About their parties fortunes. Heres a little of what they had to say. We want that General Election and were confident going into the General Election. Because what this by election shows is that the country wants change. This is a very clear divide, weve had 1a years of failure and decline, weve got chaos and division from the tories. People want to turn the page on that and go forward with labour and our positive plan for the country. Obviously, its disappointing to lose good, Hard Working Conservative counsellors and im grateful to them for all their service in local government, keeping council tax low and delivering services for local people. But weve still got lots of results to come as well, which is great, and there are also things that i would point to harlow for example, where keir starmer held a rallyjust on wednesday saying that was a place he had to win to be on track to win a General Election that hasnt happened. This may care from sir ed davey of the Liberal Democrats. Th
Of gavin and stacey, is coming this christmas. Coming up on bbc news, can luton move out of the Premier Leagues Relegation Zone tonight . Victory over everton could put them on the road to survival. Hello there. Rishi sunak says its disappointing to lose good, hardworking councillors, after a painful night for the conservatives, in the local and mayoral elections. The losses are some of the worst the partys suffered in england for decades. Just look at this, the latest election figures as they stand, with the conservatives having lost more than 340 councillors. And labour have gained more than 140 so far. Chris mason has followed all of the developments through the night, and hes at westminsterfor us. After a lot of coffee hi, chris. Hello, good evening. Since we chatted last night there has been lots of noise, numbers and not a lot of sleep. And here is the picture as things stand with still more than 2a hours worth of results still to come. The conservatives are in a rut, a trend of
Major test of Public Opinion before a General Election later this year. Theres little good news for Prime Minister rishi sunak. At a by election in Blackpool South, his party suffered its Third Largest swing to the Opposition Labour Party since the second world war. At a local council level, the results are no better. The conservatives have lost half of the seats announced so far. Experts say they could be on track to lose a staggering 500 councillors, one of the worst performances at the polls in four decades. Heres our Political Editor chris mason. Cheering. Northallerton in North Yorkshire this afternoon. The Prime Minister lives a few miles away, and look whos turned up to rub his nose in it. York and North Yorkshire, the wider county so often rock solid conservative, has elected a labour mayor. Weve had really good results across the country all day long, but this is a very, very special moment, david, to become the mayor here. And thank you to the team for all the fantastic work