Tough election results hurt but don't weaken my resolve, says PM

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour's "tough" local election results in England "hurt" but insisted that "days like this don't weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised".

So far, 45 of the 136 councils have finished counting votes but early results have seen Labour lose more than 250 seats.

The Conservatives have also lost ground while Reform UK had a good night, winning over 350 council seats and gaining control of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering.

The Green Party has made some gains but the majority of their target seats have not yet finished counting votes. The Liberal Democrats won Stockport and Portsmouth but lost control of Hull in the face of Reform wins.

Counting is under way in Scotland and Wales for seats in the parliaments.

In Wales, Labour is expected to lose control of the Senedd, ending its 27 year-long rule in Wales.

The party's poor showing in the elections will further fuel questions about Sir Keir's leadership, which have been growing for months.

"People on the door when we were knocking were saying: 'We think you're a great councillor, we really support you, but we cannot support Labour'.

"People mentioned that they would not vote for Keir Starmer or for anybody that represented Keir Starmer."

Speaking in Ealing, west London, Sir Keir said: "The results are tough, they are very tough, and there's no sugar-coating it.

"We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country, these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party.

"And that hurts, and it should hurt, and I take responsibility."

Asked if he would step down, he said: "I'm not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos."

Nigel Farage said the results marked a "truly historic shift in British politics".

Speaking in Havering, the Reform leader said people were used to thinking about politics in terms of left and right but that his party had been able to win in both traditionally Conservative and Labour areas.

He said Reform's successes could no longer be viewed as "a fluke or a protest vote".

Asked how Reform would perform in local government he said: "We all know the finances of local councils are severely stretched - we are not promising miracles but we are promising value for money."

On Sir Keir's future, he joked: "Personally I would be very sad to see the prime minister go - he is the greatest asset we have got."

Like Labour, the Conservatives also lost councillors overnight, with Reform winning former strongholds such as Brentwood, Tamworth and North East Lincolnshire.

However, the party had some success in London, regaining control of Westminster from Labour and becoming the largest party in Wandsworth.

Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said Reform had "done well" but argued that "if you are just going to make some undeliverable promises you can harvest some short term popularity".

"What we are doing is the much more professional and arguably slower job of work which is to only promise things we can deliver because we know we need to regain the trust of an increasingly cynical set of voters."

The Liberal Democrats picked up seats in Portsmouth, Stockport and Sutton, but lost control of Hull council.

The party's deputy leader Daisy Cooper told the BBC voters were "fed up" with Labour and were looking for alternatives.

She said those who were "internationalists, environmentalists and pro-business" would vote for the Liberal Democrats.

Separately in a statement, she said: "While those on the populist extremes of left and right just want to pitch groups against each other, Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix what's broken and bring our country together."

Overnight, the Green Party of England and Wales improved their percentage of the vote to an average of 18% - up seven points on their 2022 results.

The party has gained 27 councillors so far but will be hoping to pick up more when areas in London begin to declare results, expected around lunchtime.

Green MP Sian Berry said "disappointment" was "driving people away from Labour" and that her party were "picking up their votes".

She said people were suffering from cuts to public services and that the Greens were offering "genuine policies" that Labour "simply haven't brought in".