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
Are we now . Its been a busy few hours. Where are we now . Yes, The Big Story so far this afternoon are we now . Yes, The Big Story so far this afternoon is are we now . Yes, The Big Story so far this afternoon is from are we now . Yes, The Big Story so far this afternoon is from the far this afternoon is from the capital, london, where sadiq khan is in a really good place. Let me show you the latest up to date numbers, which show that the incumbent is on 560,000 votes, just about. Susan hall, the conservative, is on 386,000, thats about half the constituencies having counted. That is a big lead. I should say that the areas weve had in, some of them are very proud labour. But the thing that really matters here, that makes us think it is a slam dunk for sadiq khan is this. The swing that we are seeing across london from the conservatives to labour. Its been slightly different in different parts of the city, but overall, the average at the moment, 3. 7 swing from conservative to labour.
The tees valley mayoral win for the conservatives appears to buy time for the Prime Minister with his own party. But is he Running Out Of Time with the country . Well have in depth analysis of the votes. Good evening. Two very different moods tonight in the conservative and labour camps after the local and mayoral elections. Rishi sunak says its disappointing to lose good, hardworking councillors, after whats been a painful set of results so far for his party some of the worst tory losses in england for decades. On the other side, labour arejubilant, cock a whoop at their gains across the country, including in the Blackpool South by election, overturning a conservative majority with a colossal 26 swing. Well, this the latest state of play, with the conservatives having lost a36 councillors, and labour gaining 169 so far. Well dig deep into the numbers and look at what the results could mean for the coming General Election. As ever, to guide us through it all, chris mason. Chris, it has
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.
Is the tory candidate really suffering as a result. It will confirm the fear of tory mps that the effect of the reform party is to really reduce their chances and increase labour s chances, so if it is replicated on scale in a General Election it could have quite a devastating effect in terms of the type of loss of the tories have, so this result will not provide much comfort, particularly because there are problems that nigel farage might say he is taking a more active role in the party, something tories have also feared, for giving it more momentum. Also feared, for giving it more momentum also feared, for giving it more momentum. ,. ,. , momentum. Moving away from reform towards rishi momentum. Moving away from reform towards rishi sunak, momentum. Moving away from reform towards rishi sunak, what momentum. Moving away from reform towards rishi sunak, what do momentum. Moving away from reform towards rishi sunak, what do you towards rishi sunak, what do you think the results so far