Palestinians sheltering there. Our correspondent, anna foster is injerusalem. I asked her about increasing pressure on hamas to reach a deal. Yeah. Were at the same stage samantha where an israeli deal has been put on the table. It was described at the start of the week by the us Secretary Of State, antony blinken, as extraordinarily generous. And it seems to be that in this latest iteration of the deal, there had been some movement in terms of potentially agreeing to talk about a permanent ceasefire. Now, from israels point of view, of course, its priority at the moment is trying to ensure the release of all the remaining hostages that are being held in gaza. One of hamas s key priorities is to try and get some sort of agreement towards a permanent ceasefire rather than a temporary one. So while it seems that the two sides are moving closer together, there is still a disconnect, i think, on that point. And i think also on the number of hostages to be released. Now, originally we were
Positives and areas where they have managed to hold control of councils, potentially some of the mayor raises my give them a bit of a Silver Lining but on the whole, the great picture is pretty bleak for the tories. Let me show you this. First of all, this is the vote share compared to 2021 when the seats were last contested. In 2021, Boris Johnson got a bit of around two bounce after the Vaccine Roller but look what happened since. The change in the last three years. That is the tory vote change, down 14 . That is pretty big. Its worth looking through some councils when the conservatives used to be in power but are not any more because of this. Have a look here at redditch. This is a Bellwether Seat and we said that all morning and an area with the parties think the result is pretty indicative of how the country is feeling. Look at that. The conservatives have lost 11 seats, labour won ten and it means this long line of blue down here is done. This is now a labour controlled council.
Time. They have lost around half the Council Seats they were defending, similar to how they performed in 1995. Two years later, they were crushed at the General Election. Labour, the green party, lib dems, they made gains. Blackpool south huge swing from the conservatives. The story of the night, here is damian grammaticas. The story of the night, here is damian grammaticas. Labour party, 10,825. Cheering and applause Blackpool South a little before 5am and a decisive labour victory. They were confident of emerging winners at the by election, but this was emphatic. At the byelection, but this was em hatic. ,. , at the byelection, but this was emhatic. ,. , at the byelection, but this was emphatic at the byelection, but this was emhatic. ,. ,. , emphatic. They have said to rishi sunak and the emphatic. They have said to rishi sunak and the conservatives, emphatic. They have said to rishi| sunak and the conservatives, they have had sunak and the conservatives, they have had enough. They