Local election results live: Tories down more than 350 seats at halfway point

The Conservatives are down more than 300 seats at the halfway point of this year’s local elections.

By 3.40pm, with results declared from 121 of 230 councils, the Tories had lost 354 seats while Labour had gained 267 and the Lib Dems had gained 144. The Green Party had gained 5.

Independent candidates were down by 101 on their showing in 2019, while Reform UK – the insurgent Right-wing party – is yet to pick up any councillors.

Earlier in the day, Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, claimed his party was on course to win a majority at the next general election after the party made gains and the Tories suffered heavy losses at local elections across England.

Labour gained control of Plymouth from the Tories and then did the same in Stoke-on-Trent and Medway, securing overall control of the latter for the first time since 1998.

Addressing Labour activists in Medway, Sir Keir said: “What a fantastic result here in Medway. And we are having fantastic results across the country.

“Plymouth. What a night they have had in Plymouth and then Stoke and up to Middlesbrough – all the places that we need to win, the battlegrounds, and make no mistake, we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election.”

The BBC has projected that if all of Britain had the chance to vote in the local elections, and behaved in the same way as those who cast their ballots yesterday, Labour would have a nine-point lead over the Conservatives, with 35 per cent to their 26 per cent.

Electoral Calculus data suggest this would likely translate into a 56-seat majority.

However Sir John Curtice, Britain’s leading polling expert, said: “Although Labour have met the minimum threshold they set themselves, the party will be disappointed that it has not been any more successful this year than last.”

A defiant Rishi Sunak told broadcasters he did not believe there had been a “massive groundswell of movement towards the Labour Party” as he labelled Tory losses “disappointing”.