Local election live: Smiling Starmer hails 'historic victory' in Sunak's backyard

Twelve months before Gordon Brown lost power, Labour suffered deep losses at the 2009 local elections, slumping to just 23% of the vote and triggering an abortive putsch, spearheaded by the work and pensions secretary James Purnell.

In the event, Labour scraped a slightly less humiliating 29% at the general election the following May, but Brown’s anxious colleagues were correct to read the council polls as a harbinger of defeat.

Across England and Wales this weekend, Conservative politicians in vulnerable seats (which, given the national polls, means most of them) will be scrutinising local results for signs of their fate.

Election experts caution that there are good reasons not to read across directly from local elections to the national polls that follow.

Read the full analysis in the Guardian

Ben Houchen’s victory in the Tees Valley mayoral election provides an almost solitary ray of Tory hope after “seismic” election losses for the party.

With hundreds of Conservative councillors losing their seats, failure to win the North Yorkshire mayoralty in Rishi Sunak’s own backyard and the biggest-ever swing against them in a by-election in Blackpool South, things look pretty bleak for the prime minister.

Despite all this, it was noticeable after Lord Houchen gave his victory speech – minus a blue rosette or mention of Mr Sunak – that even Boris Johnson’s most manic cheerleader-in-chief, Nadine Dorries, claimed it would be “madness” to ditch Mr Sunak now.

Read the full analysis in the Independent

Local elections famously allow voters to give sitting governments a bloody nose. Here in Aldershot, they went for GBH – grievous ballot-box harm.

The de facto home of the British Army and true blue Tory territory for the past 24 years is now redder than Boris Johnson’s face when he turned up to vote without any photo ID – a measure he introduced as prime minister.

“I voted Conservative in the last election but everything is such a god-awful mess I did a complete U-turn,” said Toni Greenway, 39, who runs a domestic services company in Aldershot.

“The cost of living crisis has really hit me hard; my staff want more money but my customers don’t want to pay more."

For the full report, read Judith Woods piece in the Telegraph

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said David Skaith’s win at the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was a “historic victory” for Labour in “the heart of Tory territory”.

Sir Keir said the win was “vindication” for the Labour Party and showed that “people are fed up with a failed government,” in comments at a victory rally at Northallerton Town Football Club in North Yorkshire.

“This is a historic victory, the villages and towns of North Yorkshire – this is the heart of Tory territory,” he said.

“We’ve had a positive campaign here and I am very, very proud to stand here as leader of the Labour Party to celebrate this historic victory and it is a historic victory – these are places where we would not have usually had a Labour Party success but we’ve been able to create that success and persuade people to vote for us.”

To the voters, he said: “Thank you for putting your trust in Labour, we will not let you down.”

It is a “very good day for Labour,” he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has pledged to “make this Conservative government history”.

Appearing at a rally in Winchester alongside activists dressed in dinosaur costumes wearing blue rosettes, Sir Ed said: “These results show what we all know: we need a general election now.

“No matter how long Rishi Sunak stays squatting in Downing Street, the Liberal Democrat general election campaign starts today to make this Conservative government history.

“From Cheltenham to Hull and here in Hampshire – people are choosing the Liberal Democrats to make that change happen. To be their strong local champions, work tirelessly for their communities and deliver the fair deal people deserve.”

A Tory MP branded two BBC presenters “pathetic” as they clashed when discussing Ben Houchen’s re-election as Teeside mayor.

Andrea Leadsom appeared to take offense after journalist Jo Cobrun pointed out Mr Houchen's vote was down and that he never mentioned the Tories or Rishi Sunak on his election posters, when she appeared on Politics Live on Friday (3 May).

Read the full story from The Independent.

How bad will the election results be for Rishi Sunak? Have your say below, then scroll down to read our ongoing live coverage

In Manchester, Labour deputy leader of the council Luthfur Rahman has lost his seat to Shahbaz Sarwar of George Galloway’s Workers Party.

The party claimed the seat in the Longsight ward with 2,444 votes to Labour’s 2,259 votes.

Workers Party candidate Shahbaz Sarwar, who took the Longsight council seat in Manchester from deputy leader and Labour councillor Luthfur Rahman, told the PA news agency: “The community’s come out, the community’s voted and the community wants a change and here we are.

“We think we can do better and we will do better and we believe the Labour Party hasn’t done much for Manchester and it’s not made any impact in the community and that’s what we’re here to bring.”

He said he was “not aware” of comments made by party leader George Galloway earlier this week which were criticised as homophobic.

Labour won overall control of Milton Keynes for the first time since 2000 after gaining three seats.

The party now has 30 seats on the Buckinghamshire council, with Lib Dems on 18, after gaining two, and Conservatives on nine, after losing five.

Labour was previously running the council in alliance with the Lib Dems, in a city with two marginal parliamentary constituencies.

Rishi Sunak said Ben Houchen’s re-election victory in Teesside was evidence of “the Conservatives delivering“ as he praised the Tory mayor’s record on attracting jobs and investment to the area.

The Labour Party “threw absolutely everything” at the election in Teesside but they “couldn’t dislodge Ben and the fantastic Conservative team,” Sunak said.

Lord Houchen has delivered more in seven years than Labour could in 30 years, the prime minister said as he and Lord Houchen met supporters in Teesside.

He praised the airport and steelworks regeneration projects in the area.

“That is levelling up in action. That is what you get with Ben taking bold decisions for this region, that’s the Conservatives delivering,” Sunak said.

He added: “I’ve got a message for the Labour Party too because they know that they have to win here in order to win a general election – they know that. They assumed that Tees Valley would stroll back to them – but it didn’t.”

He said: “People knew that they couldn’t be taken for granted. They knew it was Ben and the Conservatives that delivered for them and they stuck with you at this election. And I know that come the general election, they’re going to stick with us too – because they don’t want to be taken for granted and they know that it’s you and it’s the Conservatives that are building a brighter future for Teesside and a brighter future for Britain.”

How bad will the election results be for Rishi Sunak? Have your say below, then scroll down to read our ongoing live coverage

A bruising set of local election results for the Tory Party is set to heap further pressure on Rishi Sunak's leadership.

The prime minister has previously confirmed he will call a general election this year, but there are questions as to whether he will even be in his job to do so.

Amid dire poll ratings, there has long been speculation that disgruntled Tory MPs could move against Sunak after these elections, in which nearly 2,700 council seats were up for grabs in England, as well as high-profile mayoralties.

Read the full story from Yahoo News.

Conservatives have been wiped out at Castle Point Council as the independent parties have gained all seats on the council.

The Tories have lost all eight of their seats on the council as The Canvey Island Independent Party and The People's Independent Party won all 39 seats.

Thirteen Conservative candidates were barred from standing after a “human error” on the nomination papers.

Read the full story from Echo News.

Labour’s David Skaith has won the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election.

A Labour spokeswoman said: "This is a truly historic result in York and North Yorkshire. Keir Starmer's Labour party is now winning in Rishi Sunak’s backyard. The Prime Minister’s own constituents have taken a look at the two parties and chosen Labour.”

Labour’s Kim McGuinness has won the North East mayoralty, defeating former Labour-turned-independent Jamie Driscoll.

It is the first time a mayor has been elected for the region in a multiple-billion pound government deal to develop the area.

She polled 185,051 votes (41.27%), ahead of Mr Driscoll, the former Labour North of Tyne mayor, who was blocked from standing for the new post by the party, with 126,652 votes.

Conservative Guy Renner-Thompson was third on 52,446, with Reform UK on 41,147, the Lib Dems on 25,485 and the Greens on 17,631.

Ben Houchen said he could “absolutely” work with Sir Keir Starmer if the Labour leader becomes prime minister, but denied “trying to pretend” he was not Conservative during his mayoral election campaign.

The winning Tory candidate in the Tees Valley contest appeared to praise the Opposition’s position on devolution, saying it would give him “more autonomy” after his victory on Friday.

Read the full story from PA.

How bad will the election results be for Rishi Sunak? Have your say below, then scroll down to read our ongoing live coverage

The Tories have held on in the Tees Valley mayor race with a result which could save Rishi Sunak from facing a vote of confidence after a terrible set of local election results.

However, as Conservative mayor Ben Houchen won in the north east he snubbed the Prime Minister in his acceptance speech and thanked voters for “backing my plan”. He also pointedly made it clear he would be happy to work with Sir Keir Starmer if the Labour leader becomes Prime Minister later this year.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Labour has declared victory in the East Midlands mayoral election, despite the race not being officially called yet.

A party source said Claire Ward had “comfortably” defeated Conservative Ben Bradley, who is also MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council.

The source described the region as “the beating heart of the general election battleground”.

Ben Houchen claimed he “forgot” his blue Conservative rosette when asked why he had not worn one to the mayoral election count, as he denied “trying to pretend” he was not a Tory.

The re-elected Tees Valley mayor said: “I have done at previous elections and the honest answer is I didn’t have one and I forgot it. But I’ve got my blue socks on and my blue tie on…

“The idea that we are trying to pretend I’m not Conservative, I mean people know round here that I’m a Conservative, but thankfully what we’ve seen today is they also know that I’m a Teessider, and I’ll put Teesside first, I’ll put local people first and I’ll do what’s best for the local area.”

Asked whether he could have borrowed a blue rosette from someone else, he said: “No, we did rumble around in some bags and we were hoping to find one but we couldn’t find one… we were too busy focused on the result.”

If one party has been keeping the Conservatives awake at night over the past few months, it is Reform.

Pipping the Lib Dems to third place in the polls at roughly 12 per cent, they appear to be a major thorn in the government’s side as the general election looms.

In the Blackpool South by-election on Thursday, the insurgent party originally founded by Nigel Farage as the Brexit Party, posted its best ever by-election result.

Read the full story from The Telegraph.

Ben Houchen said after being re-elected as Tees Valley mayor: “Let’s keep pushing for a better Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool, let’s deliver more jobs, more investment. And again I just want to thank everybody. It’s a really humbling experience.”

Lord Houchen thanked his Labour and Lib Dem opponents who he said had “both run very strong campaigns”.

He also offered a “very personal thanks to my wife Rachel and my new baby Hannah.”

He said: “This has been a very difficult few months, it has been a really hard campaign, there has been a lot of spotlight on this election which brings a level of intensity – but having Rachel as an absolute rock by my side, I absolutely could not do without her.”

He added: “Enjoy the rest of your day and I’m looking forward to some sleep. All the best.”

Voters across England and Wales took to the polls on Thursday for the latest round of local elections. Early results indicate strong results for Labour, as the Tories suffer massive losses. Alongside thousands of councillors, several metro mayors are to be elected – including the high-profile Mayor of London.

Incumbent Sadiq Khan is hoping to secure a third term for Labour as he fights off Conservative candidate Susan Hall. They are amongst 11 candidates in total, including the controversial right-wing Reform UK party’s Jeremy Cox.

Read the full story from The Independent.

How bad will the election results be for Rishi Sunak? Have your say below, then scroll down to read our ongoing live coverage

Conservative Ben Houchen has been re-elected as Tees Valley Mayor, but with a reduced majority over Labour.

Rishi Sunak said he is “focused completely on the job at hand” amid a bruising set of local election results for the Tory Party which could heap further pressure on his leadership.

Asked whether he needs to convince his party he can do better in a general election, he told reporters at a military base in North Yorkshire: “If Keir Starmer was in Harlow on Wednesday saying that that was a place he needed to win in order to win the next general election, that has happened.

“We still haven’t got results from places like Tees Valley with the mayoralty results which again is a key battleground.

“Look, I am focused completely on the job at hand, that’s delivering for people across the country.”

Ben Houchen denied that he had shied away from campaigning as a Conservative or mentioning Rishi Sunak in his campaign literature during the Tees Valley mayoral contest.

He told Sky News: “We absolutely don’t shy away from that at all, and Rishi’s been up during the campaign and we have always said Rishi’s been a great friend to the people of Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.”

He added that the Prime Minister had been “a huge champion for this area”.

The main story so far is a Conservative collapse. They have lost the Blackpool South by-election and more than half of the council seats they were defending.

If results continue like this it could be the party's worst-ever local elections.

It's still early on though. We have votes from about a third of councils but are still waiting for figures from London and the nine metro mayor areas.

Read the full story from Sky News.

Labour has conceded in he hostly contested Tees Valley mayoral election.

Conceding defeat, a Labour source said the switch away from Tory Lord Ben Houchen was greater than the 12% swing they would need to sweep the Tees Valley constituencies in a general election.

However, Ben Houchen declined to declare victory.

He told Sky News: “I would never take anything for granted and we are going to see over the next hour how the results turn out.”

As the first results from the May 2024 local elections come in, Keir Starmer has told the prime minister to make way for a general election.

It comes as Rishi Sunak faces a brutal series of losses set to further dampen the party’s prospects in the face of a looming general election.

Polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice said the election “could be one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections of the last 40 years”, while Conservative MPs have reluctantly conceded the results from the council elections are poor for the party.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Labour has continued to play down their chances of winning the Tees Valley mayoralty, with a party source saying it had always seemed out of reach.

The source said the current mayor, Ben Houchen, had been effectively running as an independent rather than a Conservative, and a swing of 12.5% would be enough for Labour to win every parliamentary seat in the region.

With the local and mayoral election voting behind us, many are wondering when the general election will take place.

Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning for the general election to take place in mid-October, after ruling out a snap election in May. However, there is no confirmed date.

It is thought Sunak is unlikely to hold an election mid-November, since it would clash with the US presidential election.

Read the full story from the Evening Standard.

The Conservative Party chairman has appealed to Tory MPs “wait through the weekend” after a bruising first set of local election results, insisting Rishi Sunak is “the right man” to lead the party.

Richard Holden admitted it had been a “tough night”, but insisted the party’s drubbing on Friday was “typical for a government in midterm”.

Read the full story from PA.

Labour on Friday celebrated some big wins across London’s commuter belt in South East England including the home of the British Army in Hampshire.

The Conservatives admitted to suffering a bruising night but drew comfort from a narrow victory in Harlow Council in Essex, a key general election target for Labour just north of the M25.

Read more from the Evening Standard.

Sir Keir Starmer said the result in Blackpool South had sent a message “directly to the Prime Minister” demanding a change.

In a speech alongside newly elected MP Chris Webb, the Labour leader said: “It’s a fantastic result, a really first-class result and here in Blackpool a message has been sent directly to the prime minister, directly to the prime minister, because this was a parliamentary vote.

“This was directly to Rishi Sunak to say we are fed up with your decline, your chaos and your division and we want change. We want to go forward with Labour.”

He added: “That wasn’t just a little message, that wasn’t just a murmur, that was a shout from Blackpool.

“We want change, and Blackpool speaks for the whole country. It says we have had enough now after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline. We need to turn the page and start afresh with Labour, which has a positive plan for the country.”

Nadine Dorries has said it would be "madness" if the Tory party attempted to replace Rishi Sunak before the next election.

Asked if the Tories will try and replace Sunak, she told GMB: "That depends what happens later today. The tipping point is the mayoral elections.

"If we were to lose the West Midlands mayoral election and Ben Houchen in north Teesside, that would be a very serious and difficult moment for Rishi Sunak.

"If my former colleagues did try to remove Rishi Sunak, it would be madness. It would make no difference whatsoever and actually send the message that we are not trusted with government. It would be insane to do that."

Rishi Sunak has suffered a by-election drubbing and faces further pain in council contests across England.

Labour’s Chris Webb won the Blackpool South parliamentary seat with a swing of 26.33% from the Tories and Sir Keir Starmer’s party also secured council wins in areas which will be key general election battlegrounds later this year.

Read the full story from PA.

Keir Starmer has hailed Labour’s “seismic” win in Blackpool South in a night of local elections that provided further evidence that the party is heading for a large majority at this year’s general election.

The Labour leader called the result in the Blackpool South byelection “truly historic” after the party’s candidate, Chris Webb, won the seat with the third biggest swing from the Conservatives to Labour in postwar history.

Read the full story from The Guardian.

There was a time when most British elections had overnight counts. However dramatic the night’s events, come the morning we more or less knew how things had played out.

No longer. Many of the results from yesterday’s council elections are counting today, whilst the big mayoral contests in London, the West Midlands, and elsewhere aren’t counting until Saturday.

Read the full story from The Telegraph.

How bad will the election results be for Rishi Sunak? Have your say below, then scroll down to read our ongoing live coverage

Tory Party chairman Richard Holden described the local election results so far as “disappointing”.

Holden told BBC Breakfast: “Overall a disappointing night for us but that’s what you’d expect from parties in midterm of government.”

Asked whether voters do not like what the Conservatives are offering, he said: “I think what they want to see is us delivering on things like the Rwanda scheme… what I think people want to see is more Conservative delivery on things like illegal migration, they want to see that deterrent.”

Asked whether the potential challenges posed to Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives posed by the results would be addressed,Holden said: “When people are voting in individual by-elections they know they’re not voting for the government of the country.”

He added: “I don’t think the read across is quite as you’re portraying it there.”

Sadiq Khan and his main challenger Susan Hall face an anxious wait to find out who will be the next London Mayor after polls closed on Thursday night.

More than two million Londoners are expected to have voted in the London mayoral election with Labour candidate Khan, who is seeking his third term in office, the favourite to win against his Conservative challenger Hall.

Read the full story from the Evening Standard.

Mark Menzies losing the Tory whip added to “not exactly the ideal circumstances” for the Conservative candidate’s campaign in Blackpool South, Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden said.

Menzies, the former Conservative MP for Fylde, was suspended from the party after claims he made a late night call to ask for money to pay off “bad people”.

Asked about the by-election, which Labour won by a 28.5 point swing, the Tory chairman told Sky News: “In this one there were particular circumstances of not only the previous MP having been forced to stand down but also during the campaign in the neighbouring seat a former Conservative MP had to have the whip withdrawn.”

He admitted it has been a “tough night” for the party.