Labour’s Claire Ward elected first mayor of East Midlands as Sunak gets boost in Tees Valley after Tory losses – live | Local elections 2024

Voter turnout for the mayoral and assembly election in London is 40.5%, which is down 1.5% on 2021. We don’t get the results until tomorrow.

I just want to circle back to Kiran Stacey’s piece for a second, as there is a little bit swirling around that the turnout figures released in London are suggesting that possibly mayor Sadiq Khan may be in more trouble than polling leads suggested.

My colleague Kiran wrote:

Party campaigners in London said Gaza had driven voters in the inner city away from the party, while the controversy over the clean air ultra-low emissions zone had cost it in outer boroughs. A shock Conservative win in London would dominate the political agenda for days, renew questions over Labour’s environmental policies and provoke anger from the left of the party. One senior Labour source said: “Losing London would be devastating, but most of the country is fine and this won’t affect the general election.”

The raw turnout figures are here, and Stephen Bush of the FT has a thread on social media running through them here …

We’ve published a few round-ups of the day’s election news in the last few minutes. First up, Rowena Mason, our Whitehall editor, reports that under the leadership of Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives face their worst local election results in 40 years. She writes:

The spread of the Conservative losses led one former minister to claim there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more”, but the prime minister appeared committed to cling on until polling day, with rebels in his own party lacking the support to oust him.

Our political correspondent Kiran Stacey writes that Labour is celebrating victory but has lost ground in urban and heavily Muslim areas. He says:

Below the euphoria of wins in places like Blackpool, Hartlepool and Thurrock, however, lay a nervousness about the party’s performance in urban areas, with campaigners warning it had lost ground in both London and Birmingham.

Also, if you missed it earlier, John Crace has sketched the day …

Labour has gained Tamworth council, taking nine seats from the Conservatives (six) and independents (three). The party won the parliamentary seat in a byelection in October.

PA Media point out that as the Liberal Democrats held Cheltenham council, the Conservatives lost all of their five seats. It points out that the town’s MP is Conservative justice secretary Alex Chalk, who has a majority of 981 from the last general election.

Both Yvette Cooper and Wes Streeting, speaking separately to BBC outlets, have addressed the suggestion that Labour’s position on Israel’s response in Gaza to the 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel had cost them votes in Thursday’s elections.

Shadow health secretary Streeting told BBC Radio 5 Live that “We are obviously calling for a ceasefire now and even more importantly … urging Israel not to invade Rafah, which would be an absolute catastrophe. I don’t deny that there are people out there who are feeling let down and I want them to know that we’ve heard. We will take that on the chin, and we’ll work hard to win people’s trust back at future elections.”

PA Media reports shadow home secretary Cooper told BBC News:

We do strongly recognise there are areas where we have had independent candidates who have been particularly strongly campaigning on Gaza and where there is really strong feeling about this issue, because tens of thousands of people have been killed.

It is just devastating to see what is happening, which is why we need an immediate ceasefire and for hostages to be released and why we hope some progress will be made in the negotiations.

We do recognise the strength of feeling that there is and of course we will continue to work just as we do in every area across the country to earn votes back in future.

Eleni Courea and Kiran Stacey write that the Conservatives find reasons to be cheerful despite election bloodbath:

They were on track to lose up to 500 council seats and Labour made gains across traditional Tory territory in the south. But Downing Street insiders were keen to point to the fact that Labour failed to win control of Harlow council, a top target that Keir Starmer had visited on the eve of polling day. The Conservatives held it by one seat. Ben Houchen also won a third term as Conservative Tees Valley mayor, despite a 16.7 point swing to Labour, and Andy Street was predicted to hold on to the West Midlands mayoralty on Saturday.

Loyal Conservative MPs sent messages to the Tory MPs’ WhatsApp group on Friday claiming to celebrate the early results. “I’m genuinely reading into this that the Labour lead is soft and we need to work our seats,” one Tory MP told the Guardian. No 10 aides insisted they could see off any attempt to unseat Rishi Sunak. One said the “Armageddon narrative [is] not quite coming to fruition”.

“People said we were going to get absolutely spanked and we haven’t been absolutely spanked,” a senior Conservative source said. “The big positives are Labour not winning Harlow, which they really wanted to, and Reform not coming second in South Blackpool. The big one to watch is London. We won’t win there but I don’t think Labour are going to win by 20 points like the polls said they would.”

Read more from Eleni Courea and Kiran Stacey here: Tories find reasons to be cheerful despite election bloodbath

Labour have held Rotherham and Trafford councils, the Liberal Democrats have held Cheltenham, and Oxford stays at no overall control.

Jonathan Freedland’s column in reaction the results is up, and he argues that while Starmer already seems like the prime minister, his troubles may have just really begun:

Keir Starmer’s aim has been to turn Labour into the acceptable vessel of national discontent with the party that has governed Britain for 14 years. Voter fury, at first Boris Johnson and the partygate revelations and next Liz Truss’s sabotaging of the UK economy, saw trust in the Tories plunge – but it was never automatic that that would translate into support for Labour. Starmer’s central objective has been to remove every obstacle that could stand in the way of a disaffected Conservative contemplating a move towards the main party of opposition.

He has set about that goal methodically, even ruthlessly – seeking to reassure potential Tory switchers that Labour is just as patriotic, just as strong on defence and crime, just as prudent with the public finances and just as competent as they once believed the Conservatives to be. That approach has turned off, even repelled, some of the Labour core, but this latest round of results – and its large swings, direct from Tory to Labour – suggests it’s working.

But strategic caution carries risks. Playing safe, saying nothing that could frighten the floating voter, might bring victory – but it doesn’t deliver a mandate. Starmer is right to ensure he rides the anti-Tory wave, and if these local results were repeated it would carry him into Downing Street. But once there, it helps if you can claim the electorate’s backing for your planned programme in government. As things stand, Labour could not quite do that.

You can read more of Jonathan Freedland’s column here: Triumphant Starmer already seems like the prime minister. Now his troubles really begin

Labour has won the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) role in Lancashire.

Clive Grunshaw beat incumbent Andrew Snowdon (Conservative), to win back a role he had held between 2012 and 2021.

Labour has also held the councils in Bradford and Crawley. The party gained five council seats in the latter.

Cannock Chase has been a Labour gain. It was formerly no overall control.

All the results are being collated here …

Keir Starmer said Labour’s victory in the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election was “a very, very special moment”.

PA Media reports that appearing at Northallerton Town Football Club with the new mayor, David Skaith, Starmer said:

It’s an amazing moment in history, to have a Labour victory here. We have had really good results across the country all day long, but this is a very, very special moment, David, to become the mayor here.”

Through the villages and the towns of North Yorkshire, people are voting for change. They voted for Labour, a changed Labour party able to earn the trust and the respect of voters in York and North Yorkshire.

He told voters “Thank you for putting your trust in Labour, we will not let you down.”