Voices: No, the local elections don’t point to a hung parliament – but Sunak could still make it happen

Professor Michael Thrasher, the Sky News boffin, caused consternation on Friday by publishing a projection from the local elections that suggested the results would produce a hung parliament if repeated in the general election.

This is where the phrase “just a bit of fun”, a watchword of Peter Snow, the BBC’s former king of the swingometer, comes into play. Thrasher is right to say that if Labour’s share of the vote was seven percentage points ahead of the Conservatives in a general election, the party would probably fall short of a majority in the House of Commons.

But that is quite an “if”. That seven-point. And people vote differently in local and general elections. A lot of people who voted Green on Thursday would vote Labour in the general election. Conversely, quite a few Conservative voters might vote for Reform UK, the rebranded Brexit Party, which didn’t stand many candidates in the local elections.