour loses 600 seats in Tory fightback". Evening Standard. p. 52.