14 hours ago
13
Becky Morton
Political reporter
Getty Images
Runcorn
- Reform UK won its first Parliamentary by-election, taking Runcorn and Helsby from Labour by just six votes after a recount
- Reform candidate Sarah Pochin got 38.7% of the vote. The Conservatives came a distant third, with the Green Party fourth
Greater Lincolnshire
- Reform UK looks on course to win its first mayoral contest, with former Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns well ahead as the final votes are counted
Reform make council gains
- Reform UK won more than half of the first 100 council seats to be declared - and has a vote share so far of about 38%
- Northumberland County Council is the first council to declare and will stay in No Overall Control with the Conservatives currently on the most seats
- Reform UK appear well on the way to winning control of Lincolnshire County Council after taking 14 of the first 17 seats to declare, with Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives on one each
Labour hold trio of mayoral contests
- In North Tyneside Labour held the mayoralty by just 444 votes
- It was also a tight result in Doncaster, with Labour clinching victory over Reform by 698 votes
- Labour also held on in the West of England mayoral contest, with a majority of 5,949, as the Tories were pushed into fourth place behind Reform and the Greens
- But the party saw its share of the vote fall significantly as Reform came a close second in all three races
What's still to come?
- Results for the remaining two mayoral contests in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and Hull & East Yorkshire, as well as the majority of council elections are expected to start pouring in from Friday afternoon
- The first council results are expected from around 13:00, with the bulk due early evening
- The Conservatives are defending the most seats and expecting heavy losses across the country
- In places such as Lincolnshire the Tories are facing a threat from the right in Reform UK but in the south the challenge comes from the Liberal Democrats, who are targeting councils including Gloucestershire and Hertfordshire
- One bright spot for the Tories could be the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough mayoral race. Labour won there in 2021 but the Tories are hoping a split of the left-wing vote between Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens could see them emerge victorious
- Labour is hoping to pick up seats in Derbyshire and Durham, where it performed well at last year's general election
- Meanwhile, the Greens and pro-Gaza independents could threaten Labour in areas such as Lancashire
- The Greens are hoping for gains on councils including Oxfordshire and Kent, where Reform is also expected to do well
- Hull & East Yorkshire could be a closely fought contest, with the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems all enjoying support in different parts of the region. Reform is also targeting the mayoralty with its candidate, former Olympic boxer Luke Campbell
- Elections are also taking place in Devon, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, West Northamptonshire and Wiltshire
You can follow all the results and reaction on BBC One and on iPlayer, the News Channel, Sounds and on the BBC live page.
