A Labour source described the region as “the beating heart of the general election battleground”, suggesting the party’s win there is one of the biggest signs yet it could be on track for national victory.
The region encompasses a number of key bellwether areas, as well as many former “red wall” seats, including Bolsover and Bassetlaw.
Labour’s candidate for the East Midlands mayor and current chair of the Sherwood Forest hospitals NHS trust Claire Ward. Photograph: Jacob King/PA
Bradley had hoped his strong local connections and name recognition – as the MP for Mansfield and leader of Nottinghamshire county council – would help him buck the trend of declining Tory support.
Polls were predicting a Labour win, and as votes were being counted he could be seen looking glum outside the venue. When asked by one reporter how he was feeling, he replied: “Meh”.
The Conservatives are facing some of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to secure victory at the general election. The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”. Elections expert John Curtice put the Conservatives’ share of the vote at just 25%, matching the nadir hit in local elections in 1995 by the Conservative prime minister John Major, soon to be swept out of power by Tony Blair
Labour was celebrating a string of election successes, but Beneath the euphoria of wins in places such as Blackpool, Hartlepool and Thurrock, however, lay a nervousness about the party’s performance in urban areas, with campaigners warning it had lost ground in both London and Birmingham. Sources said much of the loss of urban support was being driven by anger among Muslim and progressive voters about Keir Starmer’s stance on Israel’s assault on Gaza following the 7 October attacks
The Conservatives held on to their high-profile Tees Valley mayoralty with a reduced majority for Ben Houchen in the mayoral elections, but Labour won three other contests, in the East Midlands, North East and Rishi Sunak’s own patch of North Yorkshire
Keir Starmer said Labour’s victory in the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was “a very, very special moment”. He told voters “Thank you for putting your trust in Labour, we will not let you down.”
Liberal Democrat leader said their general election campaign started today after a series of gains in the south and south-west of England
The Green party is positioned to win Bristol city council despite failing to win outright control
The Liberal Democrats have gained overall control of Tunbridge Wells as the Conservatives lost four seat, leaving them on seven and the Liberal Democrats with 22 of the 39 seats. Labour and independents have five each.
A Liberal Democrat source said, and you may have to brace yourself, “the disgusted of Tunbridge Wells have spoken.”
The Conservatives have lost control of Dudley in the West Midlands after Labour gained eight seats, PA Media reports. The council is now split with Conservatives and Labour both holding 34 seats, and the Liberal Democrats with three and an independent making up the other four seats holding the balance of power.
Labour won the mayoralties declared today in East Midlands, North East and North Yorkshire, but the Conservatives are pointing to Ben Houchen bucking the trend with his victory in Tees Valley.
In our round-up of those results, it is noted that in his acceptance speech, Houchen made no reference to the Conservatives nor to prime minister Rishi Sunak. “To be re-elected for a third term in my home, in my community, is absolutely the greatest honour,” he said. He thanked voters for buying into his vision for the next four years, adding: “There is a still long way to go.”
Here is a video clip of Sunak earlier describing the results as disappointing, but pointing to a Labour failure to take control of Harlow as a reason for optimism for the Conservatives.
Rishi Sunak admits local election results are 'disappointing' – video
The Mirror’s Mikey Smith notes that Michael Gove’s election agent, Steve Dorsett, has lost his seat on Woking council. You can insert your own “woke” punchline there.
Michael Gove's election agent, Steve Dorsett ...has lost his seat on Woking council.
He was standing for Pyrford ward and lost it to the Lib Dems.
Labour’s Gary Godden received 119,355 votes, while Henry got 77,148.
Over in Dudley in the West Midlands, it is currently a dead heat between Labour and the Conservatives, with each holding 34 seats on the council.
A recount is underway for votes from one ward which looks like it could be the deciding vote between the two parties.
Labour launched their local election campaign in Dudley in March as it was a key area where they were hoping to reverse the Tory tide and win back seats they lost in 2019 and 2021. With all 72 seats up for grabs after a ward boundary review, Labour were hoping to win an outright majority here.
I just want to circle back to Kiran Stacey’s piece for a second, as there is a little bit swirling around that the turnout figures released in London are suggesting that possibly mayor Sadiq Khan may be in more trouble than polling leads suggested.
My colleague Kiran wrote:
Party campaigners in London said Gaza had driven voters in the inner city away from the party, while the controversy over the clean air ultra-low emissions zone had cost it in outer boroughs. A shock Conservative win in London would dominate the political agenda for days, renew questions over Labour’s environmental policies and provoke anger from the left of the party. One senior Labour source said: “Losing London would be devastating, but most of the country is fine and this won’t affect the general election.”
The raw turnout figures are here, and Stephen Bush of the FT has a thread on social media running through them here …
Turnout figures from the London mayoralty: I think Susan Hall really could do it, you know: https://t.co/fHVzJ5Zj93
We’ve published a few round-ups of the day’s election news in the last few minutes. First up, Rowena Mason, our Whitehall editor, reports that under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives face their worst local election results in 40 years. She writes:
The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appeared committed to cling on until polling day, with rebels in his own party lacking the support to oust him.
Our political correspondent Kiran Stacey writes that Labour is celebrating victory but has lost ground in urban and heavily Muslim areas. He says:
Below the euphoria of wins in places like Blackpool, Hartlepool and Thurrock, however, lay a nervousness about the party’s performance in urban areas, with campaigners warning it had lost ground in both London and Birmingham.
PA Media point out that as the Liberal Democrats held Cheltenham council, the Conservatives lost all of their five seats. It points out that the town’s MP is Conservative justice secretary Alex Chalk, who has a majority of 981 from the last general election.
Both Yvette Cooper and Wes Streeting, speaking separately to BBC outlets, have addressed the suggestion that Labour’s position on Israel’s response in Gaza to the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel had cost them votes in Thursday’s elections.
Shadow health secretary Streeting told BBC Radio 5 Live that “We are obviously calling for a ceasefire now and even more importantly … urging Israel not to invade Rafah, which would be an absolute catastrophe. I don’t deny that there are people out there who are feeling let down and I want them to know that we’ve heard. We will take that on the chin, and we’ll work hard to win people’s trust back at future elections.”
PA Media reports shadow home secretary Cooper told BBC News:
We do strongly recognise there are areas where we have had independent candidates who have been particularly strongly campaigning on Gaza and where there is really strong feeling about this issue, because tens of thousands of people have been killed.
It is just devastating to see what is happening, which is why we need an immediate ceasefire and for hostages to be released and why we hope some progress will be made in the negotiations.
We do recognise the strength of feeling that there is and of course we will continue to work just as we do in every area across the country to earn votes back in future.
They were on track to lose up to 500 council seats and Labour made gains across traditional Tory territory in the south. But Downing Street insiders were keen to point to the fact that Labour failed to win control of Harlow council, a top target that Keir Starmer had visited on the eve of polling day. The Conservatives held it by one seat. Ben Houchen also won a third term as Conservative Tees Valley mayor, despite a 16.7 point swing to Labour, and Andy Street was predicted to hold on to the West Midlands mayoralty on Saturday.
Loyal Conservative MPs sent messages to the Tory MPs’ WhatsApp group on Friday claiming to celebrate the early results. “I’m genuinely reading into this that the Labour lead is soft and we need to work our seats,” one Tory MP told the Guardian. No 10 aides insisted they could see off any attempt to unseat Rishi Sunak. One said the “Armageddon narrative [is] not quite coming to fruition”.
“People said we were going to get absolutely spanked and we haven’t been absolutely spanked,” a senior Conservative source said. “The big positives are Labour not winning Harlow, which they really wanted to, and Reform not coming second in South Blackpool. The big one to watch is London. We won’t win there but I don’t think Labour are going to win by 20 points like the polls said they would.”
Jonathan Freedland’s column in reaction the results is up, and he argues that while Starmer already seems like the prime minister, his troubles may have just really begun:
Keir Starmer’s aim has been to turn Labour into the acceptable vessel of national discontent with the party that has governed Britain for 14 years. Voter fury, at first Boris Johnson and the partygate revelations and next Liz Truss’s sabotaging of the UK economy, saw trust in the Tories plunge – but it was never automatic that that would translate into support for Labour. Starmer’s central objective has been to remove every obstacle that could stand in the way of a disaffected Conservative contemplating a move towards the main party of opposition.
He has set about that goal methodically, even ruthlessly – seeking to reassure potential Tory switchers that Labour is just as patriotic, just as strong on defence and crime, just as prudent with the public finances and just as competent as they once believed the Conservatives to be. That approach has turned off, even repelled, some of the Labour core, but this latest round of results – and its large swings, direct from Tory to Labour – suggests it’s working.
But strategic caution carries risks. Playing safe, saying nothing that could frighten the floating voter, might bring victory – but it doesn’t deliver a mandate. Starmer is right to ensure he rides the anti-Tory wave, and if these local results were repeated it would carry him into Downing Street. But once there, it helps if you can claim the electorate’s backing for your planned programme in government. As things stand, Labour could not quite do that.
In Wokingham, the picture remains unclear. The Liberal Democrats, who were expected to take control of the council, said a stronger than expected Labour showing in the district may stop them winning key target seats and deprive them of a majority.
The council, where veteran Tory MP John Redwood and former prime minister Theresa May hold their parliamentary seats, has long been a Conservative stronghold. The Tories lost control of the council in 2022 after strong Lib Dems victories, having held it for 20 years.
Pauline Jorgensen, the leader of the Wokingham Conservative group said the result “looks really close” so far. She said: “It’s not a landslide in any direction. It’s very difficult to call right now. A lot of these things are down to handful of votes.”
Reform UK did not field any candidates in the district. The feeling among the Liberal Democrats is that the centre-left vote may end up being split between themselves, Labour and the Greens, while the Conservatives were left as the only major right-wing option on the ballot.
54 seats are up election in Wokingham. So far, the Lib Dems have won six seats, the Conservatives are on three and Labour have won two. A full result is expected by 7pm.
Keir Starmer said Labour’s victory in the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was “a very, very special moment”.
PA Media reports that appearing at Northallerton Town Football Club with the new mayor, David Skaith, Starmer said:
It’s an amazing moment in history, to have a Labour victory here. We have had really good results across the country all day long, but this is a very, very special moment, David, to become the mayor here.”
Through the villages and the towns of North Yorkshire, people are voting for change. They voted for Labour, a changed Labour party able to earn the trust and the respect of voters in York and North Yorkshire.
He told voters “Thank you for putting your trust in Labour, we will not let you down.”
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer (centre) and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, celebrate with David Skaith at Northallerton Town Football Club, North Yorkshire. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
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