BBC News Special Election 2016

I'm Gavin Esler, and welcome to Holyrood.

Here in Scotland with nearly all the results in, Labour have been

beaten into third place as the SNP claim victory

in the Scottish Parliament elections.

Nicola Sturgeon's party receives nearly half the vote -

but may fall short of an overall majority.

What we're seeing tonight is a huge vote of confidence in the SNP's

record in government, and an enormous vote of trust

in our ability to move the country forward.

Ruth Davidson's Scottish Conservatives overtake Labour

for the first time to become the main opposition.

In England, Labour have put in a better performance

Jeremy Corbyn's party have retained key councils in England and won two

Hello, I'm Sian Lloyd at Cardiff Bay.

Labour are set to remain the biggest party in Wales,

Ukip win their first seats in the Welsh Assembly.

And there's a stunning personal victory for the leader of

We'll bring you all of the latest reaction and results

It is a glorious morning in Edinburgh. Welcome to Election 2016.

Results from regional and local elections have been coming

in through the night across the UK - and will continue throughout

It seems Labour losses have been fewer than some

in the party had feared, and the Conservatives

We're live at Holyrood - the home of the Scottish Parliament

- where the Scottish National Party have won a third term in power.

And with another meltdown in the Labour vote north

of the border, it looks like the Conservatives will overtake

them here to take second place and become the official opposition.

As it stands, here in Scotland the SNP remain the largest

The Conservatives are now the second largest party in Holyrood.

They made gains, picking up an extra 14 seats,

which means that they now have more representation in the Scottish

Overall it was a bad night for Labour in Scotland - losing 12 MSPs.

So far, with 80 authorities declared, Labour have fared better

in the English local elections, managing to hold on to

all but one of the 42 councils it was defending.

Elsewhere it was a largely unchanged picture.

In Wales, Labour suffered a 6% drop in its share of the vote,

which cost them one seat in the Welsh Assembly.

Despite that, they are set to remain the biggest party.

Those losses at the expense of the Welsh nationalist

Ukip have also won their first seats in the Welsh Assembly.

Our political correspondent Iain Watson has been

Scotland's First Minister, cheered by her own supporters

in Glasgow when it became clear that the SNP would once again be

the largest party by far in the Scottish Parliament.

What we're seeing tonight is a huge vote of confidence in the SNP's

record in government, and an enormous vote of trust

in our ability to lead the country forward.

But scratch beneath the surface, and the SNP victory

Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has ambitions to lead

the opposition in Scotland, replacing Labour, and she's coming

And there was even a crumb of comfort for the

They snatched a couple of seats from the Scottish nationalists.

But for Labour, there was little to cheer about.

The SNP maintained their surge at this party's expense.

Former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont was one

The current leader, Kez Dugdale, campaigned on a platform

Jeremy Corbyn would approve of, pledging better public services,

The Labour leader himself is under pressure.

Many of his own MPs were lining up to criticise him.

But the party's performance was not as bad as expected.

Labour retained two safe Parliamentary seats -

And in the council elections, they didn't just hold on in northern

heartlands but defied expectations on the south coast,

retaining control in Southampton and in Hastings.

But with fewer Labour councillors overall,

some MPs are saying the results aren't good enough.

There are a lot of brilliant Labour council candidates and Assembly

members across the country tonight waking up who will not have a seat

These elections should have been challenging for David Cameron,

as members of his Cabinet now clash regularly over Europe.

But even critics in his own party expect the Conservatives to end up

with more councillors once all the results are in.

Almost you become conditioned, a year into a government, to know

that you're going to have a dreadful night sitting here and saying,

well, they're not really as disastrous as they look.

And in fact, this is very different from most programmes that I can

remember one year into a government, because this is when the opposition

Labour is expected to be the largest party in the Welsh Assembly,

while Ukip has now won two seats there for the first time.

It has been a big night of the Ukip, we are making breakthroughs in

places like Wales, we have never had elected representation before. We

also winning council seats in England, but coming almost

everywhere. The results in London will not be

declared until later today. Voters in Northern Ireland will have

to wait until the weekend to get Just to confirm, we have the final

results up the Scottish elections, the SNP have an historic third

victory, with 63 seats in the Scottish Parliament. But that is two

short of an overall majority. A Scottish parliament was not designed

for any one party to have an overall majority, so you could say that what

has been remarkable is that they have had that in the last few years,

but they are just short, so there are questions about whether they

will form a formal or informal coalition with other parties, or

just work on an ad hoc basis in order to get the majority.

The SNP now has 63 seats, the final result, and an extraordinary result

the Ruth Davidson's Conservative Party north of the border, they have

31 seats, they are the main opposition party in Scotland, a

brand that many conservatives themselves would have said was toxic

for many years, Ruth Davidson and her team have somehow managed to

turn it around. Let's get more perspective on the nationwide

elections. Our assistant political

editor Norman Smith Norman, is there a consistent story

or a series of rather different patterns in different parts of the

country? Gulp there is a story, which is how little has changed

overnight. That tells us a number of things. It tells us that Mr Corbyn

is safe, for now. It tells us, too, of the deep doldrums into which

Labour has already sunk. That might sound contradictory but, to some

extent, Mr Corbyn's position is saved by the fact that expectations

were so catastrophically low, projections he could lose 150 or so

seats, so when he only losers around 25, his team are able to go, that

was not so bad overall. But when you look at it in the normal narrative

of politics you are looking at an opposition party after six years of

a Government implementing pretty tough austerity in the wake of a

near civil war over Europe, after a catastrophic general election

defeat, still unable to make any progress. The slightly paradoxical

situation is that that is perhaps the worst possible result for Mr

Corbyn's critics, because they do not have the killer blow now to say,

right, we had to go for him, he must be moved, because they can't point

to a massive loss of seats. Then again, result simply confirm their

conviction that they cannot win under Mr Corbyn. This uneasy

stand-off in the Labour Party persists. A fairly acrimonious

stand-off. Last night one of Mr Corbyn's key allies, Clive Lewis,

said to critics, shut up or get out. I have had texts this morning from

leading Corbyn critics saying, OK, he only has until next year, and if

things do not turn around by then, he is out. The deputy leader of the

party, Tom Watt is, this morning was urging people to be patient, not to

rush judgment -- Tom Watson. I think that will buy this to call than some

time. This is what Tom Watson said. Goodbye party members and even

opponents would say that after only eight in office you have to give

Jeremy more space to develop parties and the direction of the party. I

just hope that my colleagues will understand that. They must respect

the mandate that members gave Jeremy, to lead the party.

I guess, for the Tories, some surprise and probably some

satisfaction that they have lost one council, Worcester, but they have

gained one, Peter Brown, and that is despite the bunfight over Europe

raging around us, day after day. -- gained one, Peterborough.

Potentially the Lib Dems average lot -- rock bottom and clawing their way

up again. Ukip, piling up second places behind Labour in traditional

Labour seats, first past the post stopping them from winning much,

although they seem poised to gain around 40 councillors overall, and

representation on the Welsh Assembly for the first time, so some progress

for Ukip. Thank you very much, Norman.

In the last few minutes the last few results have been declared in the

Scottish election. The SNP have lost their overall majority, they are two

seats short. In the first big test

of public opinion since last year's general election,

Labour has suffered The party is third in Scotland, the

Tories are now the major opposition. Lorna Gordon has more.

If she was feeling nervous, she didn't show it.

Nicola Sturgeon, leading her party into the Holyrood elections

for the first time, her personal appeal at the heart

To seek and to win a mandate as the First Minister

of our country is a special and very precious thing.

I pledge that, over these next five years,

I will govern in the interests of everyone in Scotland.

Another party whose push for votes was based around their leader,

Ruth Davidson, positioning her party as the defenders of the union.

I am under no illusions that everyone in that seat who voted

for me is a true blue, died in the wool Tory.

They're not, and neither are they in places up and down Scotland.

They are people who want us to do a very specific job,

and it is a job that me and my new team of MSPs coming

in take very seriously, and that is to hold

For Labour, it was deja vu as one by one their seats fell.

While this was a night of celebration for some,

for Scottish Labour's Kezia Dugdale, it was one to endure.

There is no doubt that the defeat for the Labour Party tonight

is painful, but it is not the end of our campaign.

We will continue to argue for Labour values, Labour ideas

The work to renew the Scottish Labour

Party so that it is fit to serve the people

For the Liberal Democrats, their message

that they would punch above their weight punched through,

holding onto their seats in the Northern Isles,

expanding their reach on the mainland.

With the list votes still being counted,

the final tally of seats for each party is not yet clear, but

this was another successful night for the SNP, who are set for a third

With me is our Scotland correspondent, Kevin Keane.

That is for some perspective on these extraordinary results. The

SNP, 63 seats, just short of an overall majority, but it is an

extraordinary, historic performance. As are all of these results.

Although at first glance it would look like the SNP did less well than

they had expected, or less well than five years ago, in fact, they

brought in around 156,000 more votes macro than the last time, and yet,

as they say, they have wrought in fewer seats. That is because the way

the system works, they have a second voting system, a list which counters

the constituency vote, and because they have done better in the

constituency they have much fewer of the list votes, overall they have

come up with fewer seats even though they have polled more votes. For a

party nine years into government, to still be increasing the number of

votes they take in at this stage is quite some story. It is also worth

reflecting on this truly amazing result for the Conservatives macro

in Scotland, a brand which was considered by conservatives macro

themselves almost to be toxic. You did not talk about being a Tory.

Ruth Davidson has somehow turned that around. Whether that is by

personality or what it is about, it is hard to quantify. That might be

some of it. They have permeated, as well as the list, back into some

areas that traditionally, pre-devolution, were conservative

parklands. West Aberdeenshire, one was an MP in the 1980s, for a large

period that was a conservative. The Lib Dems have held up their vote,

they have free taken a seat in North East Fife which was a Liberal

Democrat seat before the SNP took it over a few years ago -- they have

retaken. They have almost doubled the amount of votes they have taken

in and become the biggest -- second biggest party in Holyrood. With the

Labour Party in Scotland, it has been a real disaster for them, as

was predicted. But Kezia Dugdale has said she is in it for the long-term,

they have lost the seats but she has talked about a five-year plan,

unlike down in Westminster, as we know, there are lots of people in

the parliamentary party unhappy at the leadership down there, there

does not seem to be any noises off with the party Labour voters in

Scotland calling for Kezia Dugdale to go, despite the size of the

defeat she has suffered. Thank you. Scotland's First Minister Nicola

Sturgeon said the SNP had made history by winning a third

consecutive parliament election. What is now beyond doubt

is that the SNP has won a third consecutive

Scottish Parliament election. That has never been done

before in the history It is a vote of confidence

in the record in government of the SNP, and it is a vote

of trust in the SNP to lead We in the SNP will always

stand up for Scotland, and tonight Scotland has

stood with us. And I want, in closing tonight,

to make a pledge to every single To seek and to win a mandate

as the First Minister of our country is a special

and very precious thing. I pledge that, over

these next five years, I will govern in the interests

of everyone in Scotland. Joining me now is the Deputy First

Minister of Scotland, John Swinney. But to see you, congratulations, a

historic third win. I have to offer some commiserations that you did not

get the overall majority? What came out of the election last night is a

truly historic result. It was a third consecutive win of a Scottish

Parliamentary election. No other party has ever done that. For the

first time ever, a party has pulled 1 million votes in the constituency

election, which the SNP did last night. So there is a tremendous

amount to celebrate from what happened years today. That is borne

out by the fact that we have continued to grow our votes and the

number of constituency seats that we have won. Would you accept that the

country is still split down the middle between those who are in

favour of the union and those who are probably in favour of

independence? So things have not changed dramatically in that sense?

People have exercised their democratic choice across a range of

issues and parties. The SNP has emerged as the largest political

party, with 63 seats in the next Scottish Parliament. That's a

commanding lead. Nobody has ever won as many constituency seats. The

Conservatives now have a very strong voice, with Davidson says she will

hold you to account. You add up the pro-union parties, and they are

pretty much have the country. You can add up the parties on either

side and you can see that the pro-independence parties have got a

majority within the parliament. There are ways of looking at it. But

I think the key point to reflect upon is that the Scottish National

Party, after nine years in, government has gone into, come out

as the leading political party, within a hairs breadth of having a

Parliamentary majority. That is a great colossal achievement. Looking

at it a different way, your supporters will expect you to move

ahead with the biggest part of your agenda, which would be another

referendum - do you have a mandate for that now? We set out that there

has to be a consistent and significant demonstration of support

for independence, and that would have to change from the position

which was achieved in the referendum in September 2014. That change has

not taken place, so we are not advancing the proposal of a second

independence referendum. If we want to have one, we have to earn that

right by persuading people in Scotland that independence

represents the best way forward for our country. We set out to the

people in Scotland a manifesto which was about delivering successful

people in Scotland through rising educational attainment, through the

quality of public services and through stimulating our economy.

That is the programme for government which the SNP will concentrate on

delivering. You have now got tax-raising powers. Labour said they

would increase income tax by onep. You did not say that. What will

change, as you try to offer something different? I'm sorry, I

think we now have to go to the count in Llanelli. I, being the regional

returning officer, hereby give notice that the number of votes

recorded for each party is as follows... Abolish The Welsh

Assembly... 10,000 707. Association Of Welsh Local Independence, 1032.

Welsh Conservatives, 44,000 461. People First Fighting For Wales,

1496. Plaid Cymru, the Party Of Wales, 56,754.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party, 1071. Ukip Wales, 25,042.

Wales Green Party, 8222. Welsh Christian Party Proclaiming

Christ's Lordship, 1103. Welsh Communist Party, 423. Welsh Labour,

41,975. Welsh Liberal Democrats, 23,554.

And I do thereby declare that the under mentioned are duly elected as

the four members for the said electoral region.

HE SPEAKS IN WELSH. Let's get a bit of perspective on this from our

correspondent Sian Lloyd, who joins us from Cardiff bay. Yes, good

morning to you from Cardiff bay, the home of the Welsh SMB. We were just

seeing there the latest declaration coming in for the regional list of

made and West Wales. Two Labour candidates are returned on that

list, and also Neil Hamilton for Ukip. It has been a big story of the

night here in Wales - Ukip, for the first time, will be presented here

at the National Assembly. So far, they have picked up six seats on the

regional list, which is the proportional representation element

of the National Assembly. We can now listen to Neil Hamilton... Ukip has

made a great breakthrough today, and I don't think that the politics of

the assembly will ever be the same again. I have had enough experience

of losing elections myself, or not being selected for seats, to know

that with the joy of winning comes the heartache of not winning. And I

would like first award to pay tribute to my running mate Gethin

Jones, who did not quite make it today, but will make it one day - I

hope not through my falling off my perch during my period of office,

but through election next time round. I would also like to pay a

tribute to Bill Powell, who has been a first-class member of the

assembly, and it will be the poorer without him. This has been quite a

surprising turn of events for me. I had not anticipated that at the age

of 607I would once again be in it to public office, particularly as I had

been liberated from it so spectacularly in 1997 by the

electorate. But I came back into politics after that event for one

thing, and one thing only, to free our country from the bonds of the

European Union something for which I have been fighting ever since I

joined the Ante-, Market Lead in 1960s seven. -- the Anti-, Market

Lead. Our main aim, certainly in the next few weeks, is to ensure that we

win the referendum, and that the whole of Britain, including Wales,

is freed from the shackles of the EU. And Ukip is the only party

standing in this election which had a chance of winning to take that

stance. So, I thank all those who have worked so hard to make this day

happen for me, not least my long-suffering wife...

So, Neil Hamilton from Ukip will be taking up his seat here in Cardiff

in the National Assembly for Wales. The party have said that they hope

to be a breath of fresh air here, that it has been too cosy in the

Welsh Assembly for too long. We will wait and see what impact they make.

But Labour remain the dominant party here in Wales, with 29 seats.

Waiting patiently, listening to all of that, is the Deputy First

Minister of Scotland, John Swinney. One final point, an important one of

the economy. Since 2008, the growth in the Scottish economy has been

disappointing, less than other parts of the United Kingdom. You have now

got some more powers, including the power to vary income tax and raise

it if you wish, and you have set your face against that? What we have

set out in our manifesto is the tax cuts which have been passed on by

George Osborne to the people of the United Kingdom. But we will not pass

them on in the fashion in which he has set them out. So, we propose to

have a different threshold for higher rate taxpayers. That is an

acknowledgement of the fact that we can use the tax powers differently

to invest in our public services in Scotland. Part of that is to support

and encourage development within the economy. The overwhelming majority

of the time the SNP has been in power over the last nine years, we

have had a higher employment rate in Scotland than in the rest of the

United Kingdom. We have had higher employment, significant growth in

productivity and much greater than the rest of the UK. That's all about

taking investment decisions to strengthen the Scottish economy. I

will have to cut you off, because I have been hearing that David

Cameron, the Prime Minister, has congratulated with Davison on doing

so well here in Scotland and is saying that she will, as she put it,

hold her feet to the fire of the SNP. We will wait to hear whether

your feet are burning, John! With more on the overall picture across

the country, here is Annita McVeigh. Let's have a look at the overall

picture in England. It remains largely unchanged. Labour managed

successfully to remain in control in 41 out of 42 councils it was

defending. That only defeat came in Dudley, which is now under no

overall control. Looking at the share of the vote, you can see that

it remains fairly stable for the Conservatives, but Labour have

suffered a four-point drop with Ukip seeing a 6-point rise in its share

of the vote. We can get some more analysis and reaction to all of this

now with our assistant political editor, Norman Smith, at

Westminster. Thank you. A lot of the focus has

been an Labour, but the Tories have not made much progress either. They

lost one council, Worcester, but they gain Peterborough. I am joined

by the Communities Secretary, Greg Clark. Why haven't you made any

progress since you seem to think you are facing a Labour Party in the

terminal disarray? We made huge progress in Scotland. I think we are

the principal opposition there, in numerical terms. Across the rest of

England, I think we have done incredibly well, when you consider

that, almost without exception, parties of Government lose ground to

opposition, midterm. Here, it looks like we might even be ahead. The

Labour share Robert votes is down 6%. Your share is also down 4%. --

labour share of the vote is down. You expect to lose ground, but

across the country we have maintained our grip on councils like

Trafford, for example. Trafford, in the north-west of England, a

bellwether marginal, lotsa bleeder people piling into that, we help

but, we took Peter Brown. -- lots of Labour people piling into that. The

opposition leader has changed and they are doing even worse. Doesn't

did suggest that just one year after a general election, which you won

fairly comfortably, you are rapidly losing support, down by 4% already?

I disagree. If you look across the country, places that we held, we

continue to hold. If you look up the challenge that we have had, it has

fallen flat. Labour are going backwards when they should be going

forwards. Portsmouth, a very important place, the Labour leader

in Portsmouth said that the Jeremy Corbyn leadership is a disaster for

him. This failure to connect with ordinary working people is

confirming the choice that people made up the last general election,

that the Conservatives offer the best chance of success for ordinary

working people. If it was not for the result in Scotland, where you

are now the official opposition, we would be talking about a

Conservative Party in retreat. And in Scotland it is only, by and

large, down to Ruth Davidson, who has often been a critic of Mr

Cameron. The idea that a Government, six years in, would be making gains

and holding the seats that we have... One Michael Foot was elected

later of the Labour Party, in his first year he won 1000 seats. The

average for a new opposition leader is to gain 500 seats. Senior Labour

people have said they need to gain 400 seats. I think it is an

extraordinary achievement for a Conservative Party on the sixth year

of Government to do this right across the country, it has been a

great night. Thank you. We will have to wait and watch for the result on

the London mayoral election, which will shape how things are seen in

the south of the country, the bruising contest between Sadiq Khan

and Zac Goldsmith. Let's look at some other election

news. Labour have held onto two Westminster seats in Parliamentary

by-elections held yesterday. Labour was also successful in

Liverpool, where Joe Anderson was re-elected mayor. The outcome of the

mayoral contest in London, Salford and Bristol will not be known until

later. London is set to declare in the late afternoon or evening.

Voting took place yesterday for almost 40 police and crime

commissioners across England and Wales. One result has been declared

so far, Wiltshire, won by the Conservatives. The other results

should be known later in the day. Then page, the chief executive of

Ipsos MORI, joins me. -- Ben Page. Not so much polling day and is in a

general election, but what are your thoughts? Labour have a massive hill

to climb to win a general election. We have to be cautious, there is not

a massive link between what happens in local elections in general

elections, but the fact that the Conservatives have advanced in

Scotland, Labour have lost seat, -- seats, if this continues, if the SNP

Hamon in Parliamentary elections, with the boundary changes that will

happen in English constituencies and throughout Britain, Labour pars lead

in Britain is going to have to be 30 points ahead of the Conservatives to

win -- 13 points. That is very, very hard. The fact that Labour has not

lost hundreds of seats, which some had predicted, is fine, but it is

also the first time since 1910 of Labour has come third in Scotland,

this is probably the worst performance for an incoming Leader

of the Opposition at a set of local elections. Shadow Chancellor says

that Labour is laying the foundations, on a path. The other

context is that Labour has been competing in these local elections

with the Conservatives still in power after six years, the

conservatives are divided over Europe. Looking at it through that

prison, some people would say that Labour should be performing better.

-- Conservatives are divided over Europe. Looking at it through that

prism. They would hope to do better, the fact they are not suggest that

nothing has changed. Labour are in a difficult position at the moment.

This election does not give them much hope, except tonight, if the

polls are correct, it is very likely that Sadiq Khan will be elected

Mayor of London. Ringing you back this thing you

mentioned in your first answer, an interesting foot note, there is

virtually no relationship, polls have shown, between results of local

elections like this and what goes on to happen in general elections?

William Hay, in opposition to Tony Blair, won hundreds of seats and

failed to win a general election. -- William Hague. Tony Blair regularly

lost lots of local elections but won general elections handsomely. The

key point is that most people do not vote NBC elections. We pay a lot of

attention in Westminster, but in the country as a whole, most people have

not voted. In the London mayoral elections last time, only 38 cents

bothered voting. -- 38% bothered. I do not know what it will be tonight,

but it might be less. It was a good night for Labour in

Wales. They have 27 seats, they look like they will remain the biggest

party. There was a shock personal win for Leanne Wood, who defeated

Leighton Andrews in the battle for Rhondda. Ukip has won their first

seats in the Welsh Assembly. Our correspondent Sian Lloyd

is in Cardiff Bay. She can give is accurate and up to

date Ukip figures? -- give us? Labour remained the biggest party in

Wales, up to 29 votes after the regional list was declared for Mid

and West Wales Wales. Ukip will have representation here. They are up to

six members at the moment. The South Wales Central regional list has yet

to declare. Labour has lost a seat to Plaid Cymru, Rhondda, Leanne Wood

took that from Leighton Andrews. Plaid Cymru could be the second

biggest party in Wales at the expense of the Conservatives. The

Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams had a fantastic result for

herself in her constituency, increasing her majority, but it

looks like she will otherwise not be that happy with the results in

Wales. Edwina Hart has been a driving force in Welsh Labour in the

Welsh Assembly over the years, a former AM for Gower, you have

retired, your seat remains Labour. What do you think of the

performance, better than expected? I think everybody had worries, there

was uncertainty with the electorate, but in the last couple of weeks the

policy agenda was getting through, people respected Carwyn Jones as the

leader and saw him as the leader. What about the shock result in

Rhondda? I am not as shocked as everybody thinks we are shocked.

There was a realisation that something was going on, Leanne Wood

had a lot of national coverage in the general election and as a

national leader, we have to remember that we did not win the Rhondda in

1989. It does not look like Labour will have an overall majority, so

what happens now? I know you will tell me, we will have to see how the

dust settles and Carwyn Jones will take his time? You are absolutely

right. It is important to recognise that 29 is 29, you can have a

minority government, the Scottish National Party did once, you can

govern if you get agreement on key issues around legislation and

budget. I think the First Minister will take his time on this. There is

another big vote on Europe shortly, it is very important that there are

pro-European parties in the Assembly, we will be canvassing for

a Yes vote. Type you to your feet up? I think it's is important to

campaign for Europe if you believe in it, so I will be helping with the

Yes vote campaign. I will be doing something about it. Rhodri are

Poland, the political analyst, you have been watching the events

unfold. What is the big story of the night? The result for the Labour

Party, 29 seats. The most optimistic within the Labour Party, they would

not have expected that. If we had told them yesterday they would win

29, they would have been very happy. Kept all the constituency seat bar

one, Rhondda was a shock. Apart from a common except all the

key marginals, Cardiff North, Gallup, which was lost last year,

they did a very good job indeed. A bad night for the Conservatives?

Extremely disappointing. Last year they did so well, they won the veil

of clue it and Gower, they went into the election optimistic. They were

full of optimism at the conference. There is the steel crisis, Brexit,

Panama Papers, it has not gone down well with the electorate on the

doorstep, is a disappointing night, and there will be questions asked

about the future of Andrew RT Davies. Ukip have picked it seats on

the regional list, the element of proportional representation. They

have said they will be a fresh breath of air, it has been too cosy

the too long. Will they be a breath of fresh air, or disruptive? It will

change the make-up of the assembly. We don't know how many seats they

will get, seven is projected. They will spice things up, having Neil

Hamilton and Mark Reckless in the chamber. Time will tell how they

will behave and react. Will they react like the Conservatives in 1999

who oppose the Assembly, will they be more like Peter Rogers and Rod

Richards? Only time will tell. Thank you both for joining us.

Thank you, Sian Lloyd. Let's get more on an historic win for the SNP

in Scotland. Gavin Esler is at Holyrood.

Results from regional and local elections continue to come in -

and it seems Labour losses have been fewer than some in

The Conservatives have made some gains.

Here at Holyrood, the SNP has claimed victory in elections

to the Scottish Parliament but falls short of an overall majority.

Labour is set to be pushed into third place by a resurgent

Scottish Conservative Party, while the Liberal Democrats

With me here is Tom Gordon, Scottish political editor at The Herald,

and Severin Carrell, Scotland editor for the Guardian.

Good to see you. What did you pick out as the big headline? Easily, the

SNP did win, they lost their majority overall. But the headline

for most of us is the Conservative revival, which seemed unthinkable

even a few years ago, that the Conservatives would double their

representation in the parliament in a single election. It has been an

extraordinary campaign, they had a very simple, clear and strip down

message, vote for us and we will resist the SNP and a push for a

second independence vote, which has resonated with many. I was going to

as Severin whether it is the Conservative Party or the Ruth

Davidson Party? This is one of the fascinating things about the

Scottish election, it has revolves heavily around personalities, Nicola

Sturgeon for the SNP and Ruth Davidson, it was her campaign, she

led from the front, her name all over the literature. She has pulled

off a quite remarkable turnaround for the Scottish Tories, forcing

Labour into third place for the first time in 100 years is quite

human dating for the Labour Party and an extraordinary victory for

Ruth Davidson. She won Edinburgh Central, a constituency seat she had

not really campaigned for. Where will this leave the Labour Party?

Some people have said it could be a wipe-out next year, in Glasgow,

which has been run by Labour in my lifetime. No Labour councillors, he

said. We don't know if they have hit rock bottom, they are at their

lowest at, but there are county elections next year. They have some

elections in bastions like Glasgow. The SNP could pick them off.

Labour's problems are probably not over. Is this to do with Jeremy

Corbyn, or is it different? Firstly, Kezia Dugdale is the

youngest, least experienced leader among the Scottish parties. She has

not yet got that relationship with the Scottish voters. The other

problem is that Jeremy Corbyn was not actually part of the campaign.

He made only a couple of appearances, in party only events.

On the doorstep, voters are looking at Jeremy Corbyn, and also at the

John man, Ken Livingstone, feud last week, which was deeply damaging for

especially eastward, the part of Scotland with the largest Jewish

community. This was a seat held by Jim Murphy as well. What do you make

of the way forward for the SNP? -- Eastwood. They have experience here.

From 2007 to 2011, they had a majority of just a single seat and

they managed to work very well. I am quite certain they will go back to

another minority government. They will work issue by issue with the

other parties. The interesting things will be on the budget,

because the SNP are closely aligned with the Conservatives in wanting

very, very Limited tax changes. The other parties - the Liberal

Democrats, Labour and the Greens - all want higher taxes and will push

for that. And on fracking, which is a massive issue in Scotland, huge

swathes of the central belt are ripe for fracking, and the Conservatives

oppose it. We will have to see what the SNP do, if they do a deal there.

In terms of the big issue of independence, where is that now?

Kezia Dugdale said, we have moved on from that, but it seems that maybe

the voters have not only I actually think this result is a setback for

the independence movement. If you add together the Scottish National

Party and the Greens, you have 69 pro-independence SNP is, nominally.

But neither party put a demand for independence or for a referendum in

their manifesto this time around. I think Nicola Sturgeon will look at

these results and think, this is actually a bit of a setback. I have

not matched Alex Salmond's remarkable result from 2011. And I

think she will be much more focused on domestic issues like the new tax

powers, the new welfare powers, and she will have to start building on a

much more long-term agenda. As you well know, two months away from

whether we exit the European Union or not, and Scotland again has a

different flavour, it would appear? Yes, like London, Scotland seems

overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU. Even this issue

is viewed through the independence prism in Scotland. If there is a

mismatch in results, Scotland voting to stay in, the rest of the UK

voting to leave the EU, would that trigger a second independence

referendum? I think that has become a less likely prospect because of

what has been a kind of a setback. Nicola Sturgeon will wonder if she

has actually fuelled a pro-independence backlash, which the

Conservatives have managed to capitalise on? She spoke about

independence of a lot during the campaign, especially during the last

few days. With Davidson comes along and says, we will resist any move to

independence. And she has done very well on the back of that. We can get

the big picture from Westminster now, with Norman Smith. Rock star.

We are now going through some of the details to give us a bit more sense

of what has happened. Jerry Corbyn has been keen to stress that by and

large, they have held their ground and managed to hold onto councils

which might have been vulnerable, in the south and the Midlands, places

like Southampton, Redditch, Crawley, Cannock Chase. But when you get into

some of the detail, in those critical middle England consoles,

places like Bury, Tamworth and Nuneaton, Labour are still losing

councillors. Interestingly, Nuneaton, which was regarded as one

of the bellwether seats in the last election, again, Labour are still

losing votes. In 11% swing from Labour to the Conservatives. Now,

what Mr Corbyn's critics are saying is that this underlines the extent

to which the party is still failing to reach out and engage with

centrist voters. The line from Jeremy Corbyn's team is, it is still

early days, give your man time. But I sense among his critics there is a

view that nothing will change, no matter how much time Mr Corbyn is

given. So in a funny sort of way, the uneasy stand-off within the

Labour Party continues, despite last night's results, with Mr Corbyn's

team saying in effect, we are gradually establishing ourselves,

give us time, and his critics saying, no, this confirms everything

we have said about you. As for the other parties, the Conservatives I

have no doubt will draw some satisfaction that despite the euro

war howling around, they have by and large managed to cling on. They have

lost one council, Worcester, and kicked up another one, Peterborough.

The Liberal Democrats will draw some satisfaction I would think from the

sense that they have not lost a whole load of seats, which they have

managed to do spectacularly well in recent elections. And Ukip - well,

frustration in the sense that they believe they are hoovering up

disgruntled Labour votes, but not in sufficient quantity to win Labour

seats, because the first-past-the-post system still

seems to be keeping a lid on them, albeit they are looking to get

around I think about 40 new councils.

Norman Smith, thank you very much. One of the big stories in Scotland

over the past few years has been that younger voters can vote. It

happened with the Scottish referendum campaign. It did not

happen in the general election, which has different rules, but it

did happen in this campaign. I am now joined by three younger voters.

All part of the BBC's Generation 2016. Megan, 18, this was your first

vote? Yes. What did you vote? I voted for Scottish Labour. What was

your rationale? My biggest issue was education, and they have promised to

put in more money to education. That was the deciding factor for me. Did

you vote with enthusiasm in this election? It is certainly true that

over the past couple of years, since the independence referendum, people

of your age have thought to themselves, politics is important?

Yes, definitely. The referendum got me to take a bigger interest in

politics, and I have seen it with my friends as well. I have been looking

into different party policies and manifestos. What about you? I

decided to vote Liberal Democrat. Similarly to Megan, it was because

of their policies on education and also on the NHS and mental health.

For a first-time voter, it was a hard decision and I did not make it

until yesterday's. Was it a big moment for you, putting those

crosses in the boxes? Yes, I have always really loved politics. I have

been waiting for the day when I could vote since I was probably

five! You're saying that you're a teenage veteran of politics already!

You did not mention independence - was that not something you thought

about or was it in the back of your mind? For me, it is something which

has been discussed a lot and I think it is not really something that we

need to be thinking about in the very near future. There is more

important issues, in my opinion. Stuart Cummings you've voted SNP -

why did you choose to vote for them? After the 2011 election, I was not

able to vote in that... I thought it was best to see those policies to

fruition. But were you attracted by their policies on some of the issues

which Megan was talking about, like education, or is independence the

big issue for you? It was mainly education and social policies.

Independence was a factor the last time I voted, in the general

election. I realised now that it is perhaps best to leave that

particular subject alone for a while, because there are other

things which need doing first. And some thoughts about your age group -

how engaged other people? I know there is a view, or a prejudice, you

might think, that teenagers do not care, are not interested in

politics. What about your friends and yourselves? I disagree. I think

people our age are really interested. Maybe it was the

referendum which did it, but I have found that my friends at home and at

university, even the ones who are not from Scotland, have really taken

an interest in different party policies. I was struck listening to

you, you actually studied the policies. I know a lot of people

three times your age who do not study policies. Did you really give

it that much attention? Yes, because I did not want to just waste my vote

which I had only just got. I really wanted to look into what everybody

was saying. Do any of you have an idea that you would like to pursue

some kind of public office or run for election? I would like to add

some point. My plan is to go into teaching for a while and then after

that hopefully go into politics. I'm not sure whether it will be at

Scottish level or at a national level, but I would like to go into

it. What about the others? I think I would possibly not like to be an MP

because it seems quite brutal. I would love to be a correspondent and

get to challenge the MPs and politicians, whilst being impartial.

It has been a pleasure talking to all of you. The weather is rather

glorious here in Edinburgh. We will have all the election headlines

coming up. First a look at the weather across the nation, with John

Hammond. Most of us will have a fantastic

weekend but there will be some exceptions. For a few of us it will

stay cloudy and dull. And for a very few of us, there will be some

thunderstorms, so watch this space. Most of this cloud is very high and

it will not stop the sun getting through. Bright sunshine across more

southern parts of the UK. It is here where we will have the highest

temperatures. It reached 22 degrees yesterday's, and I fancy some places

could hit 24 to the west of London this afternoon. A little bit of

cooler near the coasts. The North Sea coasts will be cooler. All eyes

to the south over the next day or so. This developing low pressure

will start throwing some cloud and showers up towards us, initially

across the far south-west of England. Then moving across the

Irish sea. Not as chilly as some places had last night. Then we could

see some really intense thunderstorms developing across the

heart of England and Wales. Very hit and miss, but if you catch one, you

will know all about it. Warmer across the southern half of the UK,

every bit as warm as today. Northern half of the UK, cooler. There will

be a notable easterly breeze coming off the North Sea. Here, it could

stay quite grey and murky for much of the afternoon. But that will be

the exception, most of us will have plenty of fine weather. Sunday,

again, fine and dry for most. But we could again have some isolated but

intense than the storms developing. Very difficult to nail down a

position. Possibly up to 26 degrees across the London area. Into the

early part of next week, it starts to turn more unsettled, with some

rain. I'm Gavin Esler, and

welcome to Holyrood. Here in Scotland with all

the results in, Labour have been beaten into third place as the SNP

claim a historic third victory in the Scottish

Parliament elections. Nicola Sturgeon's party receives

nearly half the vote - but falls two seats short

of an overall majority. We are seeing an enormous vote of

confidence in the SNP's record in government, and an enormous boat of

trust in our ability to lead the country forward.

Ruth Davidson's Scottish Conservatives overtake Labour

for the first time to become the main opposition.

In England, Labour fends off challengers to retain control of an

above key councils. Jeremy Corbyn's party have retained

key councils in England and won two But some figures say here's failing

to win the centre ground. -- he is. Hello, I'm Sian Lloyd

at Cardiff Bay. Labour remain the biggest party

in Wales, though their Ukip win their first seats

in the Welsh Assembly, And there's a stunning personal

victory for the leader of Plaid We'll bring you all of the latest

reaction and results Good morning and welcome

to Election 2016. I am at the Scottish Parliament in

Holyrood. A clear picture has emerged of how

the parties have fared in yesterday's local

and regional elections - though results will continue

to come in through the day. The Tories have made gains,

and Labour has suffered some big losses - including in Scotland,

where they're now the third party. We're live at Holyrood,

the home of the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish National Party has won

a third term but loses So here in Scotland the SNP remain

the largest party with 63 MSPs. The Conservatives are now the second

largest party in Holyrood, picking up an extra 16 seats,

which means that they now have more representation in

the Scottish Parliament than Labour. Overall it was a bad night for

Labour in Scotland, losing 13 MSPs. So far, with 80 authorities

declared, Labour have fared better in the English local elections,

managing to hold on to all but one of the 42 councils it was defending,

despite losing dozens of seats. In Wales, Labour remains the largest

party despite a drop in its share of the vote,

which cost it one seat at the expense of the Welsh

nationalist party, Plaid Cymru. Ukip had a very good night in Wales,

securing six new members to the Welsh Assembly in return

for 14% of the vote. Our political correspondent

Carole Walker has been -- Ian Watson has been following the

story so far. The SNP felt shorter than overall

majority. We are seeing a huge vote of confidence in the SNP peers

record in government and enormous trust in our ability to lead the

country forward. Scratch beneath the surface, and the

SNP victory was not the only story. Conservative leader with Davidson

has ambitions to lead the opposition in Scotland, replacing Labour, and

is coming close to fulfilling them. A crumb of comfort for the Billy

goat Lib Dems, snatching a couple of seats from the Scottish

Nationalists. Little to cheer about four Labour,

the SNP retained its surge at this party's expense. Johann Lamont was

one of the political victims. Kez Dugdale campaigned on a platform

Jeremy Corbyn would approve of, better public services paid for by

higher taxes. The Labour leader himself is under

pressure, many of his own MPs lined up to criticise him, but the party's

performance was not as bad as expected. Labour retain two safe

Parliamentary seats, one in England, one in Wales. In the council

elections they did not just hold on to the northern heartlands but

defied expectations in the south coast, retaining control in

Southampton and Hastings. With fewer Labour councillors

overall, some MPs say the results are not good enough. We should have

been making games, there are lots of brilliant local Labour council

candidates who will be waking up, not having a seat that they should

have had. These elections will be challenging the David Cameron, as

members of his Cabinet clash regularly over Europe.

Do you have almost become conditioned, one year into a

government, to know you will have a dreadful night, but sitting here and

saying they are not as disastrous as they were, this is very different

from most programmes that I can remember, one year into a

government, because that is when the opposition normally makes their big

day. Labour will be the biggest party in Wales, but Ukip will

celebrate their first ever Welsh Assembly seats. It has been a big

night, we are making breakthroughs into places like Wales, we have

never had a leg and representation before. We are winning council seats

in England and coming second almost everywhere. -- we have never had

elected representation before. Voters will have to wait until the

weekend to get the full picture in Northern Ireland.

Our assistant political editor Norman Smith

Is it possible to look at these rather varied results and draw

anyone big picture conclusion? The one big picture that I draw is that

these were the standstill elections. Pretty much for every party, none of

them went anywhere and nothing much at all changed south of the border.

A different story in Scotland, but south of the border it is a

standstill election, really. That tells us a story. From the Labour

side, it is possibly the worst conceivable result the Mr Corbyn

Haas critics, because it is not sufficiently disastrous to provide

them with a trigger to mount a challenge against Mr Corbyn, but it

is bad enough to confirm their worst fears that they have no chance of

winning a general election under him. They find themselves in a limbo

land, unable to move against him but at the same time terrified that he

is leading them to catastrophe. Mr Corbyn's people have drawn a huge

sigh of relief, there has not been the massive loss of seats and

councils projected. He might lose about 25 or so, that is bad in

historic terms because at this time in the Parliament, one year after an

election with a Tory party ripping itself to shreds over Europe and

after years and years of austerity, he ought to be clawing away at them,

pulling seats back. That is not happening. As for the Tories, I

suspect they, too, like Mr Corbyn are thinking, view, because in the

wake of a budget which has seen wrangling over academies and

disability benefits, spats over steel industry, and less grief on

the Tory side, they have managed to hold their ground. They lost

Worcester council, they picked up another in Peterborough. In Scotland

they have a spectacular advance. The extent to which that is down to the

personality of Ruth Davidson and the way she has reshaped the sections of

the Tory party in Scotland is open to debate. The Lib Dems, my take is

that maybe they have finally reached rock bottom. They look as if they

will gain a few councils after years of haemorrhaging hundreds. Same old

story in Ukip, piling up votes in traditional Labour seats but unable

to win because of the first past the post system, hugely frustrating for

them, meaning that at the end of the day they might end up with 40 or so

councillors had not the significant breakthrough they might have hoped

for. You have a very mixed picture

throughout the country, Ukip doing very well in Wales, coming nowhere

in Scotland. We still don't know about the London mayoral election,

but London almost seems to be its own country. Different parts of the

country are devolved, politically, at least in their intentions,

perhaps, if not in the way that politics is run? I think that is

very true. That is another reason why Mr Corbyn Haas critics, I would

suggest, are stymied. Catastrophic though the result in Scotland may

be, even the Mr Corbyn said it would be a priority for him, he would go

up there once a month and the hope was that are more left-leaning

Labour leader would reconnect the party in Scotland, catastrophic

though the result is, he can kind of say, hang on a second, there is an

historic generational collapse in the Labour vote which happened way

before me, it will take years to put right. Don't delay that at my

doorstep. Similarly, in London, London is almost a country in its

own right, politically, with its own mood and temperature. This took all

that has drawn a lot of support from London, but interestingly, Sadiq

Khan has gone out of his way to say, hey, the ad you are not travelling

in the same direction. He has chosen to distance himself from Mr Corbyn

-- me and you are not travelling in the same direction. Mr Corbyn is

insulated from these results, to some extent, because other factors

could explain what is going on in parts of the country. For that

reason, is respect he will carry on. The big question is whether his

critics settled down and accept that they will just have to lump this, or

whether they will regroup and prepare to come back, maybe after

European referendum, I doubt it, or maybe after the local elections next

year. Very interesting, Norman, thank you

for joining us. In the last few minutes the last

results have been declared in the Scottish parliamentary

election - and the SNP have And it was a bruising night

for Labour in Scotland, in the first big test of public

opinion since Jeremy Labour's now third in Scotland,

and Tory gains mean they're now Our Scotland correspondent

Lorna Gordon has more. If she was feeling nervous,

she didn't show it. Nicola Sturgeon leading her party

into the Holyrood elections Her personal appeal at the heart

of the SNP campaign. To seek and to win a mandate

as the First Minister of our country is a special and very

precious thing. I pledge that over these next five

years I will govern in the interests Another party whose push for votes

was based around their leader, Ruth Davidson positioning her party

as the defenders of the union. Now I'm under no illusions that

everyone in that seat that voted for me is a true blue,

dyed in the wool Tory. And neither are they in places

up and down Scotland. They are people who want us to do

a very specific job, and it's a job that me and my team

of new MSPs coming in take exceptionally seriously,

and that is to hold the Scottish National

Party to account. For Labour it was deja vu as one

by one their seats fell. They were putting our neighbour

brave face, but disappointment behind the smiles.

Our defeat is painful, but it is not the end,

we will continue to argue for our values and principles.

There is work to renew the party so it is fit to serve the country.

For the Liberal Democrats, their message that they would punch above

their weight punched through, holding onto their seats in the

Northern Isles, expanding their reach on the mainland. The SNP won

fewer seats than the polls predicted, they will have to form a

minority Government or enter coalition. But it has still been a

successful night for the Nationalists, who will be in power

for the third time in Scotland. I am joined by our Scotland

correspondent, Kevin keen. The SNP did not get an overall majority, but

a win is a win? It is an even bigger win than the one they had five years

ago in terms of vote, they have top 1 million mark for the first time

for any party at Holyrood devolution began. Unfortunately for them, they

have fallen victim to a system which compensates for the fact that they

have all these additional constituency MSPs and takes away

some of the list once, overall it means they have slightly fewer. It

is only two. They have done a minority administration before, and

very successfully, I can see no reason why they would not be able to

do again this time, ridiculously because the Green Party have six

members and they will probably able to do deals with them or the Liberal

Democrats, some of the other parties, fairly successfully. For

many, the Conservative revival in Scotland is one of the big stories,

a few years ago they were almost the dead parrot sketch from Monty

Python, they were deceased, they had ceased to be. Ruth Davidson has made

a remarkable turnaround? She is trying to set the party north of the

border separate from the party in the rest of the UK, but she has done

that by her own personality, in many respects. Rather unexpectedly, she

has become the constituency MP for this place, and for the Palace of

Holyrood House, the Queen's official residence. She has taken a constant

C -- they had taken a constituency where Balmoral is, as well. They

were pretty much going for the list vote stop the big losers have been

the Labour Party, not entirely unexpectedly. It is unlikely that

there will be any change of leadership, we are on four leaders

in five years. When Kezia Dugdale was elected, certainly within the

party at was for a long-term period, generally people around her accepted

that they needed some kind of stability. She hinted this morning

that the elephant in the room was still independence. She very much

set the tone of the election by ringing up the issue of tax very

early on. In terms of what she and other politicians talked about, she

was in there first, but it turned out that was not what the voters

were thinking about. They are still thinking about independence, I think

she will address that now. In the English local

authority elections, the overall picture with 80 councils

declared remains largely unchanged. Labour managed to successfully

remain in control of 41 of the 42 councils it was defending -

that only defeat coming in Dudley, which is now under

no overall control. Looking at the share

of the votes in England compared with four years ago,

you can see it remains fairly stable for the Conservatives,

but Labour have suffered a four-point drop, with Ukip

seeing a six-point rise Our assistant political editor

Norman Smith is at Westminster. I suppose a key question would be

whether Labour under Jeremy Corbyn has done enough to keep his critics

at bay? I think it is fair to say that his critics would have been

hoping that these results would provide them with some ammunition to

move against him, but but they have not had that ammunition. There has

been no complete and utter collapse in the Labour vote. These critics

still remain convinced that Mr Corbyn cannot win, but they do not

have the bullets to fire against him. Let's talk about that now with

the Labour shadow cabinet member Diane Abbott. If you had to use one

word to characterise the Labour results last night, what would that

be? Steady progress. If you compare it to last year's general election,

we have increased our share of the vote. And crucially we have held

onto seats in the south, like Crawley and Southampton. People have

been arguing we need to move right, but under he Jeremy, we have done

that. Can I put it to you that holding onto seats, and losing

councillors, is not progress? Our share of the vote indicates

progress. This is the beginning of something, it is not the end of

everything. Remember, we had a catastrophic result last year,

particularly in Scotland. And in Scotland it was a long drawn-out

process of collapse, and it will be a long process of rebuild, and no

other leader could have any better in Scotland. Some of Mr Corbyn's

critics are saying that every Labour leader, in their first set of

elections, wins seats, even Michael Foot, in the 1980s, won nearly 1000

seats. Jeremy Corbyn is losing seats! That's disingenuous. We have

a much different electorate than we had at that time. It is much more

fragmented. We have got Ukip, we have got the nationalist parties.

You are not comparing like with like to compare local elections under

Jeremy to low collection -- to local elections under Michael Foot. In

Nuneaton, you have had a swing against Labour of 11% to the

Conservatives - how do you explain that? Jeremy has had unprecedented

complaints and attacks not least from members of his own party! I

think we have done well overall to increase our share of the vote. And

as I said, in the south, we have held steady. We are on track to win

in 2020. Your colleague Clive Lewis was saying earlier this morning that

was to Corbin's critics secured shut up or get out, do you agree? He puts

his own thoughts in his own way. What I would like is for that small

group of MPs who have been so over Severus in attacking Jeremy finally

to accept the result of last year's leadership election and get behind

the leader of the party. Obviously, Scotland, a disastrous result for

Labour, but the significance is much greater than Scotland, because

unless you can claw back Labour seats in Scotland, you have no

prospect of winning a general election. And yet all the signs are

that you're going backwards in Scotland? You know, no-one has said

that under an alternative leader, it would be any different in Scotland.

It took a long time to get to that collapse last year, and we have to

be patient in rebuilding the position in Scotland. Kezia Dugdale

has done a very good job and she must be left to shape the Scottish

party in her own way. The point I'm making is that in Scotland you're

going backwards, in England, in terms of councillors, you're going

backwards - how can you possibly say this is progress towards an election

victory? You cannot read everything from individual council ward

results. If you look at our overall share of the vote since last year,

you will see that our share of the vote is going up, and I think that's

the most important thing. What does Jeremy Corbyn need to do to win back

votes? To do what he has been doing, to frame the debate. On benefits, we

were abstaining on benefit cuts, Jeremy took the battle on welfare

and benefits to the Tories, won the argument and defeated them in

Parliament. And we need to do more of that. Doesn't that shore up your

traditional vote and failed to in gauge with people of middle England?

Tamworth, you lost four seats, Bury, you lost four seats, Dudley, you

lost the council. It is fine for shoring up your heartland but it

does not move you forward? Middle England cares as much about

inequality, as much about the NHS, as much about unfairness, as

anywhere else. Jeremy's message is particularly strong on unfairness

and the NHS. That's right. But is it not the danger that he presents the

party as a party of the aggrieved rather than as a party of

aspiration? If people thought that we were just a party of the

aggrieved, we would not have held on in Crawley, in Southampton, in those

sorts of seats in the South. We are on track. Briefly, London, we will

get the result in the middle of the afternoon, I think - what is your

take on the way that campaign has been fought? The Conservatives have

fought the most appallingly anti-Muslim campaign that I have

seen at a national level. They should be ashamed. What is the

message to young Muslims thinking about getting involved in mainstream

politics? The message is that if you do not happen to be a merchant

banker, you can expect to be abused and attacked, as Sadiq Khan was. It

has been a shameful and terrible campaign. Some talk we might get

that London result a bit earlier than we thought. But of course, that

will be another critical result in shaping the way these elections are

seen overall, after what has been a very, very bruising contest between

Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith. Thank you very much for that.

In Wales, it was a good night for Labour, who remain on course

to be the largest party in the Welsh Assembly,

Over to Sian Lloyd. The sun is coming out here in Cardiff babies

eat Labour remains the biggest party here in Wales. We are still waiting

for the poll from south Wales central, but that is all that is

outstanding. Labour's share of the vote overall did go down, and they

did lose a seat to Plaid Cymru. Ukip are happy here in Wales this

morning, we're hearing, as they have won seats for the first time, again,

on the regional list, through proportional representation. So,

Labour are the biggest party, Plaid Cymru look to be in second place at

the expense of the Welsh Conservatives, and it has not been a

good night for the Liberal Democrats. Lets talk to our Wales

correspondent Thomas Morgan now. You have been following the campaign

very closely. Let's talk about Labour first. We heard from Edwina

Hart, the former minister, earlier on the programme, that they feel

they have done very well, even though their share of the vote has

gone down? I think if you had asked anybody from the Labour Party over

the last few weeks, they would have been hoping for about 26 seats. They

far surpassed that, with 29 seats, only one less than they got in the

last election, which means they will probably be able to go ahead and

follow one as they were, almost, with the minority party government

here. They will obviously have to pass some laws with the other

parties, but they will be very happy. Arguably that is the biggest

story of the night, that they have been able to hold onto some of those

key marginal areas, places like the Gower, the north of Cardiff, places

where in the general election last year, they lost out to the Tories,

but they have been able to secure them for the Welsh Assembly. They

will be very happy with today's outcome. Ukip's performance,

eye-catching. Six seats so far on the regional lists. Mark Reckless

and Neil Hamilton will be taking up seats in the building behind us?

Yes-no doubt that will make it a very lively Assembly when they come

back in the next few. I think it is interesting that we knew that Ukip

would be getting some of the regional seats, those Paul Jewell

representation seats. Nigel Farage was expecting five, and they have

already got six. -- proportional representation seats. They might

even get seven, which would be quite a large number for the first time

they have ever got seats in Wales. As I say it will make for

interesting debates here in Cardiff. Counting has begun meanwhile in

Northern Ireland, although we do not expect to have the outcome of that

for quite some time. We can go over now to Chris Buckler, in Belfast.

Yes, counting has only begun in the last hour or so here at the Titanic

Exhibition Centre. They are trying to make sense of the vote behind me,

as the count begins. However, it is a very complicated voting system in

Northern Ireland. As a result we will not know the full picture of

what the new Assembly looks like until tomorrow, at the earliest.

However, we will start to get people elected this afternoon. Nigel Jones

is with me, the deputy leader of the DUP. You are not a candidate in this

election because you are an MP, but at the same time you have been

watching closely - what have been the key factors and strategies? And

what about your leader, Arlene Foster, a leader for only a matter

of months - how do you think she did? I think she has performed

extremely well in this election. It is a big test going to your first

Assembly election only having been leader for five months. But she is

enormously peeler throughout the entire community, which came across

very strongly from the time she first became First Minister. She and

our team have set out a 5-point plan for Northern Ireland to take the

country forward. , who in Northern Ireland want to cease table

government with Northern Ireland actually moving forward. Of course

it is not just about you see Northern Ireland has differences do

not government from everywhere else. Basically everybody has to work

together. The biggest parties are all entitled to be in this our

sharing coalition. In reality, how difficult is it going to be two,

with a programme of government, because you have only got two weeks

to do that? In Northern Ireland, it is a mandatory system, we HAVE to

have a coalition. So there will be negotiations. But we're pretty

confident that we will be able to form an executive with an agreed

programme for government. I think the issues which dominated the

election campaign for us were things like education, health,

infrastructure, trying to keep household bills as low as possible.

So I think across all the parties, there is a common interest. I hope

that everybody will see Northern Ireland moving forward, embedding

the peace process. That is extremely important. It is only a matter of

months since Stormont looked to be in serious trouble, the future of

power-sharing in danger. It does seem like DUP will be the biggest

hearty, Sinn Fein second. Relationships have not always been

good, so can we work together going forward? Yes, I think we can. The

Secretary of State Theresa Villiers said recently that we are ironically

in one of the most stable periods of devolution, because of the new fresh

start agreement put in place by our previous leader, Peter Robinson, in

November. I think that is the basis which can be followed. I am very

confident about the future of Northern Ireland. As I say, the

counting is under way here. But the complicated system basically

involves candidates being elected and then any surplus votes they have

being redistributed, any other candidate being eliminated and their

votes being redistributed. It is a complicated and long process. It

will be a long couple of days here. Let's take a look at some

other election news. Labour have held on to two

Westminster seats in parliamentary They comfortably held

Ogmore in South Wales, and Sheffield Brightside and

Hillsborough. Ukip came second

in both by-elections. Labour were also successful

in Liverpool, where Joe Anderson The outcome of the mayoral contests

in London, Salford and Bristol London is set to declare in the late

afternoon or evening. Voting also took place yesterday

for almost 40 Police and Crime Commissioners

across England and Wales. One result has been

declared - Wiltshire - The rest of the results should be

known by the end of the day. We can go back now to Gavin Esler in

Scotland, where it has been an historic night for the SNP.

And historic night for the SNP, very difficult for Labour, there are

those who think they lost to every other party everywhere, pretty much.

Alex Rowley, the deputy leader the Scottish Labour and also the party's

campaign director, joins me. What went wrong for you, it seems you

lost votes to all the other parties? We had a very bad night. We put

forward a very positive agenda, setting out how we would tackle

austerity stop the cuts and invest in Bulls future, but we did not

persuade enough people up and down the country, and the failure to do

that has resulted in this very bad result for us. Did you make a

strategic mistake in not focusing on the independence campaign and

talking about raising income tax and so on, and attacking the SNP from

the left when it seems voters are still preoccupied with the

independence issue? It was right for Labour and fairly bold of Kezia

Dugdale to set up this agenda, moving forward. We had to tackle the

big issues in Scotland, we were right to do that, but it is

evidently clear that people are still talking about the

constitution, and that it is still a big issue. For Labour, we had to

learn for that and set out the type of Scotland that we would see moving

forward, addressing the constitutional questions, that is

the next step. Do you worry it could get even worse for Labour in

Scotland? I have spoken to people who think you could have a wipe-out

in Glasgow in the local elections next year? Unless we can set out a

clear vision for Scotland, unless we can show we have an idea for

Scotland, how we would tackle the issues of inequality and poverty by

investing in stopping the cuts, addressing the issue of the

constitution and setting out our vision on how we move forward.

Unfortunately, in Scotland, there is the label that you are unionist or

Nationalist, neighbour macro needs to set out what it leaves is the

best way forward for Scotland. -- Labour needs to. You have been

called the red Tories, yet somehow the Conservative vote has gone up

close they were very clear on independence and that their job was

to oppose the SNP. To answer the red Tories question, the only party

setting out how to stop the cuts, with the SNP agenda there will be ?3

billion of cuts, harming public services. The only party proposing

to address that was Labour, we were right to do that. The voters did not

think so. We need to address the constitutional question, in terms of

the constitution moving forward. It is a clear question for the future

of Scotland. I think we failed to do that. Will people continue to be

happy with Kezia Dugdale 's leadership, or will they want to

change? In her short time as leader, I think she has made real progress.

We say we want to create an autonomous Labour Party, Kezia

Dugdale has pushed that and we are making the progress, there will be a

decision at the UK conference. We want a strong autonomy for the

Labour Party in Scotland. We want to set out the type of party that we

see moving forward, and exactly how the constitutional question will be

addressed by the Labour Party in Scotland. Kezia Dugdale has shown

real strength, but she also showed real strength ensuring that she

would tackle austerity. Others have talked about it, Kezia Dugdale was

the only leader to set out a clear agenda.

Was there a Corbyn factor in Scotland at all? Was his name

mentioned on the doorsteps, or was he regarded as irrelevant? I think

the days of Labour Party leaders coming up from Westminster and

telling the Scottish Labour Party how to run their affairs is over,

and that is right. Kezia Dugdale has made clear that she is the leader of

the party in Scotland, we are establishing an autonomous Labour

Party in Scotland. Jeremy Corbyn, I think, is a breath of fresh air. The

people of Scotland voted for him at welcome his leadership, we support

that, but in Scotland, Kezia Dugdale is read. If we are to tackle that

result last night, we need a strong, autonomous Labour Party in Scotland

with a clear vision for the future. Thank you for taking the time to

talk to us. You are watching BBC News, Election 2016. Election 2016

coverage on BBC News. Votes are still being counted

in the local and regional elections but a clear picture is emerging

of how the parties are The SNP wins a third victory

in the Scottish Parliamentary elections but loses

its overall majority. With all the results now in,

Nicola Sturgeon's party is two seats Labour drops to third place in

Scotland, down 13 seats, in the first big test of Jeremy Corbyn pits

leadership. But it has held onto most of its local authorities in

England and retain two Westminster seats in parliamentary by-elections.

The Conservatives are now the main opposition in Scotland

The Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, took

In Wales, Labour remains the largest party in the devolved Assembly,

It has been a good night for the Ukip.

Ukip meanwhile claimed its first seats in the Welsh assembly -

so far it's got six, that's one more than Nigel Farage's target.

It has also made gains in English councils.

And a significant win for Plaid Cymru - leader Leanne Wood

took the south Wales heartland seat of Rhondda from Labour.

Labour had a mixed night in council elections in England. They held onto

some key authorities which they were expected to lose, the critics have

said that it has not fared well enough to suggest a generally

election victory in four years. Andy Burnham was asked about claims he

was planning to stand as the first mayor of Greater Manchester when the

position is created next year. There is no decision. I had not

planned for this news to come out at this time, it is very early days.

The truth is, I have had people approaching me to consider it. I

have decided to consider it. Over the next few days I will take

soundings from people... Obviously the political community in Greater

Manchester but also people from business, sport, other fields, the

health service, and make a decision in June course. Whatever that

decision is, I continue to serve the leader of the Labour Party and stay

in the Shadow Cabinet. The short while ago, Shadow Foreign

Secretary Hilary Benn gave his reaction to Labour's performance in

the polls, admitting that the party had a long way to go to regain

ground. We have retained control of

cancelled people predicted we might lose, faces like Harlow, Norwich and

Southampton. We won the two by-elections. Looking forward to the

result of the London mayoral election, hoping that Sadiq Khan

will be victorious. Our share of the boat is up compared with this time

last year, but we have a long way to go. That is the message from these

elections. If we will form a Government in 2020, which we want

to, to be able to get rid of this Government, we need to win back

trust and confidence from more people, which is a task for all

others in the party. What would you say to people who say that it is a

relief, we have earned breathing space, is there room for

complacency? I don't think there is any complacency on the part of

anybody. We have a big task ahead, Jeremy was elected with a big

mandate. Our job is to support him, that the electoral test accounts,

whether you win support. If we are to be able to defeat this

Government, we need to win more support in the months and years

ahead. This is the first stage, we have made progress compared with

last year, we have a long way to go. Hilary Benn. Let's return to Wales,

it was a good night for Labour and also, as we reflected, a good night

for Ukip, currently with six seats, one more that the target set by

party leader Nigel Farage. Sian Lloyd has the detail. Hello.

Good morning from Cardiff Bay. There will be many new faces coming here

to the Senedd because a large and bothersome two members retired, they

were not seeking real action. -- a large number of members retired.

There will be new faces, some of them younger people. During the

course of campaigning in Wales, the parties were seeking the vote of

young people. I am joined by three of them. Amat, Ellie and Rob, great

to see you. You have brought the sunshine. First of all, what did you

think of the campaigning in Wales? You are a student in Cardiff but

from Portsmouth? That is correct, I live in Cardiff but I am originally

from Portsmouth. What I really noticed about this campaign, it was

more based on policies rather than personal attacks on individuals or

parties. Lots of the policies were discussed. In Portsmouth, where I

come from, there are regular attacks on politicians instead of focusing

on policies, so it was refreshing but it was more policy based. So a

bit friendlier here in Wales? Definitely! That is a positive. Any?

There has been a lot of support in Wales for politicians, which is the

same everywhere, but I have noticed a lot of communities demonstrating

who they are voting for, I feel like it is more vocal, more friendly,

there is more of a shared consensus. Everywhere I go, I see placard

saying who they are voting for. So it was high profile? I actually

think in comparison to England, it was more in the media and more out

there. Rob, what have you taken from the campaigning here? It was the

most competitive one I have seen to date. I thought it was so much

more... Every party ran a better campaign, it was much more visible

to see the other parties. It was not so much labour-macro/ Conservative,

everybody got a shout, it has helped people to be more engaged, they see

more opinions. Labour remained the biggest party in Wales, it looks

like Plaid Cymru will be in second place. What do you make of that? I

am worried about complacency. It was nice to see Plaid getting more and

more competitive, compared to Scotland where Labour has been

completely wiped out. It is about time there was a party like Plaid

Cymru, for me, they came on the part of the country, whereas I think

Labour can more about the party. It is most disease and body challenging

Labour, tackling the complacency. I would like to add that I am a Labour

voter, that one thing that I found really quite frustrating was how

this big election, this big game that we have got, could lead to a

lot of complacency. We lost Rhondda to Plaid, maybe that'll be a step up

for Carwyn Jones, but I worry that it will go back to the old Labour,

the same complacency we have seen in Scotland, and we could be wiped out

again in the next election, I am worried about that. There is the

proportional representation element here. As a result of that, the

regional list is, of which there are 20 seats available, Ukip will be

coming here for the first time. Any comments on that? I think it is a

bit of a shame, when Wales was building, they got people from all

over Europe and all over the world to try to come together. You could's

anti-immigration policy is not something I support, I don't think

it is in the best interests of Wales. At the end of the day, this

is a democratic election, Wales has gone with the most democratic voting

system. Ellie, what caught your eye in the campaign? Any particularly

eye-catching policy? We are students, education is bound to be

important to us. That links to the concept of politicians getting

involved with young people and encouraging them. Living in Cardiff,

I have seen a bit more engagement with that. I feel like politicians

here are getting more involved with young people as opposed to back

where we are from, so reducing the disillusioned feel is important. I

think education has been really important. Like you say, lots of

issues in Wales. It is good that the democracy voters getting

represented. Thank you very much. Thank you for coming along this

morning and giving us your thoughts on the election here in Wales. That

is it from Cardiff Bay at the moment, let's go back to Gavin

Esler. Let's have a quick round-up of how

things are shaping up in Scotland. The Scottish National Party has won

its third election at the Scottish parliament but failed to secure a

majority at Holyrood. Labour's vote collapsed, pushing the party to

third place by the Conservatives, who will form the biggest opposition

party in the parliament. The Lib Dems staged a revival. With me here

is Willie Rennie Connor Scott -- the Scottish Lib Dems. Reports of your

demise was exaggerated. That is 60% of the vote in Orkney and Shetland,

we were predicted to lose, we did not. I won in North East Fife,

against all predictions. And in Edinburgh West, the charismatic

candidate won. Four brilliant constituency results. I think we

will have great influence, with the SNP losing a majority I think the

liberal voice will be heard. It must have been really difficult

to pick yourself up from that disaster a year ago. And you have

begun a fightback of some sort? I had the time of my life in this

campaign, touring Scotland, visiting all of the great places, showing

dynamism and vigour but also a clear policy platform. We're getting back

to our best as Liberal Democrats, and paining at our best, almost a

Charles Kennedy style of politics, reaching out to people in their

homes on things like mental health. We really touched people. We had

people coming up to us to say, at last, somebody speaking to us about

mental health. Other things like investing in education, making sure

that we exceed our climate change targets, big, bold visions about the

future. Our big slogan was Making Scotland The Best Again. It is that

kind of optimism which people liked. Where do you think all of this

leaves the independence debate? You could have a majority for

independence, if you add up all the seats from different parties. I

think the whole thing is put in doubt now. With the SNP losing a

majority, I think there is a clear signal being sent. I don't think

people want to have a round whole day debate about independence. We've

saddled the matter, it has been resolved, it was one of the biggest

democratic expert rinses of our lifetime. We should respect it and

move on, and think that's the message the SNP should be receiving

today. Whether they are listening or not is another matter but I am

determined to make them listen. Where do you think that leaves them,

in the sense that they have not got a majority so they will have to deal

with other people - could you deal with them on day-to-day issues? We

have worked with them before. We worked with them to deliver extra

nursery education for two-year-olds. But not in a formal coalition. No,

I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in getting Liberal

Democrat policies through. We got support for mental health services,

we got support for nursery education, that kind of level, we

will work with them if we can agree. If we can get Lib Dem policies

through, we will deliver some kind of progress. But what we will not do

is, we are not interested in coalition agreements. We will

strongly oppose them on the police. If it was not for us, it would not

have been dealt with. So the Liberal Democrats will play a very strong

role in this Parliament. Now that they have lost their majority, I

think the constructive approach of the Liberal Democrats is the right

one. Willie Rennie, thank you very much for speaking to us. Very

interesting that in Shetland, for example, the Liberal Democrats have

made huge gains. Orkney and Shetland are clearly a different part of