BBC News Special Election 2016

I'm Ben Brown live at City Hall, where Labour's Sadiq Khan appears

to be heading for a comfortable victory

A victory for Sadiq Khan would end eight years of Conservative rule

under Boris Johnson - and he would become the first Muslim

In Scotland, the SNP has won an historic third term though

are just short of an overall majority - and will now try to form

The Conservatives celebrate coming second in Scotland -

Labour fares better than many expected.

Its vote is up on the general election last year -

In Wales - Labour remains the biggest party-

but UKIP wins seven seats, their first in the Welsh Assembly.

Good evening. We are expecting the result of the race to become the

next Mayor of London, that result should be coming within the next

hour, but we do know that Siddique Khan looks accept -- looks set to

succeed Boris Johnson. In the biggest test of political opinion

since the general election, the votes are steam -- still being

counted. In Wales, no dramatic change, but it has still won the

most councillors overall. Ukip had a good night, winning their first seat

in the Welsh assembly. Let's focus on London, and to take you through

the votes that have been made so far. Labour's Sadiq Khan had more

than 1,150,000 votes. His conservative rival, 910,000. If we

look at the chair of the vote, Sadiq Khan well ahead on Zac Goldsmith.

That is after the first preference votes. Because Tim Mack did not get

the 50% of the vote, it goes to second preferences. -- because Sadiq

Khan did not get 50% of the vote. The more things change,

the more they stay the same. Nicola Sturgeon reigns

still in Scotland. Tory divisions don't seem

to trouble their vote too much and Labour clings on,

maybe inching forwards. All across England last night

we were getting predictions that We didn't, we hung on and we grew

support in a lot of places. Because our party is standing up,

standing up for the steel industry, standing up against the cuts

in disability payments made by this government,

standing up against the grotesque But it is almost impossible for him

to win the country with this. Heartbreak as they were pushed

to third in what was home. You will not have seen a Tory grin

like this here for decades. I promise that I will serve

to the very best of my ability, And the SNP with a touch fewer seats

but very much in charge. We are the very first party

in the era of devolution to poll more than 1 million

votes in constituencies The result of the

election was emphatic. The people of Scotland once again

placed their trust in the SNP We won a clear and unequivocal

mandate and I secured the personal mandate I sought to implement

the bold and ambitious programme for government that I asked

the country to vote for. For the Westminster government's

party, a few sweaty and awkward moments but despite the Tories'

splits and spats over Europe, Enough for the Prime Minister to be

able to keep his bounce. Six years into government, of course

we don't get everything right, of course we can make mistakes

and sometimes things go wrong but I think people look at the big

picture and they want us to go on delivering what we

promised in our manifesto. But Labour dug in to keep

all but one of its councils, In areas in the south and around

England where they had feared But the challenge, as many party

members and MPs know all too well, is that they have to show they can

take back territory, But in London, Labour's Sadiq Khan

is on his way to do just that, on track to snatch City Hall

from the Conservatives' A big win for Labour but a powerful

perch for a man who has avoided The Lib Dem leader rushed

to his party's pockets of success. Even these baby steps

are worth popping corks for. Last year we had a terrible result

and the result of that outcome was that we had to roll

up our sleeves and fight back and we have done that

with that traditional Why not if you are Ukip

with new seats in Wales They squeezed Labour and the Tories

almost everywhere but their success Where Labour held on to power

but suffered pain and surprise as the Welsh valleys fell

to the Plaid Cymru leader. A new dawn is about

to break in Wales. Here in the Rhondda a new dawn has

already broken over the Valleys. There are layer upon layer

upon layer of results but underneath all that at the core

there was most pressure on Jeremy Labour has avoided a disaster

and on one measure they are even ahead of the Conservatives but this

is not a good set of If they are to have a real shot

at returning to power, they need to be piling on hundreds

and hundreds of seats It is not just Jeremy Corbyn's

enemies who are warning the party Tonight one of his powerful

union backers put him We are at the stage where we should

be winning hundreds of seats but I don't think that's

just about Corbyn. People will not vote for a divided

Labour Party and those on the right or place them

where you like who are pushing against Corbyn, they are not doing

themselves a service and certainly not doing the party a service and,

most importantly from the GMB union's perspective,

they are not doing working It is about time they rallied behind

Corbyn and let's give it We do nearly know that these boxes

contain a Labour victory in London, an important victory for the party,

but politics is not just about piling up votes

where you know you can win, but persuading others

where you don't yet dare. Laura Kuenssberg, BBC News,

Westminster. Here at City Hall, we are waiting

for the results of the mayoral contest. It looks clear that it is

Sadiq Khan for Labour, but we have not had the official declaration.

Last time, it was around midnight, we are hoping it will be earlier

this time. Let's take a closer look

at the situation in Scotland - where First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

has ruled out forming after losing six seats -

just short of a majority. A surprise was the Conservatives

gaining 16 Holyrood seats and are now the second largest party

becoming the main opposition. Labour, losing 13 seats,

have dipped into third place Our Scotland Editor

Sarah Smith reports. Good morning, it is Friday morning,

welcome to a special election Ruth Davidson's Conservatives look

like they will be the new official opposition in the

Scottish Parliament. Scots awoke this morning

to news many thought Labour, once so dominant, beaten

into third place by the Tories. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory

leader, barely mentioned in her campaign that

she was a Conservative, promising simply to stand up

to the SNP and against a second I know there are thousands of people

who voted for me and my team who aren't natural Conservatives

and are probably quite surprised they might find themselves

considering voting Conservative but they did because they wanted me

to do a specific job for them. They wanted somebody to stand up

to the SNP and say, you cannot ignore our voice and the decision

we made as a country and try to drag Ruth Davidson is certainly

not your average Tory. A working-class, kick-boxing,

openly gay woman always game She can talk to voters other Tories

simply cannot reach. Scotland Street now has a Tory MSP

for the first time. It is just one of their remarkable

gains across Scotland. A couple of days ago, Ruth Davidson,

who won this constituency, told me she did not think she had

a chance of taking it. But the voters in Edinburgh Central

responded to a very I think she went out the last few

months really campaigning and going for the fact

that they could do I think whoever came up with that

strategy hit the nail on the head. Traditionally it used to be Labour

everywhere in Scotland. It is funny now that they don't seem

to have anything to say. What can the Scottish Labour leader

say about being bludgeoned What we saw in Scotland last night

was the referendum arguments Strong support for the SNP

from those people who voted yes and strong support for the Tories

in the areas that I regret that because I thought

Scotland might be interested in moving on from those arguments

of the past and that If Scottish voters don't move on,

Labour will struggle to find While Nicola Sturgeon's SNP

increased their vote, denied an overall majority but ready

to rule and still dreaming Sarah Smith, BBC News,

Edinburgh. That's the picture in

the race for Holyrood - Labour is still the largest party

in the National Assembly though its vote dropped and it lost

a key seat to, Plaid Cymru. A breakthrough for UKIP -

securing seven new members Our Wales Correspondent

Hywel Griffith reports. For a fifth term in a row

the National Assembly has Labour The celebrations showed relief

rather than rapture. Labour knows its grip

on Wales has loosened. Its share of the vote is down

and rows in the Westminster party I do wish sometimes the politicians

in London would remember there is an election in Wales

and in Scotland and I made my views I don't think it affected the result

if I'm honest but certainly, on occasion, people

were raising it with us The election results brought some

small but significant changes In the Rhondda, a heartland Labour

seat, Plaid Cymru's leader Ukip, the party promising to break

the cosy consensus of Welsh politics, now has Assembly members

too so why are voters The first time ever I voted

Plaid Cymru, I've always been Labour but I don't think they are doing

anything to help the communities. As for Ukip, it is on everybody's

lips, immigration, and that's why, Change has already come

to the National Assembly, some new faces have already been

sworn in but for as long as the anti-Labour vote is split,

it will remain Wales's We have the opposition to Labour,

the non-Labour parties spread and whilst they make some challenges

to Labour, they cannot capture Labour can now take its time

in deciding if it is happy to govern The new era of Welsh politics

still feels a lot like the last. Almost a third of the seats

in the Northern Ireland First minister and Democratic

Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster topped the poll in Fermanagh

and South Tyrone. In West Belfast, Gerry Carroll won

a first ever assembly seat for the People Before

Profit Alliance. Our correspondent Chris

Buckler is in Belfast... Just over a third of the assembly

seats have now been decided. But it has to be said that the counting

will continue long into the night and into tomorrow. You can see the

teams behind me who are busy reallocating and sorting out the

ballots. This is a consecrated voting system. It involves

candidates, when they are elected, all being bottom of the poll, being

eliminated and votes being reallocated. 108 seats to be filled.

Just over a third now filled. If there are winners, it has to be the

UUP. Arlene Foster the first female leader of the party. They will be

returned as the biggest party. -- PU P. It has been a pretty good

election for Sinn Fein. Martin McGuinness will likely be Deputy

First Minister. They have had some problems in their heartland of

Westville -- West Belfast, to the people before profit Alliance. It is

an anti-austerity, left-wing party. When you take a look at all of the

boat across Northern Ireland, it has been successful for Sinn Fein and

the UUP, at the expense of the SDLP and also the UUP. -- it has been

successful for the Democratic Unionist party. When you look at the

power-sharing coalition, it will be Sinn Fein and the Democratic

Unionist dominant. They will try and work out a programme of dominant. --

a programme of government. We have been getting some reaction

on social media from both sides of the campaign. We are waiting for the

official results, but Jeremy Corbyn has already tweeted congratulations

to set the Khan. -- Sadiq Khan. Sat Goldsmith's sister Jemima has

congratulated Sadiq Khan. Although we have not had the

official results, we are getting lots of political reaction as you

can see already. Let's go to Micky Young. We are in a strange position.

We effectively know that Sadiq Khan has one, but we have not had the

official declaration. -- he has won. Let's talk about the acrimonious

campaign. Zac Goldsmith got into this thing of accusing Tim won of

sharing platforms with extremists. Many people thought that was a

smear. It has been really acrimonious. A lot of people who

know Zac Goldsmith have been surprised. He has a reputation of

being quite genteel. He is an environmentalist, eight slightly

detached person from the Tory party. He is not a street fighting

politician. People were surprised by that, blame being put on Tory

Central office for running back campaign. Interestingly, the other

tweet from Jemima Goldsmith was that the campaign did not reflect her

brother, and his views on anything. I think that is going to be a

problem for the Tory party. Interesting that Steve Hilton, a man

who used to work for David Cameron, was very much behind saying that the

Tory had to detoxify, and he feels that this campaign by the Tories has

brought back the nasty party tag. There will be remit --

recriminations over all of this, and a blame game, certainly. There will

be a by-election in tooting in south London, an area that is Asian, where

Sadiq Khan has represented on his kids go to school. They will have

two fact that seat. There will be many people looking at this thinking

this is a potential problem for the Conservative Party. Some

conservatives have said that the smear campaign, if that is what it

was, it backfired on the Conservatives, and a lot of people

may have voted Labour because they did not like the weight that tax cut

-- Zac Goldsmith campaign had gone. It is the turnout that is the

highest it has ever been. There were suggestions that it could be a very

low turnout. That is a suggestion that people were motivated because

they did not like the look of that campaign. This is a labour city, it

has been, it voted this way in the general election, so it is not a

huge surprise if Labour win, but Boris Johnson backed that trend and

he polled above the Conservative Party. What kind of job is it? Sadiq

Khan, assuming it is him, he follows in the footsteps of Ken Livingstone

and Boris Johnson, big colourful personalities. They are people who

are known around the country. A lot of people say, white we focus on

this? To people outside London care? But it is the major city in the

United Kingdom. There is power, but there isn't a huge amount of power

for the mayor. What difference will it make? It is around transport,

such a huge issue in London. Sadiq Khan has promised things like

freezing tube fares. They have to have a relationship with the

government of the day, so we're Sadiq Khan being Labour, there will

be issued, but talk about who will be in his team, will he bring in

experience people? Busy does not have the experience. But it will be

interesting to see how it is spun. Will it be a victory for Jeremy

Corbyn's leadership? There were no pictures of them together. Speaking

of Jeremy Corbyn, this will be a boost for him, to have eight London

mayor. But it has not been a brilliant day for Jeremy Corbyn, has

it? Especially in Scotland. They have combat the -- backwards in

Scotland, and have not made huge strides forward anywhere else.

Jeremy Corbyn saying that they hung on, that has upset some MPs. If they

want to win in 2020, they have a huge mountain to climb. They have

had two general election campaigns. The boundary changes will be in

advantage to the Conservatives. They will have to win dozens of seat in

England and Scotland, which they have not done so far, so there are

many MPs who think that they need to reach out to the centre ground, to

people who are not die-hard Labour supporters. Many feel that Jeremy

Corbyn has not been doing that. But Jeremy Corbyn has a neat leader for

eight months, and many say that you cannot blame him for all of these

woes, but the GMB saying that he has a year to sort this out. So this

time next year, when the other elections,, they will be looking for

him to make big strides. In contrast, David Cameron sounded

pleasantly surprised. They are in government. Government always lose

seats at this kind of time, particularly when you look at what

has been happening to the Tory party in the last few months. Not only

policy issues, you'd turned and climb downs, on academies and

refugees. The budget went wrong, and they had to backtrack on tax

credits. It has been a difficult time, and there have been or are

these internal rows about the European Union. He would have

thought that this would have been a moment where Labour could gain a

huge number of seats. That has not happened, and that is what is

worrying some people in the Labour Party tonight. We are still waiting

for the result of the mayoral contest. I went downstairs to the

cafeteria. Good place to start! It does not look that imminent. That is

the latest from our chief political correspondent! But we do know that

Sadiq Khan is very well ahead on the first preferences. He was way ahead

of Zac Goldsmith. He has already been congratulated by Jeremy Corbyn.

That is the latest from City Hall. I will hatch back to the studio. -- I

will hand you back to the studio. In other news - the government has

announced a major climbdown