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:
With an hour to go until polls at the local elections in England and Northern Ireland close, here’s an update on what we think is going on:
Voters are expected to punish Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party over its failure to deliver Brexit, with a largely divided and dissatisfied electorate.
More than 8,000 seats on English councils are up for grabs in the first elections since Britain missed its March 29 Brexit date, and the first since 2015, the same day as the Conservatives won the general election.
The results will paint a picture, albeit an imperfect one, of how that has affected support for Ms May's Conservative Party, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.
Some voters may just stay at home, with some activists saying many people are increasingly disillusioned with politics.
The Conservatives are forecast to lose hundreds of seats, and, according to one analysis, the final toll could top 1,000.
Labour, which rejects Ms May's vision of Brexit but still supports leaving the bloc, are expected to make gains, as are the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats.
Just 25 minutes to go until polls close. If you haven’t already exercised your democratic rights, you probably still have time!
Ok, that's it! Polls for the local elections in England and Northern Ireland should now have closed. Now it's time for the counting to start.
The first results are expected shortly after midnight, with the earliest councils to declare expected to be Halton in Cheshire and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.
Roughly half of the results should be in overnight, with the rest arriving during the daytime on Friday.
Though coming just a few weeks before, the results from tonight’s local elections are unlikely to be a useful guide for European elections, as neither Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party nor the Remain-backing Change UK have fielded candidates.
Nonetheless, Brexit is thought to still have played a major role in tonight’s voting.
Conservatives were concerned Leave-backing supporters would stay at home or switch to Ukip in anger at Theresa May's failure to deliver Brexit on time on March 29.
Councils to watch include Dudley, Trafford and Derby, where Labour could gain overall control, and Swindon, Great Yarmouth, Redditch and St Albans, where control could slip out of Tory hands.
Counting is now underway across England, with some councils expecting to be ready to declare as early as 11pm.
Here's the scene in North Tyneside:
It seems former Mayor of London and MP for Uxbridge, Boris Johnson, may have tweeted he voted in the local elections... despite no elections happening in London.
Brexit minister James Cleverly told Sky News this evening “Brexit is the backdrop” for the local elections.
“Because the Labour Party have failed to help land Brexit, there will be frustration. And because we are the party of government, that will disproportionately be taken out on us. I wish it weren’t so, but we’ve got to be realistic about this.”
Some nice speeded-up footage of the count underway in Southampton here:
In Northern Ireland a total of 819 local council candidates are standing across 11 council areas.
Initial indications from some of the 1,463 polling stations across Northern Ireland suggest a solid turnout, PA reports, with the good weather appearing to have buoyed numbers casting their ballots.
The official turnout figure in the last council election in 2014 was 51 per cent.
There will be overnight verification of unused ballot papers returned from the polling stations, with councils ready to begin counting on Friday at 8am. Counting will continue into Saturday before the final picture is known.
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