Watch: Campaigners react as local election results come in
By Sam Francis & Christy Cooney & Kate Whannel
BBC News
Early results in local elections in England have seen Labour and the Liberal Democrats gain council seats at the expense of the Conservatives.
Plymouth, Medway and Stoke-on-Trent councils were won by Labour, while the Lib Dems took Windsor and Maidenhead.
The Conservatives lost their majorities in Tamworth, Brentwood, Hertsmere and North West Leicestershire.
Only a minority of councils counted overnight and most results will not be confirmed until later on Friday.
The polls for more than 8,000 council seats on 230 councils, and four mayors, across England closed on Thursday.
The vote is the first big test of Rishi Sunak’s electoral popularity since he became prime minister.
The first gain of a council went to Labour, who took control in Plymouth, where no party previously had a majority.
In Brentwood, Essex, the Tories lost two seats to the Lib Dems, meaning the party no longer has a majority in the council chamber.
Among other early results, Labour retained Sefton and Exeter, while the Tories held on to Basildon and Redditch.
Results will continue to be declared throughout Friday, including three mayoral contests in Bedford, Leicester and Mansfield.
In Middlesbrough, Labour’s Chris Cooke became mayor beating the incumbent candidate.
Elections are not taking place in London, Scotland or Wales. Council elections in Northern Ireland have been moved back to Thursday 18 May because of the Coronation of King Charles III on Saturday.
Conclusions drawn must be done so with caution; caution because of the volume of results still to come, and caution because it can be crude to instantly transpose local election results to imagine a general election picture.But there is often a correlation between performance at local elections and national ones. It has, without question so far, been a miserable series of results for the Conservatives. “A wake up call” as one minister put it.Labour reckon these results show they are “on track to win the next general election”.But some analysts are sceptical the numbers are that good for Labour – given the colossal mountain they face to get Keir Starmer into Downing Street and the Tories take comfort from that.The broadest sleep-deprived smiles this morning belong to Liberal Democrats.But remember, we are not even close to the half way point in these results so far.
Conservatives have acknowledged disappointment at the early results but noted that only 25% of councils have declared results so far.
Initial results suggest Labour are making steady if not overwhelming gains, but the party says it is making good progress in the areas it needs in order to win the next general election.
Discussing the result in Plymouth with the BBC, local Tory MP Johnny Mercer said it had been “a terrible night” for his party in the city.
Shabana Mahmood MP, Labour’s national campaign coordinator, said the results showed Labour were “on course” to win a majority in the next government.”Tonight has been a disaster for Rishi Sunak as voters punish him for the Tories’ failure,” she added.
Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey said it had been a “ground-breaking night” for his party adding: “We have delivered a hammer blow to the Conservative Party.”
The Green Party is hoping to win outright control of its first council in Mid Suffolk. Party co-leader Carla Denyer said her party were benefitting from “a deep dislike of the Tories and Starmer’s uninspiring Labour”.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, the Conservative Party sought to manage expectations, with party chairman Greg Hands suggesting his party could lose 1,000 council seats.
Labour has enjoyed a significant lead in the opinion polls but has also been downplaying expectations, saying it expected to gain around 400 seats.
Most of the seats up for election were last contested in 2019, a tumultuous time for the two leading parties.
The Conservatives lost a total of 1,330 seats in mostly traditionally Tory-supporting areas. Labour lost 84 seats – just over 4% of its councillors in those areas.
The main beneficiaries were the Liberal Democrats and independent candidates.
Under new rules, people voting in these elections needed to show some form of ID.
The Electoral Commission, which oversees elections in the UK, said Thursday’s election had been “well run” overall but some people had been unable to cast their vote and the impact of new voter ID rules needed to be evaluated.
The Electoral Reform Society, which opposed the change, said there had been “countless examples” of would-be voters being turned away from polling station because of the new rules.
The BBC has not been able to verify the number of voters turned away because of the new rules. But figures for this are expected to emerge in the coming days.
Most of the councils up for election in England are district councils, responsible for services including bin collections, parks, public housing and planning applications.
The rest of the councils being elected are a mixture of metropolitan and unitary councils – single local authorities that deal with all local services.
