06.05.16
Labour pushed to third place in Scotland but hold seats in England
The first results of the UK local elections show Labour councillors holding onto the majority of seats and its share likely to be up when counting concludes, but the party crucially slipped into third place in the Scottish parliament.
With data from 62 of 124 councils now in, the Conservatives held 336 seats, gained 39 and lost 29, whereas Labour held 644 and gained 36 but lost 44.
Jonathan Carr-West, chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit, said that although Sadiq Khan’s expected win as mayor of London would be “spun as the story of the night”, the results still reflected badly on Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Carr-West said: “The reality is that no opposition has lost councils seats in this way for thirty years.”
So far, the Liberal Democrats have held 122 seats, gained 23 and lost 19.
In the run-up to the EU referendum, UKIP had a steep gain of 24 seats as well as holding 2 and losing 3, and the Green party held 7, gained 4 and lost 7.
Labour did, however, maintain their overall majority of 680 council seats, holding onto the marginal council of Crawley, and holding seats in the Ogmore and Sheffield Brightside parliamentary by-elections.
Osborne hails ‘extraordinary' Scotland success
In the Scottish parliament elections, the SNP have remained in power but lost six seats, meaning they are now short of the 65 seats needed for a majority.
In a blow to Labour, the party was pushed into third place, with a loss of 13 seats while the Conservatives gained 16.
On Twitter, chancellor George Osborne congratulated the Conservatives for an “extraordinary” achievement in Scotland and for winning council seats.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP thanked Labour members and supporters for “standing up for communities”.
In the Welsh Assembly, Labour remain in control with 29 seats, although they remain short of an overall majority. They are followed by Plaid Cymru with 11 seats and the Conservatives with 9.
Results are still due in for the London mayoral elections, which were marred yesterday by chaos at Barnet polling stations as voters were turned away.
Andrew Travers, chief executive of Barnet council, said: “Taking part in the democratic process is a fundamental right for our residents and the main focus this morning was to resolve the situation as soon as possible.
“We will fully investigate the cause of the problems that have arisen.
“I would like to apologise to everyone who experienced problems with voting in Barnet today.”
Labour’s Joe Anderson has been re-elected as mayor of Liverpool, while the results of the Bristol and Salford mayoral elections are still due in.
(Image: count volunteers at the Latton Bush Centre, Harlow, c. Daniel Leal-Olivas from PA Wire/ Press Association Images)
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