Who are the 'local Conservatives' and are they different from the national Tories?

Polls are open for local council elections today.

146 out of the 300 local authorities in England will elect new officials, while votes will take place in all of Scotland's 32 councils and all of Wales' 22 councils.

In Northern Ireland voters will pick 90 members of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Are you excited? Thrilled? Counting down the hours until the results? It seems people are, as over the last couple of days speculation, chatter and anticipation has dominated political debate on Twitter.

Among this chatter discussion about 'local Conservatives' has stood out, with many people including candidates running in Birmingham and St Albans list using this branding in their campaign literature.

Sign upto our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

So who are these 'local Conservatives'? Allow us to explain, and the answer is simpler than you might think:

Basically, they are just run-of-the-mill Tories.

Oh.That was quick.

Alright there is a bit more too it. They are run-of-the-mill Tories with a mission to appear as anything but.

Basically, it is a branding attempt distance themselves from Boris Johnson and the national Conservative party given the scandals they are embroiled in, not limited to: watching porn in parliament, being fined over Partygate, and presiding over a gruelling cost of living crisis.

The Tories aren't expected to do well at all and the latest surveys were taken before election day said they could lose 550 seats so campaigning on hyper-local issues could be a candidate's best bet if they want to reach the upper echelons of local democracy.

Here's one of the flyers knocking around in London's Wandsworth:

It seems their efforts to act as hipster pick-me Tories who aren't like other Tories have not gone unnoticed though, and deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner accused local Conservatives of "trying to pull the wool over voter's eyes."

She said: “It speaks volumes that Boris Johnson’s own Conservative candidates are ashamed to be associated with him and trying to pull the wool over voters’ eyes.

“With no answers to the cost of living crisis, Tory candidates are trying to hide from their own government’s record. A vote for Labour on Thursday is a vote to send the Conservatives a message they can’t ignore. Britain deserves better.”

We'll have to wait and see what happens when all the votes are counted.

Enjoyed this article? Then click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help it rise through the indy100 rankings and have your say in our news democracy.