Ian O’Doherty: Disregard for immigration concerns has created a space which is being filled by extremists

Justice Minister Helen McEntee said that 80pc of the 7,000 asylum-seekers who have entered the country so far this year did so by coming across the Border. Photo: PA

Ian O'Doherty

The results of last week’s local elections in the UK were largely predictable. Largely. What had been predicted was annihilation for a Tory Party that has been in power for 14 years, one where vicious internal squabbling is the order of the day.

What had not been predicted was Labour’s relatively poor performance. That wasn’t because of any surprise revival in Conservative fortunes, but because of the fury in many Muslim areas of the UK about Labour’s response to the crisis in the Middle East.