- Tories in South and Labour in Midlands and North suffer as Ukip win seats
- Labour makes gains in London but falls short of expectations elsewhere
- Conservatives lose Hammersmith and Fulham to Labour in shock result
- Tories also lose control of Essex councils as Ukip deny them majorities
- Lib Dems lose Portsmouth and Tories rob them of Kingston-upon-Thames
- Nick Clegg refuses to resign as Labour MPs round on Ed Miliband
- European election results will not be announced until Sunday night
A surge in
support for Ukip has cost all the mainstream parties seats and control
of councils, as Nigel Farage's People's Army marches into town halls
across the country.
The
Tories, Labour and Lib Dems all saw their grip on local authorities
eroded as dozens of seats fell to Ukip in local elections in England.
With
half of council results declared, Ukip had smashed through more than
100 gains, with the Tories losing 132 and Labour gaining 151. Labour has
gained control of five councils, with Conservatives losing nine and the
Lib Dems two.
A jubilant Mr Farage declared: 'The Ukip fox is in the Westminster hen house.'
Ukip leader Nigel Farage clutches a
bottle of wine as he is mobbed by supporters and the media as he met new
councillors in South Ockendon
Cheers! After a gruelling election campaign, Mr Farage savers a pint in a pub in Benfleet
By 2pm, with 80 councils having declared results, Ukip had gained more than 100 council seats
Of the first 80 councils to declare,
Labour is in control of 49 councils, up five, while the Tories have lost
nine councils, leaving them in control of 25
Ukip gains cost the Tories control of Basildon, Castle
Point and Southend while a surge in Essex saw Mr Farage's party erode the Labour grip in Thurrock - a
key Westminster target for Ed Miliband's party.
In
the north, Ukip showed it could pose a threat to Labour in its
strongholds, taking 10 of the 21 council seats up for election in
Rotherham, including nine gains, and polling an average of 47 per cent
where its candidates stood.
The
Lib Dems lost control of Portsmouth after Ukip won six seats, including
defeating under-fire Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock who was standing for
re-election to the council.
Speaking to reporters outside his home this morning, Mr Farage said: 'There
are areas of the country where now we have got an imprint in local
government. Under the first-past-the-post system we are serious
players.'
Tory leader David Cameron ruled out an
election pact with Ukip, insisting his party had to do more to persuade
voters they were delivering for Britain
Lib Dem
leader Nick Clegg refused to resign after losing flagship councils,
while Labour leader Ed Miliband faced fresh criticism of his leadership
style
HOW THE UKIP FACTOR ROBBED RIVALS OF COUNCIL CONTROL
Ukip
might not have won any councils themselves, but a surge in support
robbed the other parties of overall control of town halls across the
country.
Ukip gains cost the Tories control in Maidstone, Basildon, Peterborough, Castle Point and Southend-on-Sea.
Similarly, Labour lost control of Thurrock and Lib Dems were ousted from Portsmouth after Ukip won seats.
BIGGEST UKIP WINS:
Basildon 11 seats
Portsmouth 6 seats
Thurrock 5 seats
Southend 5 seats
Castlepoint 5 seats
Maidstone 4 seats
Mr Farage suggested that the idea that Ukip had only damaged the Tory vote had been blown away by the results.
'There
were two conversations going on last night. One was in Westminster
amongst commentariat and MPs... The other conversation was going on in
Swindon where the Labour leader said: "We've been hurt by Ukip",' he
told the BBC.
'Another conversation was going in Rotherham where Ukip won 10 seats and Labour won 11 seats.
'In
the West Midlands Labour were saying 'Ukip are splitting our vote and
letting the Tories in'. And I think this idea that the UKIP vote just
hurts the Tories I think is going to be blown away by these results.'
All
the main parties have been left reeling about how to respond to the
Ukip threat, with just a year to go until the general election.
Labour leader Ed Miliband, under pressure for failing to make major gains with a year until the general election said voters turned to Ukip out of a 'deep sense of discontent' with the way the country is being run.
He insisted he can 'persuade' Ukip backers to support him in the battle for Number 10 in May next year.
He
told Sky News: 'I think in some parts of the country we've had
discontent building up for decades about the way the country has been
run and about the way our economy works and people feeling that the
country just doesn't work for them.
'And
so what you are seeing in some parts of the country is people turning
to Ukip as an expression of that discontent and that desire for change.'
Early
indications suggested Ukip appeared to be struggling to make progress
in London, where the big battles were between Labour and the Tories.
In a boost for Mr Miliband, Labour ousted the Tories from Hammersmith and Fulham, a flagship authority in the capital.
Labour also gained the key target London borough of Croydon from the Conservatives. Labour gained seven seats, while the Tories lost seven seats.
Tory party chairman Grant Shapps was forced to rule out a pact with Ukip at the general election to stem the loss of support.
More
than 4,000 council seats at 161 English local authorities were up for
grabs, including the London boroughs and those in Northern Ireland.
Votes
were also cast throughout the UK for the European Parliament contest to
return 73 MEPs - but those results will not be announced until Sunday
night.
Ukip supporters celebrate big national gains as they wait for leader Nigel Farage to arrive in South Ockenden
Frances Fox celebrates becoming Ukip's first councillor elected in Peterborough
The count at Trinity School in Croydon seemed to be too much for some
The Tories lost overall control of Maidstone in Kent, after Ukip took four seats and Labour gained one.
The
Conservatives also saw the grip on Peterbroough eroded, losing three
seats to Ukip and one to Labour, and narrlowly clung on in Tamworth
after Ukip took one seat.
The
Tories also lost Brentwood, in the backyard of Communities Secretary
Eric Pickles. They lost two seats to the Lib Dems and one to Labour,
which means that no party has a majority.
The Conservatives also lost control in Southend-on-Sea after a Ukip surge saw them gain five seats.
Ukip took five seats in Castle Point, denying the Tories of another overall majority.
Ukip
showed signs of making major gains elsewhere in Essex, traditionally a
key Labour-Tory battleground which can decide general elections.
Margaret
Thatcher identified the 'Essex man' when prime minister as someone who
previously would have been expected to vote Labour but backed her
leadership thanks to polices targeted to appeal to them.
In Basildon, Ukip gained 11 seats - becoming the second largest party and costing the Tories control of the council.
Mr Farage's party gained seven seats from the Conservatives, two from Labour and one each from the Lib Dems and an independent.
In Thurrock - a key swing seat in the Commons - Ukip gained five seats, meaning that Labour lost control of the council.
Labour MPs round on Miliband for 'unprofessional' campaign
Labour leader Ed Miliband was forced
to defend the way he ran his campaign after failing to make
breakthroughs in several key areas
Senior
Labour MPs rounded on the party leadership today, as election experts
warned the party was no longer on track to win the next general
election.
While
the party made significant progress in London, elsewhere it struggled
to make gains as anti-government protest votes went to Ukip.
One
of the country's top polling experts Professor John Curtice said Labour
had lost up to 9 per cent support since the last local elections two
years ago.
Labour MP Graham Stringer suggested the public were not buying into the prospect of Ed Miliband as Prime Minister.
He said: 'These wasn’t the kind of enthusiasm on the doorstep that I have felt when we have been going to win elections.
'And
when you talk more deeply to people, they don’t really find an empathy
or sympathy with Ed. He’s not getting over his own personality over to
them in a way they feel warm towards.'
Mr Stringer was asked if he was worried by the results. He said: 'Yes.'
The
Labour MP added: 'Ed Miliband has just said the general election
campaign starts here. Well, I am afraid, really, the general election
campaign started at the start of this campaign, and we have not done as
well as we should have done.'
Senior Labour figures warned there was
little enthusiasm for Ed Miliband, with the anti-government protest
vote switching to Ukip
He
attacked the Labour leadership's refusal to grant the public a
referendum on Europe and slammed Mr Miliband for his blundering TV
performace this week in which he failed to know how much he spent on his
shopping.
'The
centrepiece of our campaign has been the cost of living, and yet Ed
didn’t know his own cost of living when he went into it, he didn’t know
how much he was spending on shopping.
'Really,
people around him should have said when David Cameron had been attacked
as a posh boy not knowing the price of milk that we should not fall
into that trap. We should know the price of milk and bread. That sort of
thing is unforgivably unprofessional.'
Professor John Curtice, said the public did not seem to see Labour as a alternative Government.
He said: 'When it comes to local elections, we have quite high expectations of what oppositions should achieve.
'We
basically say, if a party looks as though it is potentially regarded as
an alternative government, it should be doing very well in local
elections, even better than you would expect to do in a general election
in 12 months' time.
'The truth is, by that test at least, Labour have not done well enough.
'Most of the seats that were being up for grabs yesterday were last fought over on the same day as the 2010 general election.
'And
if you compare Labour's performance vote-for-vote with 2010, the
advance is just 3 percentage points - 3 per cent on what was the day in
which Labour recorded its second worst result.
'And
if you actually compare these results with the position two years ago,
which we can also compare most of these places with, Labour's vote is
clearly well down, something like nine points.
'So
the truth is, modest progress, Labour not even doing as well as they
were able to do earlier in this parliament, and thereby again
reinforcing the doubts that have always been there that at the end of
the day it is not entirely clear that the British electorate regard
Labour as a clear alternative.'
Former
Labour Cabinet minister Peter Hain yesterday warned the party was
losing working class votes – and warned Mr Miliband to adopt a more
‘robust’ approach to Ukip.
‘The
problem is that there is a seriously alienated – mostly white working
class, often male – vote out there that was traditionally Labour’s,’ he
said.
One senior Labour figure told The Times: ‘The truth is that Miliband looks weird, sounds weird, is weird.’
'When you talk more deeply to people, they don’t really find an empathy or sympathy with Ed'
Labour
shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna attempted to play down the
emergence of Ukip, saying support for the party represented ‘discontent
with the entire political system’. But he added: ‘Undoubtedly we’re in
an era of four party politics.
Former
minister David Lammy said the party should have done better in places
such as Swindon, conceding that voters were 'swallowing' Ukip's message
on immigration and Europe.
But
Labour election boss Douglas Alexander insisted Labour could win the
general election based on the results coming in overnight from key
battleground seats. The party has seized control in Hammersmith and
Fulham, previously a flagship Tory authority, and is expecting positive
results in Merton and Croydon.
He
told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: 'I think there is not just a whole
group of people who feel left behind by the economy but locked out of
politics.
'There
is a deep anger and alienation there and the votes that we have seen
for Ukip overnight are in part a reflection of that reality.
'The
challenge is how does a party like the Labour party seek to respond?
And I don’t think simply politics as usual is an adequate response to
trends that didn’t build up in the last few days, but actually have been
building up over decades.'
'We don't do deals': Cameron rejects idea of a pact with Ukip
David Cameron, touring a warehouse today, insisted he understood the message from voters who chose to back Ukip
David
Cameron ruled out doing a deal with Ukip as he came under fresh
pressure from Tory MPs to stem losses at the general election.
Tory
MPs fear that without an electoral pact with Nigel Farage - which would
see Ukip agree not to stand against Eurosceptic Conservatives - Labour
could take power next year.
But the Prime Minister insisted: 'We're the Conservative party, we don't do pacts or deals, we're fighting all out.'
Labour ousted the Tories from Hammersmith and Fulham, a flagship authority in the capital, and also gained the key target London borough of Croydon from the Conservatives.
Downing
Street took comfort from seeing off the Labour threat in Swindon and
Thurrock, but Ukip gains robbed them of overall control in Maidstone,
Peterborough, Basildon, Castle Point and Southend.
However Ukip gains cost the Tories control in Maidstone, Basildon, Peterborough, Castle Point and Southend-on-Sea.
Conservative MP
Douglas Carswell said: ‘We need a pact with Ukip. If David Cameron is
as serious about an in/out vote in 2017 as he says he is, and if Nigel
Farage is as serious about Brexit as he claims, the two of them need to
do a deal,’ he said.
Jacob
Rees-Mogg told the BBC: 'In a first-past-the-post system, if they don't
get those votes into one pot, then both those sides end up losing.'
But speaking in his Oxfordshire constituency, Mr Cameron insisted he would not do a deal.
'We're
the Conservative party, we don't do pacts or deals, we're fighting all
out for an all out win at the next election,' he said.
But he conceded that the public were 'frustrated' with the political establishment's failure to address their concerns.
'People
want us to deliver,' he said. 'The economy is growing, we are creating
jobs, but we have got to work harder and we have got to really deliver
on issues that are frustrating people and frustrating me, like welfare
reform and immigration and making sure people really benefit from this
recovery.
'We will be working flat out to demonstrate that we do have the answers to help hard working people.'
Tory
backbencher John Baron - MP for Basildon and Billericay - said Mr
Cameron was still making mistakes and ceding ground to Ukip.
'Whilst
accepting that Ukip is in part a protest vote, the political
establishment has been too complacent over the EU. It must now heed the
message from these elections,' he said.
'No
10 must learn from past mistakes. First it tried to ignore, and then
insult, Ukip. It then took our backbench campaigns to get a referendum,
and then support for legislation.
'But even now mistakes are being made. We have immigration targets, yet cannot control the major EU component.
'We also need to make clearer that there will be no deal with Ukip.'
Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove said the loss of votes to Ukip was a 'clear instruction from people on us to deliver'
Tory party chairman Grant Shapps insisted: 'We’re not going to have a pact or joint candidates, or whatever.
'It
can’t happen on a technical basis because we do not allow joint
candidates to stand... It’s not going to happen because we’re the
Conservative party; we are the best chance to offer an in/out
referendum, the only chance.'
'No 10 must learn from past mistakes. We have immigration targets, yet cannot control the major EU component'
Education Secretary Michael Gove told ITV's Good Morning Britain: 'I don’t think we should have a pact.
'I
think we should seek to get every individual who is concerned about the
best future for this country to support David Cameron as the next Prime
Minister and the best way to do that is to vote Conservative.
'We
appreciate and understand why people have voted Ukip, and in government
we will make sure that we deliver on the priorities that people have
clearly set out.
'There’s
a clear instruction from people on us to deliver. I understand why some
people have been angry in the past about the failure of government, but
now that we’re in a position to deliver, we should.'
Defeat
by Ukip had been expected to renew pressure on Mr Cameron to toughen up
on Europe and immigration. But a planned Tory backlash has been put on
hold while the party focuses on fighting next month’s Newark
by-election, vacated by shamed Tory MP Patrick Mercer.
A
Tory MP said: ‘People are keeping their powder dry until we see the
result in Newark. To lose would be a disaster – there would be massive
ructions.’
Clegg refuses to resign as Lib Dems lose Portsmouth and Kingston
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg left his home this morning to begin assessing the damaging to his local party base
Nick
Clegg today refused to resign as Lib Dem leader after losing control of some of his party's flagship councils.
The
Lib Dems were ousted from Portsmouth after a surge of support for Ukip
while the Tories took control of Kingston-upon-Thames - the local
authority of Energy Secretary Ed Davey.
A
rare glimmer of good news came in Eastleigh, where the Lib Dems have
tightened their grip on the local authority after successfully defending
the parliamentary seat in a by-election last year.
Mr
Clegg conceded that his party had suffered at the hands of a Ukip
surge, blaming a 'very strong anti-politics feeling among the public.
But
he added: 'Actually I think in the areas where we have MPs where we
have good organisation on the ground... we are actually doing well.'
The Lib Dems are are on course to lose around 300 seats.
Earlier Lib Dem minister Lynne Featherstone said her party had lost its ‘humanity’ in office.
‘Ukip
have managed to sound like human beings – that’s Nigel Farage’s big
win,’ she told the BBC. ‘All of us have become so guarded, we are so
on-message that we seem to have lost some of our humanity.
‘The
Lib Dems are the whipping boys in the coalition. In the last general
election debates Nick came across as the human being… Partly being in
government, we have become more ministerial, we have become more
political. We have lost some of the humanity Nick had four years ago.’
With
rumours swirling of a leadership plot, Mr Clegg has urged his party not
to ‘lose its nerve’ just as the Government’s key decisions are being
‘vindicated’.
Mr Clegg told reporters it was 'never easy' seeing 'dedicated, hard-working' councillors kicked out.
But
he said he would 'absolutely not' resign, and insisted the Lib Dems
were still succeeding where they focused on their achievements in
coalition.
'Based
on the results which have come in so far, it has obviously been a mixed
result, a mixed night for my party, for the Liberal Democrats and the
other mainstream parties,' Mr Clegg said.
'We
will see what the further results today, what story they tell. But so
far what I have seen is that where we can work really hard to tell our
side of the story, we can win.'
He
added: 'I certainly accept that there is a very strong anti-politics
mood around, not only in our country but in many other parts of Europe
as well. I think you will see that in European elections in the days to
come...
'There
is a very strong mood of restlessness and dissatisfaction with
mainstream politics and that is reflected in the results for all
mainstream parties, including the Lib Dems.'
Mr Clegg is under fresh pressure, with
the Lib Dems braced to lose many of their MEPs when the European
election results emerge on Sunday night
Deputy
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Malcolm Bruce played down his
party's losses and stressed it intended to be a 'major force' in British
politics for the foreseeable future.
He
told BBC Breakfast: 'It is obviously disappointing to lose councillors,
particularly those who have worked hard in their community and may have
been replaced by those who haven't got a track record.
'But
actually we are pleased that where we have targeted our resources,
particularly in held seats or key seats, we have actually had very good
results.
'That's
really very important for us. Getting an even share across the country
doesn't deliver seats, getting them in the seats that matter is what
matters to us.'
Senior party
figures dismiss ideas that Mr Clegg could be replaced by Danny Alexander or
Vince Cable, but are preparing for a bumpy few weeks if the results are
bad. In several European election polls, the party has been languishing
in fifth place behind the Greens.
A
poll suggests that only 46 per cent of Lib Dem voters would want Mr
Clegg to stay in his job if the party ends up in that position.
David
Cameron and senior Tories, however, are said to be planning a ‘Save
Clegg’ operation that will see the Lib Dems given ‘wins’ in the
forthcoming Queen’s Speech.
Lib
Dem sources insisted their vote was holding up well in their
Parliamentary seats, and that both the Tories and Labour were falling
short of the sort of results they need to demonstrate if they want to
win a majority next year.
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