Conservative Councillors are now as almost as rare in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon  Thames as Red Squirrels .

Kingston’s Conservative Councillors were swept aside in Thursday’s Local Election as voters showed a tidal wave of support for the Liberal Democrats .

The Conservatives led by Councillor Kevin Davis plummeted from 28 seats in 2014 to 9 in the Election result announced on Friday . This is an all time low  for the Conservatives in Kingston . Seldom has a Political Party experienced rejection at the hands of the voters on this scale .

It is rumoured that the Conservatives in Kingston will now seek listing as an  ‘Endangered Species’.

A source said :

‘ The Conservatives have never been a party afraid to take bold action. Kingston Conservatives are a vital part of the political landscape in the place where England was born.

Our Heritage demands Kingston Conservatives are given the protection of  ‘ Endangered Species ‘ now or we could become as rare as the Red Squirrel. ‘

The source went on : ‘ What’s good for Kingston Conservatives is good for Kingston ‘

Observers were surprised at the move, not least in respect of the implicit comparison of the Conservative Leader , Councillor Kevin Davis , with a Red Squirrel . The squirrel  stands high in the nation’s affections.

Davis,  it is said by his critics , has done nothing to attract affection. Instead he has courted controversy through his apparently insatiable appetite for meeting with developers , attendance at Property Conferences , and putting Party before Borough by gambling with the Council’s finances .

In recent months he has been investigated by the Conservative Party for his behaviour in calling a 17 year old , who had enquired about his family’s links with a property developer , ‘ an appalling little child ‘. The image of appalling or spoiled child seems to feature prominently in Kevin Davis’s thinking when it comes to characterising anyone he perceives as an opponent , as can be seen in the attached excerpt from the Conservative Borough Website .

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson rejected the apparent comparison with the Grey Squirrel .

They observed that all Political Parties had to earn their votes , and place in the political landscape  saying : 

‘No party has a divine right to rule in Kingston. You have to earn people’s trust by having a vision and values , listening to what they say and acting on it . You do not earn trust by pursuing vanity projects and endless high rise developments . The Conservatives have paid the price for the arrogant way in which they ran Kingston putting party interest before the borough’s. 

The people of Kingston have spoken and resoundingly rejected the Conservatives . We will now spare no effort to repay that trust .’