Local elections results: Corbyn says Brexit deal between Labour and Tories ‘has to be done’ in wake of poll hammering
Disastrous night for major parties as Liberal Democrats surge
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Your support makes all the difference.Voters have punished both Theresa May’s Conservative party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour in the 2019 local government elections over Brexit.
The Tories lost more than 1,200 seats, while the Lib Dems gained more than 600. The Greens gained more than 180 seats, with party co-leader Jonathan Bartley declaring it “the biggest election night in our history”.
Change UK MP Chuka Umunna said the local election results illustrate that “politics is broken in Britain”, while polling expert Sir John Curtice said the hold of the two big parties looks “as weak as it has done at any point in post-war British politics”.
The prime minister was confronted with anger as backbench MPs called for her removal and warned that the party would be “toast” if it did not change direction.
In Wales, a heckler interrupted the PM as she gave a speech in Wales, saying: “Why don’t you resign? We don’t want you.”
The prime minister later thanked Conservative councillors who had lost their seats.
“Because we haven’t delivered the Brexit deal through parliament yet, this was going to be a particularly challenging set of elections for both of the main parties,” she said in a speech to the North East Lincolnshire Conservative Group.
“I also know that last night, I’m sorry to say, a good number of good local councillors across the country lost their seats,” she said, in a speech to the North East Lincolnshire Conservative Group.
“Brandon (Lewis) and I both started our careers in local government and we know what it’s like when you’re fighting local elections against a difficult national background.
“I’d like to thank all those councillors for all their hard work and effort that they’ve put in.”
Labour also suffered losses, surprising the party leadership who had expected to make gains in Thursday’s vote.
Instead the party lost 63 council seats and overall control of six councils, including heartland councils such as Hartlepool, Wirral and Bolsover.
Both parties are now bracing for further losses in European elections, which are scheduled for 23 May.
If you would like to see how the results emerged, please see what was our live coverage below:
Here's a look at whether Mr Williamson could face a criminal charge and possible prison term following allegations he broke the Official Secrets Act over the Huawei leak, by Lizzie Dearden:
The Bank of England has kept its main interest rate on hold at 0.75 per cent following its first policy meeting since Britain was granted a Brexit delay.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has said the Cabinet Office would need to make a referral before it would launch an investigation into allegations Gavin Williamson breached the Official Secrets Act.
She said: "Nothing has changed from last night here. We are not going to comment on that particular case suffice to say if the Cabinet Office were to send us a referral at any point that relates to apparent official secrets or leaks we would assess that. We would scope it and we would go through a very formal gateway process before working on any investigation.
"The gateway process has been in place for about six years and a formal decision would be taken by the deputy commissioner but that is hypothetical because we have not had any referral from the Cabinet Office.
"We will look at any complaint we may get and if there is relevant evidence we will always look at it."
She said that of other people made a complaint relating to official secrets, the Met would look at it, but she said the formal process involved a referral from the Cabinet Office.
Asked if police needed permission from the Government to launch an inquiry, she said any official secrets would be owned by them and they would hold any evidence relating to them.
"It is sitting in the government. We as the police when considering whether there is an appropriate criminal investigation or not will have to be party to that material. At the present time we are not in possession."
Asked if it was on the face of it a breach of the Official Secrets Act, Ms Dick said police would seek advice at an early stage from the Crown Prosecution Service to establish that.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling, responding to an urgent question from the SNP on cross-Channel ferry and freight services, said: "The government is now reviewing our contingency planning for a no-deal EU exit in the wake of the recent developments.
"No decisions have yet been taken for what we'll do to prepare for the new exit date of 31 October, of course many of the preparations that were made for 29 March are still in place.
"The planning assumptions which underpinned the original maritime freight capacity activity will need reviewing in the light of the Article 50 extension to understand if they're still valid.
"A collective view will then be taken across government on the necessary contingency plans that'll need to be implemented, including working closely with the Department of Heath and Social Care and Defra to understand the needs of their supply chains."
Mr Grayling said the contracts with ferry companies to provide additional capacity as part of no-deal Brexit planning were "scheduled to run up until September", adding these were an "essential insurance policy".
SNP transport spokesman Alan Brown said: "People still ask me why is the secretary of state still in post after all his blunders. I can't answer that but I'd ask that he does the right thing, take responsibility and step aside."
A patient undergoing cancer treatment has been told his radiotherapy has been delayed indefinitely "because of Brexit". Alex Matthews-King has the story:
UK GDP has been boosted in the short term by a stockpiling drive by businesses prior to the original March Brexit deadline.
In the minutes to Wednesday's Monetary Policy Committee meeting, it said: "GDP is expected to have grown by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter, in part a reflection of a larger-than-expected boost from companies in the United Kingdom and the European Union building stocks ahead of recent Brexit deadlines.
"That boost is expected to be temporary, however, and quarterly growth is expected to slow to around 0.2 per cent in the second quarter."
Stock building during the period had been higher than expected with UK manufacturing output rising markedly during the first two months of the 2019.
UK imports of goods from EU and non-EU countries both rose by around 3 per cent during the quarter.
Business investment has fallen over the past year due to Brexit uncertainty, as companies delay spending until the terms of the UK's exit is reached.
A survey by the Bank of England last month revealed that 28 per cent of firms expected output to fall in a no-deal scenario, while 17 per cent of firms said they expect employment to shrink.
The Monetary Policy Committee said: "As new Brexit deadlines approached, it was possible that businesses would continue to worry about adverse outcomes and delay capital spending as they waited for a resolution to emerge.
"Faced with a high option value of waiting for news about Brexit, companies in aggregate appeared to have favoured hiring relative to capital investment."
Bank of England governor Mark Carney said a Brexit resolution with a smooth transition will require "more frequent" rate increases.
He said: "If something like this forecast comes to pass, we could see a period where the economy is growing and pressures continue to build despite this uncertainty.
"If a Brexit resolution is some form of arrangement with some smooth resolution to it, it will require rate increases, and more frequent rate increases than the market currently expects."
The Commons Leader has said she hopes Brexit talks with Labour "will come to fruition soon".
Andrea Leadsom was asked by her opposite number Valerie Vaz when the EU Withdrawal Agreement would be debated again in the Commons.
Responding, Ms Leadsom said: "She asks when the debate on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill will be held. She'll be aware there are cross-party talks under way at the moment so she will be no doubt aware, possibly better than I am, how those talks are going.
"We all hope they come to fruition soon and we do make some progress in delivering Brexit which is something this House is committed to doing and something we seem to have failed singularly to have achieved so far."
Robert Hayward, a polling specialist and former Conservative MP, said he expected the Tories to lose more than 800 seats, Labour to gain fewer than 300 and the Liberal Democrats to pick up more than 500.
Another analysis by academics Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher suggested a swing in polling towards Labour could translate into Conservative losses of more than 1,000 seats and 800 Labour gains.
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