Over the past nine years, Conservatives have broken one of the golden rules of British politics – one that certainly held true for us in the 1990s and for Labour from 1997 onwards – namely that the party in power nationally, inevitably sees its local government base dramatically reduced.

Despite the disappointing local election results this May, we remain the largest party in local government with 7,252 councillors and control of 157 councils as well as holding the Local Government Association (LGA) chairmanship.