Counting is continuing for the council, mayoral and police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections that took place on Thursday.
The majority of council results are due by the end of Friday, along with most of the PCCs, while a handful are due to declare at the weekend.
Results for the mayors in the East Midlands, North East, Tees Valley, and York & North Yorkshire were also being declared on Friday.
Here are some of the key results so far:
– Mayors
Conservative Ben Houchen has won a third term as Tees Valley mayor, taking 54% of the vote ahead of Labour’s 41%, an outcome that will lift his party’s spirits amid a mostly poor set of results.
Tees Valley was one of two mayoral posts the Tories were defending this year, with the second, the West Midlands, due to declare on Saturday.
Meanwhile Labour has won two of the three brand new mayoral posts: the North East, where Kim McGuinness saw off a challenge from Jamie Driscoll, the Independent (ex-Labour) former mayor of the North of Tyne; and York & North Yorkshire, where David Skaith finished first.
– Hartlepool
Three years ago Labour lost the Hartlepool parliamentary by-election to the Conservatives – an event that reportedly led Sir Keir Starmer to consider resigning as party leader.
This year Hartlepool gave Labour cause for celebration, with the party winning control of the council for the first time since 2019 thanks to a net gain of seven seats, while the Tories lost six.
– Harlow
Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner toured the Essex town of Harlow 24 hours before the polls opened, in a symbolic visit to a part of the country that will be a key battleground at the general election.
But while Labour did make progress in Harlow in Thursday’s council elections, it fell short of an overall majority by the narrowest of margins, ending up with 16 seats, just one behind the Tories on 17.
– Castle Point
It is a very different story for the Conservatives in another Essex council, Castle Point, where the party has been entirely wiped out, losing every seat it was contesting.
Some 13 Tory candidates failed to appear on ballot papers because of problems with nominations.
The new council consists entirely of 39 Independents.
– Oldham
Labour has lost its majority on only one council so far: Oldham in Greater Manchester, where the party is down four seats and the Liberal Democrats are down one, with Independents up five.
The council is now officially in no overall control, although Labour remains the largest party with 27 of the 60 seats.
– Rushmoor
There was better news for Labour deep in the so-called “blue wall” of the traditional Conservative heartland of Hampshire.
The party gained seven seats and a majority on Rushmoor council, an area that includes the Army town of Aldershot, while the Tories lost eight seats and overall control.
– Redditch
Labour will be pleased with its performance in the Worcestershire council of Redditch – another important battleground at the general election – where the party picked up nine seats and overall control, while the Conservatives saw their tally drop by 11.
– South Tyneside
It was a less cheery picture for Labour in South Tyneside, where the party suffered a net loss of 10 seats.
Independent candidates gained nine seats and the Greens gained two, while the Tories lost their only councillor.
Labour still has a majority here, but only just: the new council will have 28 Labour councillors, 15 Independents and 11 Greens.
– Sunderland
The Reform Party had a full or near-full slate of candidates in only a handful of councils holding elections this year and Sunderland was one of a few places where it fought every seat.
While the party did not win any of them, it did beat the Conservatives into third place in 16 of the 25 seats up for grabs while Labour made a net gain of six to increase its comfortable majority.
– Thurrock
This Essex council was another one of Labour’s top targets in a key Conservative-Labour election battleground.
The party needed to gain six seats to take control of Thurrock, which has been run by the Tories for the past few years during a period of turbulence that saw the council declared effectively bankrupt in December 2022.
Labour ended up making a net gain of eight seats, enough for a clear majority, with Independents picking up two and the Tories suffering a net loss of 10.
– Police and crime commissioners
Labour has gained three police and crime commissioners from the Conservatives, in Avon & Somerset, Bedfordshire and Cumbria, while Plaid Cymru has held on to its one PCC in Dyfed-Powys in Wales.
