Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged Rishi Sunak to “make way” and call a general election, as he hailed a “seismic” by-election win in Blackpool South on Friday morning.
Sir Keir said Labour’s win, in the contest to replace ousted Tory MP Scott Benton, was “truly historic” and the “most important result” nationally.
He said: “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.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s top 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 forty years.
Asked if the results were “catastrophic” for the Tories, Sir John said: “Not far from it”.
He added: “So far they are actually losing half of the seats they are trying to defend. If this continues, they could end up losing about 500 seats, which is exactly what they needed to avoid.”
Key Points
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Key results so far
Counting is under way in the 107 councils in England that held elections on Thursday, with the first results declared overnight and more to come later on Friday.
Early results for the police & crime commissioner elections across England and Wales have also been declared, while results are due on Friday afternoon for the mayors in the East Midlands, North East, Tees Valley and York & North Yorkshire.
There was also a byelection in Blackpool South – which saw Labour take the seat from the Conservatives with 58.9 per cent of the vote share.
Labour’s candidate Chris Webb received 10,825 votes, with the Tories trailing far behind with just 3,218 and Reform behind with just 3,218.
Here are some of the key results so far:
The Labour Party won control of the council for the first time since 2019 thanks to a net gain of seven seats, while the Tories lost six.
While Labour did make progress in Harlow in Thursday’s council elections, it fell short of an overall majority by the narrowest of margins, ending up with 16 seats, just one behind the Tories on 17.
The party gained seven seats and a majority on Rushmoor council, an area that includes the army town of Aldershot, while the Tories lost eight seats and overall control.
Labour will be pleased with its performance in the Worcestershire council of Redditch – another important battleground at the general election – where the party picked up nine seats and overall control, while the Conservatives saw their tally drop by 11.
It was a less cheery picture for Labour in South Tyneside, where the party suffered a net loss of 10 seats. Independent candidates gained nine seats and the Greens gained two, while the Tories lost their only councillor.
Labour still has a majority here, but only just: the new council will have 28 Labour councillors, 15 Independents and 11 Greens.
The Reform Party had a full or near-full slate of candidates in only a handful of councils holding elections this year and Sunderland was one of a few places where it fought every seat.
While the party did not win any of them, it did beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority.
This Essex council was another one of Labour’s top targets in a key Conservative-Labour election battleground.
The party needed to gain six seats to take control of Thurrock, which has been run by the Tories for the past few years during a period of turbulence that saw the council declared effectively bankrupt in December 2022.
Labour ended up making a net gain of eight seats, enough for a clear majority, with Independents picking up two and the Tories suffering a net loss of 10.
Alexander Butler3 May 2024 06:28
Tees Valley mayor given boost by Hartlepool result
Conservative Ben Houchen has received a boost from the latest count, in Hartlepool, a key constituency in the Tees Valley mayoral elections.
Despite a large swing to Labour of 17 per cent, the sitting mayor still held a lead in Hartlepool – polling 10,074 compared with 8,732 for Labour’s Chris McEwan.
It comes despite a strong showing in the Hartlepool council election for Labour, who won the council back after suffering a humiliating by-election defeat there just three years previously.
Andy Gregory3 May 2024 11:29
Watch: Tories must find role for Boris Johnson to combat ‘wokeist agenda’, says MP
Andy Gregory3 May 2024 11:23
Alexander Butler3 May 2024 11:00
Local election results in full: Who has declared victory in council and mayoral ballots?
Here are the results so far in full:
London and the South East
Broxbourne: Conservative – Hold
Colchester: No overall majority – No change
Eastleigh: Lib Dem – Hold
Fareham: Conservative – Hold
Gosport: Lib Dem – Hold
Harlow: Conservative – Hold
Hart: No overall majority – No change
Peterborough: No overall majority – No change
Portsmouth: No overall majority – No change
Rochford:No overall majority – No change
Rushmoor: Labour – Gain
Southampton: Labour – Hold
Southend-on-Sea: No overall majority – No change
Thurrock: Labour – Gain
Winchester: Lib Dem – Hold
South West
Plymouth: Labour – Hold
East Midlands
West Midlands
Redditch: Labour – Gain
Yorkshire and the Humber
North East Lincolnshire: No overall majority – Conservative loss
North East
Gateshead: Labour – Hold
Hartlepool: Labour – Gain
Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Labour – Hold
South Tyneside: Labour – Hold
Sunderland: Labour – Hold
North West
Bolton: No overall majority – No change
Oldham: No overall majority – Labour loss
Stockport: No overall majority – No change
Tameside: Labour – Hold
Alexander Butler3 May 2024 10:50
MPs should ‘wait through the weekend’, Tory chairman urges
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”.
Elections experts have warned the Conservatives could be on course to lose 500 seats in what could be their worst showing in 40 years.
Alexander Butler3 May 2024 10:13
At-a-glance guide to results and declaration times
Alexander Butler3 May 2024 09:53
Tories have to talk up their successes, party chair claims
The chairman of the Conservatives has claimed his party needs to talk up its “successes” as it faces its faces its worst local elections performance in four decades.
Richard Holden mentioned improvements in global education league tables and the government’s controversial Rwanda policy, to give asylum seekers a one-way ticket to the African country.
Mr Holden told Radio 4’s Today programme: “It is about us talking about those positives, consistently. And I think that’s just what we have to do”.
Kate Devlin3 May 2024 09:30
Win sends message to Sunak, Starmer says
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.”
Alexander Butler3 May 2024 09:30
Keir Starmer hails ‘incredible’ Blackpool election win
Alexander Butler3 May 2024 09:06