Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton win big in New York primary

Mr Trump and Ms Clinton had gone into the day looking to regain their momentum

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton emerged as huge winners in the New York primary - trouncing their rivals and reestablishing their claims as their parties’ frontrunners and presumptive presidential candidates.

Mr Trump grinned and smiled in front of supporters in New York’s Trump Tower where television screens showed him on more than 60 per cent, almost 35 points ahead of his rivals, Ohio Governor John Kasich and Texas Senator Ted Crux

“This has been an incredible evening, an incredible day and week,” said Mr Trump, who was looking to win most of the state’s 95 Republican delegates.

“We don’t have much of a race anymore. Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated. We are really, really rocking.”

Ms Clinton also spoke to her supporters in the city, relishing a victory over Bernie Sanders by 60 points to 40, a considerably larger margin than polls had suggested. The state’s 247 Democratic delegates will be divided proportionally, but she said “victory is in sight”.

“Thank you New York, thank you all so much. You know, today you proved once again that there is no place like home,” she declared.

She added: “To all the people who supported Senator Sanders, I believe there is much more that unites us than divides us.”

Mr Trump had gone into voting day with polls suggesting he had a 30 point advantage over Mr Kasich and Mr Cruz.

After several weeks of stumbling, faltering performances and defeats in states such as Colorado, North Dakota and Wyoming, the New York tycoon had been looking to regain his momentum and enjoy the psychological boost that a win in his home state offered.

He is looking to edge closer to the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination before the party’s convention in Cleveland in July. Many observers believe neither Mr Trump or Mr Cruz will manage to win a clean majority ahead of the event, opening the way for a so-called “contested convention”.

But next week, people in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut will cast their votes, and Mr Trump expects to do well in all of them. Observers say he needs to secure around 60 per cent of all remaining delegates if he is to win the nomination ahead of the convention.

Ms Clinton’s campaign will also have been buoyed by the margin of her victory. While she was always expected to win, opinion polls and the supporters who showed up at his large, boisterous rallies had suggested Mr Sanders might close the gap to single digits. Mr Sanders had outspent Ms Clinton in a battle where they both liked to call themselves New Yorkers.

But Ms Clinton is now also looking ahead to the upcoming five contests and was due to attend two events in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, where she wants to “seal the deal” begin to focus on the general election.

Mr Sanders was on Tuesday night campaigning in Pennsylvania - as was Mr Cruz - which has 189 Democratic delegates and 17 Republican delegates. He tried to sound upbeat, but it is now very difficult for the Vermont senator to catch Ms Clinton.

“We’re going to do just fine in New York,” he told supporters, before the results were officially announced.

“And the reason we’re going to do just fine is because we are doing something very unique in American politics, which is to tell the truth.”

The New York primary did not play out without controversy; anywhere up to 120,000 people in the New York city borough of Brooklyn said they were unable to vote. Comptroller Scott Stringer said he would be carrying out an investigation into what had happened.