Results - Part 1

:00:25. > :00:26.Good morning from Westminster, and welcome to our live coverage

:00:27. > :00:30.of the local election results in England, Wales and Scotland.

:00:31. > :00:33.At stake is control of dozens of local authorities,

:00:34. > :00:38.providing essential local services to millions of people.

:00:39. > :00:41.It's a very important exercise in local democracy,

:00:42. > :00:43.but it's also a useful insight into the state of public

:00:44. > :00:49.opinion ahead of next month's general election.

:00:50. > :00:52.We'll have coverage of results as they happen, but we already have

:00:53. > :00:58.plenty of news from the counting overnight.

:00:59. > :01:00.It's been a very good night for the Conservatives

:01:01. > :01:03.They've taken control of the councils in Gloucestershire,

:01:04. > :01:06.Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and Monmouthshire.

:01:07. > :01:09.They've also won the West of England Mayoral contest.

:01:10. > :01:13.And it looks at this early stage that they're heading for their best

:01:14. > :01:16.set of local elections for a decade or more.

:01:17. > :01:27.They are losing ground in England as we speak.

:01:28. > :01:28.And in Wales they've lost overall control

:01:29. > :01:30.of Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil, two councils in their

:01:31. > :01:35.Although they have held on to the capital city, Cardiff.

:01:36. > :01:43.And it has been a bad night for Ukip - overnight they lost every

:01:44. > :01:47.And the party has been wiped out on councils like Lincolnshire,

:01:48. > :01:50.Their vote share is down dramatically, most of it going

:01:51. > :01:59.The SNP are trying to take the city council from Labour.

:02:00. > :02:07.The Scottish counting has only just started, so those results are all to

:02:08. > :02:09.come. Labour have had decades of controlling Glasgow City Council.

:02:10. > :02:19.We'll be covering the results from Scotland as they come in.

:02:20. > :02:22.To say the least, there is plenty to talk about!

:02:23. > :02:24.Here in the studio we're joined by our political

:02:25. > :02:36.A very good morning to you all. Take a breath, we will be with you in a

:02:37. > :02:37.moment. But first let's bring

:02:38. > :02:46.you right up to date As I said, lots of results have

:02:47. > :02:51.already come in. We have loads to come. I would like to see the

:02:52. > :02:57.scorecard of councillors, which will change during the day but, so far,

:02:58. > :03:03.this is the picture. The Conservatives have made 155 gains in

:03:04. > :03:04.terms of council seats, Labour 125 losses so far. Independents are

:03:05. > :03:23.about 25. Nothing for the SNP because, as I

:03:24. > :03:24.have said, no Scottish results in yet. They will come in during the

:03:25. > :03:51.late morning and into the afternoon. Early days, plenty to come. We will

:03:52. > :03:58.have reaction from my guests in a moment. Before that we will catch up

:03:59. > :04:01.with the full story of the election so far and the rest of the day's

:04:02. > :04:08.news, let's say good morning to Joanna Gosling. Let's bring you up

:04:09. > :04:11.to date with the results. The Conservatives have made big

:04:12. > :04:14.gains in the council elections in England and Wales,

:04:15. > :04:21.recording their best The Tories have gained control of

:04:22. > :04:25.five counties and Labour have lost three. The Conservatives say the

:04:26. > :04:29.results are encouraging, Labour said it was tough but not the wipe-out

:04:30. > :04:30.predicted by many. Our political corresponding Chris

:04:31. > :04:33.Mason has the story so far. It's been a night of

:04:34. > :04:35.nocturnal arithmetic. Democracy in the small hours,

:04:36. > :04:37.the will of the electorate Rosettes worn proudly but plenty

:04:38. > :04:42.of nervous faces too. Tim Charles Bowles is duly elected

:04:43. > :04:44.as the West of England Here in the West of England

:04:45. > :04:52.the Conservative candidate made history by becoming the regional

:04:53. > :04:58.Mayor. This is what winning

:04:59. > :05:00.and retaining power looked They've won control of Warwickshire,

:05:01. > :05:06.Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire Here in Cumbria the Tories

:05:07. > :05:11.have replaced Labour I think that the national scene has

:05:12. > :05:18.a lot to do with it. I think Theresa May came

:05:19. > :05:22.across on the doorstep really, We've had no negativity towards

:05:23. > :05:29.the Conservative Party at all. I think it bodes extremely well

:05:30. > :05:32.for the general election Clearly Labour nationally is a long

:05:33. > :05:37.way behind in the opinion polls and inevitably the election

:05:38. > :05:40.will reflect that. My own view is that the result

:05:41. > :05:43.in the general election won't be as bad as the polls

:05:44. > :05:47.would currently indicate. I think we will be able

:05:48. > :05:51.to close the gap between now But there was some positive news

:05:52. > :05:56.for Labour when the counting It's in Lincolnshire that this man,

:05:57. > :06:04.Ukip's leader Paul Nuttall, will fight for a Westminster

:06:05. > :06:08.seat next month. But overnight his party was wiped

:06:09. > :06:21.out from the local authority. I don't think people have stopped

:06:22. > :06:25.voting Ukip, I concede we have lost seats today but we have always said

:06:26. > :06:30.we expect this to be a very tough election for Ukip, we have said it

:06:31. > :06:35.for several years. The Liberal Democrats acknowledge it has been a

:06:36. > :06:41.mixed set of results for them. That is fair, we have held ground, unlike

:06:42. > :06:45.Labour, which has collapsed, and Ukip, which has virtually

:06:46. > :06:54.disappeared. In areas where we hope to win back MPs in the general

:06:55. > :06:56.election, like Cheltenham, Eastleigh and Wells, we have done

:06:57. > :06:58.exceptionally well. The Green Party says that with the Conservatives

:06:59. > :07:03.dominant, other parties need to collaborate. There is a strong

:07:04. > :07:06.message that people want the more progressive parties to work together

:07:07. > :07:11.rather than against each other, it is clear that when we stand against

:07:12. > :07:16.one another we lose ground and the Conservatives gain. Back to the

:07:17. > :07:18.coating for now, still plenty of that to be done. -- back to the

:07:19. > :07:19.counting. The final day of campaigning has

:07:20. > :07:22.begun in the French presidential Polls show that the centrist

:07:23. > :07:25.Emmanuel Macron maintains a clear lead over his Front National

:07:26. > :07:28.opponent Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile Mr Macron has filed

:07:29. > :07:31.a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account

:07:32. > :07:33.in the Caribbean. He has strongly denied

:07:34. > :07:40.the allegations. The Government is set to publish

:07:41. > :07:43.draft plans to tackle air pollution following a legal battle

:07:44. > :07:45.with environmental campaigners. The measures are expected to contain

:07:46. > :07:48.a scrappage scheme for older diesel cars and the removal of speed bumps

:07:49. > :07:51.to cut pollution caused by cars That's a summary of the news -

:07:52. > :08:18.now back to Local Election Welcome back to our election

:08:19. > :08:23.special, we are here all day because there was plenty to talk about,

:08:24. > :08:27.results overnight but lots to come across Scotland, England and Wales.

:08:28. > :08:31.To what extent can we look at these results and then maybe have a

:08:32. > :08:35.clearer picture about what might or might not happen in five weeks at

:08:36. > :08:36.the general election? It is a cautious process.

:08:37. > :08:40.Our political editor Laura Kuenssberg is with us.

:08:41. > :08:46.Your thoughts so far? It is a barometer rather than something

:08:47. > :08:50.directly translates to the general election, but two things stand out.

:08:51. > :08:53.The bottom line is for an opposition party to look anything like

:08:54. > :08:58.realistically heading towards number ten they should be gobbling up seats

:08:59. > :09:03.in local elections that this kind of stage. Labour, in these early is

:09:04. > :09:09.falling back. Part of the reason is the second thing which is extremely

:09:10. > :09:13.striking, a total collapse, so far, in the Ukip votes, losing all the

:09:14. > :09:18.seats in some councils, falling back all over the place. It seems that so

:09:19. > :09:22.far what the Tories hoped for and what they hope will happen in spades

:09:23. > :09:27.in the general election is that many Ukip voters, there will be more all

:09:28. > :09:33.is a straight switch that Brexit, the vote last year has more or less

:09:34. > :09:37.removed Ukip's reason for being. A thought about the kind of things we

:09:38. > :09:41.will be looking out for in the coming hours? We will be on air this

:09:42. > :09:46.morning and this afternoon, what will be the main signals you are

:09:47. > :09:48.looking for? When we get to mid-afternoon and see the results

:09:49. > :09:57.coming back from councils like Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, those

:09:58. > :10:00.results with marginal seats, where traditionally general elections are

:10:01. > :10:03.decided. Nottinghamshire was held by Labour, if the Tories took

:10:04. > :10:08.significant seats and maybe grab the council from the Labour Party, that

:10:09. > :10:11.is the kind of signal that would suggest we would see that repeated

:10:12. > :10:16.in the general election and therefore that Labour might be in

:10:17. > :10:19.big trouble in the marginals. The West Midlands mayoral contest, for

:10:20. > :10:24.the first time a big political job has been created in Birmingham, that

:10:25. > :10:28.has been a very fierce fight between Labour and the Tory party. That

:10:29. > :10:34.matters not just because it is a big, new important job, but because

:10:35. > :10:39.voters live in marginal seats in the Midlands that, again, play into the

:10:40. > :10:43.eventual general election results. Lots of things will happen through

:10:44. > :10:47.the day, it will be fascinating to see of the Tories make significant

:10:48. > :10:52.inroads in Scottish councils, do the SNP hold-up? But the big picture,

:10:53. > :10:56.the bottom line is opposition parties with a realistic chance of

:10:57. > :11:01.gaining power ought to be taking seats, not counting losses.

:11:02. > :11:09.Let's get a quick thought from my three guests. Emily, do you quibble

:11:10. > :11:13.with Laura's take on Labour so far? It is a mixed picture, we have had

:11:14. > :11:18.some good results. Winning the Doncaster Merrell on the first count

:11:19. > :11:21.was good. There are seats like new court where the Prime Minister

:11:22. > :11:26.herself campaigns, where is the Tory surge in Wales we were hearing about

:11:27. > :11:30.so much? There has been a lot of spinning in advance of this, we were

:11:31. > :11:37.told Labour would do extremely badly, it has been a picture so far.

:11:38. > :11:41.Your take? The results are encouraging, there are lots more

:11:42. > :11:45.results to come and we are looking at trying to extrapolate that the

:11:46. > :11:49.June the 8th, there is a long way to go, a much bigger turnout of June

:11:50. > :11:53.Yates and a lot of work to do to make sure we get the votes we want

:11:54. > :11:59.to put Theresa May back into Downing Street. And early thought from you,

:12:00. > :12:03.Suzanne? We have been dealing with headline saying that Ukip is

:12:04. > :12:07.finished for many years. Emily mentioned the Doncaster Merrell

:12:08. > :12:12.elections, we polled over 12% Ukip vote is still quite strong. Our

:12:13. > :12:17.reason for being is on the way, we are on the way out of the EU. After

:12:18. > :12:22.the Brexit process, there is a huge opportunity for us to rebrand, look

:12:23. > :12:26.at policies that are very hard-hitting outside of the EU

:12:27. > :12:30.portfolio, I think it is a great challenge for Ukip to surge ahead in

:12:31. > :12:31.future months. Thank you very much, we will be back with you in a

:12:32. > :12:40.moment. Emily was talking about Wales and

:12:41. > :12:43.the fact there was talk about a big conservative surge in Wales, but we

:12:44. > :12:49.need to look at all of the parties there. Let's look at them and the

:12:50. > :12:51.Welsh context. What has happened so far is that Labour has sustained 73

:12:52. > :12:59.losses so far. The Independents in Wales

:13:00. > :13:11.traditionally do very well in lots of the Ryu areas. -- rural areas.

:13:12. > :13:19.Not all the Welsh results are in. I will show you one specific result,

:13:20. > :13:23.Bridgend, where Carwyn Jones operates as a politician, he is the

:13:24. > :13:26.First Minister and this is his backyard, if you like. Labour has

:13:27. > :13:39.lost overall control of Bridgend. If you look at the difference you

:13:40. > :13:52.will see the Conservative surge in Bridgend. The Prime Minister was

:13:53. > :13:56.campaigning quite recently. My colleague Tomos Morgan is in

:13:57. > :14:02.Cardiff. Tellers where Labour isn't what you think of the other parties'

:14:03. > :14:11.performances. The Garbutt started off very difficultly, they lost

:14:12. > :14:20.Bridgend early on, they lost the leader in Merthyr Tydfil, but then

:14:21. > :14:26.it's picked up. They held onto Cardiff, the largest council in

:14:27. > :14:29.Wales. It has strengthened what can be a difficult night. They were

:14:30. > :14:32.under attack from the west of Cardiff from Plaid Cymru, from the

:14:33. > :14:37.north of Cardiff from the tourism from the central from the Lib Dems.

:14:38. > :14:42.Plaid Cymru realise they had not done as well as expected early in

:14:43. > :14:46.the camps, that has maybe been reflected in how it has been turned

:14:47. > :14:49.out in the rest of Wales, they have made some gains but not as

:14:50. > :14:53.significant as they would have liked. The Tories made a slight gain

:14:54. > :14:57.in the north, not as significant as they would have liked. The Tories

:14:58. > :15:03.have taken Monmouthshire and made gains in the Vale of Glamorgan, they

:15:04. > :15:07.now have the most amount of seats in Glamorgan, taken over from Labour,

:15:08. > :15:11.although there is no overall control. You mentioned that

:15:12. > :15:16.independents play a big part in Wales. In Wrexham, they held onto

:15:17. > :15:21.having the most number of seats in Wrexham after ten Labour councillors

:15:22. > :15:27.in 2015 switched allegiance to being independent. Holding on in Wrexham.

:15:28. > :15:31.Bridgend is the most interesting story in that the Conservatives

:15:32. > :15:36.going from one seat to 11, that'll be the target for Theresa May and

:15:37. > :15:43.the main target when the general election comes. A mixed night for

:15:44. > :15:46.Labour, disappointment for the Lib Dems losing seats, reasonable

:15:47. > :15:50.happiness from Plaid Cymru. I think they expected a few more but there

:15:51. > :15:56.is Rhondda later to come in the counter. Ukip doing nothing here,

:15:57. > :16:05.emulating how they did across England. Thank you, Tomos Morgan.

:16:06. > :16:11.Some interesting patterns to pick up on as we go through the morning. I

:16:12. > :16:15.want to look at the performances in the English counties. Why don't we

:16:16. > :16:20.pick Lincolnshire? That is a good example of relative strength, Ukip

:16:21. > :16:25.Tidwell there in 2013 and the Conservatives have now gained

:16:26. > :16:30.control from no overall control. 58 seats in Lincolnshire for the

:16:31. > :16:35.Tories, Labour on six, Independents on five, Lib Dems on one. What does

:16:36. > :16:43.that tell us if we look at 2013, looking at the difference between

:16:44. > :16:47.today and 2013. 23 games for the Conservatives, 13 losses for Ukip.

:16:48. > :16:53.This was a county which was part of the great Ukip surge of 2013. I

:16:54. > :16:57.should make the point that 2013 was an exceptionally strong year for

:16:58. > :17:02.Ukip, it is when they burst onto the scene, so it is a high watermark

:17:03. > :17:06.that we are comparing with. 13 losses there food Ukip in

:17:07. > :17:10.Lincolnshire. I would like to talk to Tim Iredale in Lincoln. Talk us

:17:11. > :17:16.through the results and what you read into them.

:17:17. > :17:19.The Conservatives were always confident of gaining control of

:17:20. > :17:24.Lincolnshire but they have done so with what amounts to a local

:17:25. > :17:29.landslide, securing 58 out of 70 seats available. You mention the

:17:30. > :17:34.last county council election here in 2013. Then, the Tories were forced

:17:35. > :17:39.into a minority administration, largely because of the success of

:17:40. > :17:46.Ukip. Four years ago Ukip 116 seats here, a mixture of defections and

:17:47. > :17:51.some leaving the party, said they came into these elections with nine

:17:52. > :17:55.councillors. Ukip have been wiped out here in Lincolnshire, they have

:17:56. > :18:02.no county council seats in this county. To put it into perspective,

:18:03. > :18:07.this, Lincolnshire, is the most Eurosceptic county in the country.

:18:08. > :18:09.In last year's EU referendum it for some of the highest percentage of

:18:10. > :18:15.votes in favour of leaving the European Union. It will be where

:18:16. > :18:18.Paul Nuttall stands in the general election, in the constituency of

:18:19. > :18:23.Boston and Skegness down the road from here. I am sure he will be very

:18:24. > :18:27.disappointed man this morning, he may not admit it but to use the buzz

:18:28. > :18:31.phrase, a mixed picture, I don't think you can say that, they have

:18:32. > :18:36.been wiped out in Lincolnshire. Just a thought before I let you go,

:18:37. > :18:42.how we can translate local issues and project forward five weeks,

:18:43. > :18:45.because it has to be cautious process, but to what extent would

:18:46. > :18:51.you characterise this election as a very, very local one, or is it one

:18:52. > :18:57.you think was informed in many cases by national issues?

:18:58. > :19:05.Ukip are going out onto the doorstep today, they were not really talking

:19:06. > :19:09.about the big local issues, they were claiming that a vote for the

:19:10. > :19:12.Conservatives would see the Government backsliding, to use their

:19:13. > :19:17.favourite phrase, hard Brexit, so they were going completely gung ho

:19:18. > :19:20.for the Brexit vote is here in Lincolnshire. The same with the

:19:21. > :19:24.Conservatives, all belief that I have seen have had Theresa made 's

:19:25. > :19:30.picture on. It feels like a warm up act for the main event in just under

:19:31. > :19:33.five weeks' time, the joke going around Lincolnshire County Council

:19:34. > :19:48.today with the Conservatives is that the Tories have eaten the Kupers for

:19:49. > :19:56.breakfast. -- the Kippers. If it is about rebranding, what do

:19:57. > :20:00.you put this performance down to? It is a national agenda, that is the

:20:01. > :20:05.issue. It is a great shame because local Government is very different

:20:06. > :20:07.to national Government. I have been a local councillor myself, a

:20:08. > :20:12.different set of responsibilities and local level and the Tories might

:20:13. > :20:15.not be the best at running, our councillors in Lincolnshire have

:20:16. > :20:18.been very hard working but we all know that does not necessarily

:20:19. > :20:22.translate into votes when you have a situation like this nationally. It

:20:23. > :20:27.is interesting, we heard there that every single local election leaflet

:20:28. > :20:31.had Theresa May's face on it. I have to say I think the way the

:20:32. > :20:33.Conservatives have gone into this general election, ripping up the

:20:34. > :20:39.Fixed Term Parliaments Act, what was the point of that? Theresa may may

:20:40. > :20:45.have looked down the camera lens on several occasions and said, I am not

:20:46. > :20:48.going to call a snap election, the speed at which they have got these

:20:49. > :20:52.things out, that is not true, they have been planning this for months

:20:53. > :20:55.and have had a head start on the other parties. I am not going to

:20:56. > :21:00.play foul, we all know the Tories will take every opportunity they can

:21:01. > :21:06.to win elections, that is in a sense what politics is all about. But it

:21:07. > :21:10.is a great shame. We are going to see potentially a Tory landslide on

:21:11. > :21:14.June the 8th, we are going to possibly see the beginnings of a

:21:15. > :21:18.1-party state. That is not going to be good for the people of this

:21:19. > :21:22.country, ultimately. I know you both want to answer that, Emily and

:21:23. > :21:28.Brandon, but I want to bring Jim Professor John Curtice, who is

:21:29. > :21:31.joining us now, our resident Guru. Nice too with us. Can we have some

:21:32. > :21:35.headline thoughts? We heard Suzanne there with the Ukip angle on this

:21:36. > :21:40.but can we have your judgment on how the parties have done so far? The

:21:41. > :21:44.truth is there isn't much joy for Ukip, though I think perhaps we

:21:45. > :21:48.should say it is not a case of Ukip disappearing entirely, there are

:21:49. > :21:52.plenty of wards where they can still get five, six, 7% of the vote. The

:21:53. > :21:57.trouble is in a lot of these wards four years ago there were getting

:21:58. > :22:03.20, 25, 30% of the vote. They have gone back to being one of

:22:04. > :22:06.Britain's's small parties, rather than being the challenge to English

:22:07. > :22:11.party politics that we had seen, the biggest in post-war Britain. There

:22:12. > :22:16.are some signs of recovery, the vote seems to be up three points, the

:22:17. > :22:20.truth however it is still not a performance of the scale that we got

:22:21. > :22:24.used to with the Liberal Democrats before they joined the coalition

:22:25. > :22:30.with the Conservatives, getting 20% of the vote in local elections even

:22:31. > :22:34.in difficult years. But still some progress, some encouragement, but

:22:35. > :22:38.still far too early to talk about a significant Liberal Democrats

:22:39. > :22:43.revival from the no theatre which they fell during the coalition. But

:22:44. > :22:48.the big story is Conservative and Labour. A pretty bad night for

:22:49. > :22:52.Labour. Just a couple of glimmers of hope, hanging onto Cardiff, which we

:22:53. > :22:58.were not necessarily expecting, hanging on to Newport as well, which

:22:59. > :23:00.is a good result. And riding the Conservatives much closer in the

:23:01. > :23:05.West of England Merrill election than we might have anticipated. It

:23:06. > :23:07.is those results and one or two others that mean, yes, the

:23:08. > :23:29.Conservatives have done well, no doubt they have done. Is the spring

:23:30. > :23:32.really to the Conservatives of the scale we might expect in the opinion

:23:33. > :23:34.polls or is it a bit shorter? Why does that matter? Mrs May wants to

:23:35. > :23:37.get a bigger overall majority, and she needs a big double-digit lead

:23:38. > :23:40.and at the moment I'm not sure what we might be saying later on about

:23:41. > :23:42.how big her lead is. Very early results from Staffordshire this

:23:43. > :23:44.morning are good for the Conservatives so maybe the numbers

:23:45. > :23:49.will pick up in their favour. Let's have a look at the figures we were

:23:50. > :23:59.sharing again, these are changes since 2013 in keyboards. Keyboard

:24:00. > :24:04.share changes, 13% up for the Tories, 14% down for Ukip, Lib Dems

:24:05. > :24:11.up 2%, Labour down three, greens up one. Back in 2013, Ukip Tidwell, the

:24:12. > :24:17.equivalent of 22, 20 3% in general elections, that is why they can fall

:24:18. > :24:21.so far. As a result, neither the Conservatives nor Labour did very

:24:22. > :24:26.well in 2013 so the big increase of the Conservative vote is from a low

:24:27. > :24:31.baseline and a much lower baseline than they got in the general

:24:32. > :24:38.election. Conversely, however, Labour doing badly in 2013 and their

:24:39. > :24:42.vote even lower tells the tale of how, whatever doubts we have about

:24:43. > :24:46.how good the Conservatives are, the Labour Party not showing much sign

:24:47. > :24:52.of posing a significant challenge to the Conservatives and the opinion

:24:53. > :24:56.polls showing the party is a long, long way from being able,

:24:57. > :24:59.apparently, to being a contender -- credible contender for power in this

:25:00. > :25:03.election, broadly confirmed by the evidence of those figures you have

:25:04. > :25:09.shown. I don't want to get bogged down into much detail but we are

:25:10. > :25:13.showing share changes since 2013, if viewers are wondering why we are not

:25:14. > :25:19.comparing with 2015, what would you say to them? In England, at least,

:25:20. > :25:24.the elections that were held yesterday were four seats that were

:25:25. > :25:28.last fought in 2013 so what we are trying to do is explain, the

:25:29. > :25:32.Conservatives getting more seeds, Labour getting fewer, we are showing

:25:33. > :25:37.how the pattern of voting compared with local elections in 2013 looks.

:25:38. > :25:41.Of course, as you have gathered, during the course of the day we will

:25:42. > :25:46.also be giving you insight into perhaps what does this mean, for the

:25:47. > :25:50.general election, but initially we are being faithful to the fact these

:25:51. > :25:54.are local elections, lots of others have taken place in the last 20 or

:25:55. > :25:59.30 years, we are getting an idea how good or bad these results are for

:26:00. > :26:03.the parties. A few markers, maybe the best results for the

:26:04. > :26:06.Conservatives but ten years, maybe 25, so definitely a good set of

:26:07. > :26:10.local election performances by the standard of local elections, and for

:26:11. > :26:15.Labour is probably their worst since they lost power at Westminster in

:26:16. > :26:19.2010. Don't go too far, John, we will be back!

:26:20. > :26:22.Professor John Curtice there, with us throughout the day crunching the

:26:23. > :26:27.numbers. A quick comment from Brandon and Emily at this point,

:26:28. > :26:32.picking up from what John said. I thought about the extent to which

:26:33. > :26:37.you are confidently saying, Brandon, that yesterday, today makes you

:26:38. > :26:42.rather more bullish about what might happen on June the 8th? I refer back

:26:43. > :26:46.to what I said when we first started speaking a few minutes ago, these

:26:47. > :26:51.are encouraging but different to a general election, is very different

:26:52. > :26:54.turnout and I disagree with something Suzanne said, our

:26:55. > :26:57.councillors and candidates have been campaigning for local elections for

:26:58. > :27:01.many, many months on local issues, it is only the last couple of weeks

:27:02. > :27:05.we have been into the start of a general election so I credit the

:27:06. > :27:09.voters to know that yesterday they were voting for local Government and

:27:10. > :27:14.it is normal in local elections to have the leader of your party on

:27:15. > :27:18.your leaflet, it always has been for the Conservative Party. Emily? I

:27:19. > :27:20.would like to say something about the way the Conservatives are

:27:21. > :27:25.hunting down Ukip voters, it says something about the way Theresa May

:27:26. > :27:28.has been behaving lately. When she came back from visiting the Queen

:27:29. > :27:33.and stood on the steps of 10 Downing Street and came out with the most

:27:34. > :27:37.extraordinarily Paranoid statement about Europeans conspiring against

:27:38. > :27:44.our country and needing to stand up and fight, I think it was either a

:27:45. > :27:48.cynical ploy for Ukip votes and believing it is to the

:27:49. > :27:51.Conservative's advantage to become old Tory Eurosceptic in that way.

:27:52. > :27:55.What it might mean for this country if the Tories were elected on the

:27:56. > :28:01.back of such votes, it either means that she is doing it on purpose in

:28:02. > :28:05.order to try to get those votes, or potentially we have a Prime Minister

:28:06. > :28:10.who is as paranoid as she is, so we have a choice, she is either

:28:11. > :28:13.paranoid or extremely cynical. Probably the better interpretation

:28:14. > :28:16.is that she is extremely cynical but it is worrying, the way in which our

:28:17. > :28:22.country might be governed when it comes to dealing with Brexit in the

:28:23. > :28:26.future. Would today's results so far suggests she is rather more in touch

:28:27. > :28:30.with public opinion than you are? I think it is very easy when people

:28:31. > :28:34.are worried to whip up that worry and say, we can stand firm and fight

:28:35. > :28:38.against Europeans. But I think that is not the way to go into

:28:39. > :28:41.negotiations and it is not the way for a responsible politician to

:28:42. > :28:46.behave, because once you have said those things, you cannot take them

:28:47. > :28:49.back and she is on record saying the most extraordinary things and if she

:28:50. > :28:53.wants to be re-elected, which we hope she won't be, but if she is to

:28:54. > :28:58.be re-elected, what does that mean? We are trying to re-establish a

:28:59. > :29:02.relationship with the Europeans and the only way to get a strong Brexit

:29:03. > :29:06.is to get one that works for Britain and it has to be agreed by the

:29:07. > :29:11.Europeans. Has that stance damage Labour? We will see, we have five

:29:12. > :29:15.weeks. It is important that we go out and argue what I have just said,

:29:16. > :29:19.that a strong Brexit is a deal that works and does not mean alienating

:29:20. > :29:24.our European allies. We have to treat them as friends and we must

:29:25. > :29:27.not be treading down, occupying Ukip territory because, with respect, I

:29:28. > :29:30.don't think it is our country any good and for the Conservatives to

:29:31. > :29:35.shift into Ukip territory in that way to get votes is very worrying.

:29:36. > :29:40.Laura? The problem for the Labour Party,

:29:41. > :29:44.many parts of the country that they had seen as traditional Labour

:29:45. > :29:48.territory, they were also appealing areas for Ukip, so there will be

:29:49. > :29:52.seats that had been held by Labour, 71 of them, where the size of the

:29:53. > :29:56.Labour majority was smaller than the number of Ukip votes, so Ukip have

:29:57. > :30:00.not just been about taking voters from the Tories but also in the last

:30:01. > :30:11.few years been taking votes from the Labour Party. What I would say, as

:30:12. > :30:13.we discussed on Wednesday night, after Theresa May's statement in

:30:14. > :30:16.Downing Street, Tory sources behind the scenes were saying, of course

:30:17. > :30:18.part of the reasoning behind the statement, not all of it because

:30:19. > :30:21.there was genuine irritation in Government of what was coming out

:30:22. > :30:24.from Brussels, but part of the calculation was they are aware they

:30:25. > :30:28.were 4 million voters for Ukip at the last election and they want

:30:29. > :30:31.them. The point is that you can talk to people and say to them what is in

:30:32. > :30:35.the interest of the country and how that works. Of course, Labour wants

:30:36. > :30:39.the best possible deal for Britain as a whole, it is just a question of

:30:40. > :30:46.how you do it, the language you use and what you are saying. We can

:30:47. > :30:48.stand up for Britain better, we would say, than the Conservative

:30:49. > :30:53.hard Brexit trying to climb into the Ukip vote.

:30:54. > :31:00.What Theresa May said the other night was absolutely clear.

:31:01. > :31:04.Bureaucrats from Brussels have leaked things from their side, not

:31:05. > :31:08.ours. She wants the right deal for the United Kingdom. I think it was a

:31:09. > :31:13.very clear statement to people across the country, whether they

:31:14. > :31:16.voted Remain or Leave, it is in all of our interests to get a deal that

:31:17. > :31:20.is good for the United Kingdom and she will stand in for Great Britain.

:31:21. > :31:25.That is what I want is a Prime Minister. She has said we will stay

:31:26. > :31:37.in the Europe Ian Court of Human Rights, we are abandoning targets

:31:38. > :31:40.for net migration. If she is to get the Brexit that people voted for, we

:31:41. > :31:43.have to keep pushing for that, I don't see much sign at the moment. I

:31:44. > :31:46.have spoken to other Labour MPs, Emily, it is not just the Ukip vote

:31:47. > :31:49.moving to the Conservatives, but the Tories, for the same reason. Labour

:31:50. > :31:54.has completely abandoned people in its heartlands. The issues Ukip has

:31:55. > :31:59.talked about are resonating. Let's pause, a very quick word from Laura

:32:00. > :32:03.before the news. The referendum boat through all the pieces in the air,

:32:04. > :32:08.this is part of the settling down and it is shaping up to be quite a

:32:09. > :32:09.different map. I promise we will pick up on some of those points when

:32:10. > :32:12.we are back. It is 9:30am. Now the rest of the day's news

:32:13. > :32:15.with Joanna Gosling. The Conservatives have made big

:32:16. > :32:19.gains in the council elections in England and Wales,

:32:20. > :32:21.recording their best Many of the votes cast

:32:22. > :32:24.yesterday across England, Scotland and Wales are still to be

:32:25. > :32:27.counted, but Labour have suffered losses and Ukip have so far failed

:32:28. > :32:31.to win a single seat. The Conservatives have been

:32:32. > :32:33.celebrating a series Initial results show the Tories

:32:34. > :32:38.taking control of five local councils and winning more council

:32:39. > :32:44.seats than any other party. The Tories also celebrated victory

:32:45. > :32:47.in the West of England. The Conservative Tim Bowles was also

:32:48. > :32:49.elected to the newly created position of West of England Mayor

:32:50. > :32:53.was also victorious. However, senior members

:32:54. > :32:55.of the Conservative Party appeared to downplay the victory,

:32:56. > :33:11.suggesting that there were still I think the early results are

:33:12. > :33:16.encouraging, but they are early results. We have seen less than a

:33:17. > :33:20.quarter of the vote actually counted and reported. The turnout in local

:33:21. > :33:26.elections, of course, is much, much lower than in a general election. It

:33:27. > :33:30.is wrong to predict what will happen on June Yates. We still have a

:33:31. > :33:32.general election to campaign for and to win after last night, but

:33:33. > :33:33.encouraging signs. Elsewhere Labour have

:33:34. > :33:35.lost three councils, Despite the losses in Wales,

:33:36. > :33:38.Labour did hold onto The party was also victorious

:33:39. > :33:41.in Doncaster, where its candidate Ros Jones, the Labour mayor

:33:42. > :33:44.was re-elected after getting Labour has defended

:33:45. > :33:49.its performance so far. The Party's Shadow Chancellor,

:33:50. > :33:51.John McDonnell, told people to wait for results elsewhere to come

:33:52. > :33:53.in before judging the It's been a disappointing

:33:54. > :34:00.night for Ukip. The Party failed to win any

:34:01. > :34:03.of the seats it contested - losing 39 previously

:34:04. > :34:05.held council seats. Ukip points out that it still has

:34:06. > :34:08.sitting councillors in the country, although those positions were not up

:34:09. > :34:14.for election this time. The Lib Dems have

:34:15. > :34:15.seen mixed results. A short time ago the Party had

:34:16. > :34:20.lost 28 council seats. The Party also failed

:34:21. > :34:22.to retake Somerset Council from the Conservatives,

:34:23. > :34:23.although leader John Osman was ousted by Lib Dem

:34:24. > :34:31.former MP Tessa Munt. The final day of campaigning has

:34:32. > :34:34.begun in the French presidential election before voting

:34:35. > :34:36.takes place on Sunday. Polls show that the centrist

:34:37. > :34:39.Emmanuel Macron maintains a clear lead over his Front National

:34:40. > :34:43.opponent Marine Le Pen. Our correspondent Karin

:34:44. > :34:46.Giannone is in Paris. What reaction has there been

:34:47. > :34:59.as we enter the final Welcome to a busy Friday in the

:35:00. > :35:04.centre of Paris, it is anything but normal because we are into the final

:35:05. > :35:08.hours of the 2017 presidential election campaign. Come midnight

:35:09. > :35:13.French time, the candidates must fall silent and campaigning will be

:35:14. > :35:19.over before the vote on Sunday. It has been an incredible campaign so

:35:20. > :35:23.far, extraordinary particularly bad tempered. The final debate on

:35:24. > :35:28.Wednesday was one of the most heated that a French presidential election

:35:29. > :35:35.has ever seen. It has not done Marine Le Pen any favours, Emmanuel

:35:36. > :35:39.Macron has increased his lead to 62% against her 38%. Let me give you a

:35:40. > :35:43.flavour of what the papers are making up the campaign going into

:35:44. > :35:48.the final day. The financial newspaper talks about Macron Le Pen,

:35:49. > :35:51.a battle against extremism, it says that a Emmanuel Macron is the

:35:52. > :35:56.favourite going into the second round. They call it an

:35:57. > :36:01.extraordinary, unprecedented election campaign. Le Figaro calls

:36:02. > :36:06.Marine Le Pen's campaign a shipwreck. They talk about Macron

:36:07. > :36:09.B arch favourite. Marine Le Pen always says that the mainstream

:36:10. > :36:14.media are against, this would be typical of their stands, they call

:36:15. > :36:22.her The Big Loser of the televised debate. Le Monde, Marine Le Pen

:36:23. > :36:28.talks about the strategy of the lie. Inside Le Monde they have 19 facts

:36:29. > :36:31.that they say Marine Le Pen said in the presidential debates, they have

:36:32. > :36:39.dissected them, fact check them, they say she was lying in all 19

:36:40. > :36:42.cases. Let's show you this left-wing paper, that is Jean-Marie Le Pen,

:36:43. > :36:48.Marine Le Pen's father and the friends of the National front in

:36:49. > :36:52.France, they say she has not changed, reinforcing what Marine Le

:36:53. > :36:57.Pen has always wanted to move on, into a future image. They say it is

:36:58. > :37:03.still effectively the same Le Pen. It is not a dead cert Macron, 20% of

:37:04. > :37:08.French voters are undecided so there is plenty to play for. Thank you.

:37:09. > :37:11.The Government is set to publish draft plans to tackle air pollution

:37:12. > :37:13.following a legal battle with environmental campaigners.

:37:14. > :37:15.The measures are expected to include a scheme to encourage

:37:16. > :37:19.drivers of older diesels to scrap their cars.

:37:20. > :37:23.And also the removal of speed bumps to cut pollution caused by braking

:37:24. > :37:25.and acceleration. A British man has died

:37:26. > :37:27.while skydiving in Thailand. It happened in the Thai

:37:28. > :37:29.resort town of Pattaya. The 69-year-old man -

:37:30. > :37:31.an experienced skydiver - leapt from a plane and landed

:37:32. > :37:34.in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip

:37:35. > :37:41.at the Thai Sky Adventures airbase. His name was James McConnell. His

:37:42. > :37:43.son has posted a message on social media saying fly free, my hero.

:37:44. > :37:46.That's a summary of the news - now back to Local Election

:37:47. > :38:06.Welcome back to our day of live coverage of the local election

:38:07. > :38:12.results in Scotland, England and Wales. In the studio we have our

:38:13. > :38:15.political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Emily Thornberry of Labour, Brandon

:38:16. > :38:20.Lewis of the Conservatives and Suzanne Evans of Ukip. Thank you for

:38:21. > :38:23.still being with us. If you have just joined us I would like to

:38:24. > :38:25.remind you of what is going on. We are lots of results in, but lots

:38:26. > :38:31.to come. This is England and Wales, no

:38:32. > :38:54.results from Scotland yet. That is the picture across England

:38:55. > :39:14.and Wales, let's look more specifically at Wales in a second.

:39:15. > :39:22.Can I just stress, again, very early days. We will talk to Labour's

:39:23. > :39:27.Stephen Kinnock in Cardiff. Good morning, Stephen. We were talking

:39:28. > :39:32.earlier about a rather mixed picture, Labour in England suffering

:39:33. > :39:36.some pretty heavy losses. In Wales, holding onto Cardiff, Newport and

:39:37. > :39:40.Swansea, very big results, clearly, but how would you characterise the

:39:41. > :39:45.overall picture? I would agree with your word, mixed.

:39:46. > :39:51.I think there is a contrast between England and Wales. In Wales it is

:39:52. > :39:56.great to see we have held onto Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, in

:39:57. > :40:01.England, I don't think we can sugar-coat the pill, it is pretty

:40:02. > :40:05.disastrous. It is simply not good enough for a party that has been an

:40:06. > :40:12.opposition for seven years, heading towards a general election in five

:40:13. > :40:17.weeks, to not be picking up sensible results are not making progress. The

:40:18. > :40:21.explanation is that it Wales they have had strong Labour leadership, a

:40:22. > :40:28.fantastic First Minister in Carwyn and Labour cancels delivering public

:40:29. > :40:31.services that people want to see. I think there is a pretty clear

:40:32. > :40:35.distinction and what we need to do is recognise there is a mountain to

:40:36. > :40:40.climb over the next five weeks, and it is time we started climbing it.

:40:41. > :40:44.You have been very critical in the past the leadership of the party in

:40:45. > :40:49.terms of Jeremy Corbyn, I wonder to what extent you are pinning the

:40:50. > :40:56.performance in England on that leadership, or rather more local

:40:57. > :41:00.issues? Which is it? We can't just put a spin on this, the fact of the

:41:01. > :41:06.matter is that Jeremy's leadership comes up on the doorstep on a very

:41:07. > :41:10.regular basis. We had to make this election about more than leadership,

:41:11. > :41:16.we had to make it about the future of the country, the referendum has

:41:17. > :41:22.shown what a divided country we are and we have a deeply divisive Tory

:41:23. > :41:26.leadership, a deeply divisive campaign from Theresa May, she is

:41:27. > :41:31.losing friends and alienating people every time she engages with the

:41:32. > :41:36.European Union. We have to make this bigger and make it clear to people

:41:37. > :41:41.that it is about the future of our democracy. Theresa May wants a

:41:42. > :41:45.landslide victory and to create a one-party states, we are saying at a

:41:46. > :41:49.local level in every constituency, don't give the Tories a blank

:41:50. > :41:54.cheque, don't let them turn our country into a European version of

:41:55. > :42:01.the Cayman Islands. We have to have a strong Labour representation in

:42:02. > :42:04.Parliament to hold the Tories in check. Stephen, please stay with us.

:42:05. > :42:07.I have your colleague Emily Thornberry. When you save -- when

:42:08. > :42:14.Stephen says pretty disastrous and not good enough, that is different

:42:15. > :42:18.to your tome, what would you say to him? It is early days and Stephen

:42:19. > :42:23.and I agree it is important to unite, to make sure we take this

:42:24. > :42:26.fight to the Tories with a general election coming up, fight this on

:42:27. > :42:31.issues, on the way in which a different Government could make life

:42:32. > :42:36.different for people. In the end, issues count. It does not matter how

:42:37. > :42:42.Theresa styles her hair, we're not a presidential system. We have

:42:43. > :42:47.representatives at a local level and the Government is a collection of

:42:48. > :42:51.individuals, but most importantly be implemented policies and, as Stephen

:42:52. > :42:55.has said, the biggest challenge will be Brexit. We share a profound

:42:56. > :43:00.concern about what kind of Brexit we're heading for if this Tory

:43:01. > :43:05.Government gets back with a huge majority, particularly if they will

:43:06. > :43:08.be running the election on such a sceptical to Europe basis.

:43:09. > :43:15.If I can take you back to the original quote, he thought that the

:43:16. > :43:20.performance is pretty disastrous so far, can you agree with those words?

:43:21. > :43:25.I think it is too early to say, across the country it is mixed, I

:43:26. > :43:30.would say. Not good enough in terms of looking ahead five weeks hence?

:43:31. > :43:36.We have to work hard to make sure we stick together, we are united, that

:43:37. > :43:42.we remember that the common enemy is the Tory party and Tory Government

:43:43. > :43:46.and we need to make sure our 600,000 members are right on the doorstep

:43:47. > :43:52.arguing about and arguing in a united way and showing we have much

:43:53. > :43:55.more that unites than divides us. Stephen, are you convinced that the

:43:56. > :44:01.leadership is picking up the message you would like it to get?

:44:02. > :44:06.I think we have to learn from the success we have had, certainly, in

:44:07. > :44:09.the cities in Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, which I think is a

:44:10. > :44:15.reflection of the very impressive leadership that Carwyn has shown us

:44:16. > :44:21.in Wales. We have the next five weeks to prove we are picking up

:44:22. > :44:24.those messages and to prove that we are an alternative party of

:44:25. > :44:30.Government, that we have the leadership in place that can present

:44:31. > :44:38.a real picture and a real alternative to this Tory Government.

:44:39. > :44:42.That will be a factor on the doorsteps. We have to absolutely

:44:43. > :44:47.focus on what we are achieving locally, what we have done for the

:44:48. > :44:49.steel industry and at a local level in terms of regenerating our

:44:50. > :44:56.communities and rebuilding the public services in the face of a

:44:57. > :45:01.deeply damaging austerity from the Tories. The other good news from

:45:02. > :45:06.today and yesterday 's selves is the complete falling apart and implosion

:45:07. > :45:10.of Ukip. Very good news. We have seen the back of Ukip, I think that

:45:11. > :45:14.is the end of them as a party, a serious force in British politics.

:45:15. > :45:19.We have to turn our guns on the Tories and start doing the same to

:45:20. > :45:24.them. Paddy Ashdown treated a short time ago the huge progressive voice

:45:25. > :45:27.in the UK is being crucified by the lack of courage and leadership to

:45:28. > :45:31.get our act together, in other words suggesting he would like a

:45:32. > :45:38.Progressive Alliance. Can you briefly give us your response?

:45:39. > :45:44.I think the British people care about four things, work, family,

:45:45. > :45:48.community and country, and the Labour Party is a deeply

:45:49. > :45:52.patriotically, the party that took the United Kingdom into Nato, we

:45:53. > :45:55.were the driving force behind it. We are a party that unite communities

:45:56. > :46:00.and stands up for families and makes your working day a better day, and

:46:01. > :46:05.that is the message, the mainstream message that we have had, and have

:46:06. > :46:17.had since our party was created in 1901. We have got to get back to

:46:18. > :46:20.that mainstream, clear, centrist, patron got a vision for our party

:46:21. > :46:23.and our country and if we can do that there is absolutely no reason

:46:24. > :46:26.why we cannot be an alternative to the party of Government and cannot

:46:27. > :46:29.get a good result on the 8th of June. Your key message was that you

:46:30. > :46:34.have to get back to that region, the message that you are not on that

:46:35. > :46:37.message right now? We are seeing from people on the doorstep that

:46:38. > :46:41.they are worried about the polarisation of politics, they feel

:46:42. > :46:45.there is a shift to the hard left and a shift to the hard right and my

:46:46. > :46:51.vision for the Labour Party is not one where we are anywhere near the

:46:52. > :46:55.hard left, we are a party that is a centrist, patriotically party,

:46:56. > :46:58.stands up for working people, that believes in rebuilding public

:46:59. > :47:08.services and realises that we have got principles but if you want to

:47:09. > :47:11.put those principles into practice you have to win power, and if you

:47:12. > :47:15.are going to win power you have to be in touch with the people of this

:47:16. > :47:17.country. That is what we have to get back to. Labour's Stephen Kinnock,

:47:18. > :47:20.thank you very much. That was interesting, Laura.

:47:21. > :47:24.I would like to ask Emily, Stephen Kinnock clearly thinks that the

:47:25. > :47:28.Labour Party has gone too far to the left and Jeremy Corbyn is a problem

:47:29. > :47:31.on the doorstep? There is nothing in terms of policy that Stephen was

:47:32. > :47:36.talking about that I would disagree with, so I think sometimes we set up

:47:37. > :47:41.straw men for ourselves, when it comes to policies, when it comes to

:47:42. > :47:45.the way in which we can make Britain better, Stephen and I agree. His

:47:46. > :47:53.analysis is clearly that you have gone too far away from the

:47:54. > :47:56.mainstream. He used the phrase, the hard left, worried about Labour

:47:57. > :48:02.being the party of the hard left. Is he wrong? He did say that... Is he

:48:03. > :48:07.wrong about that? It is sometimes a Conservative attack that is put

:48:08. > :48:11.out... It is from one of your own MPs! The point is that although some

:48:12. > :48:15.people may say that, the question is, what policies is it, what is it

:48:16. > :48:19.that Labour stands for that is a hard left policy? If you look at

:48:20. > :48:23.what we stand for, we are certainly a party at the left, a Progressive

:48:24. > :48:25.party, we want the world to move on, our country to move on for the

:48:26. > :48:44.better, and we are a party of hope. But the problem that

:48:45. > :48:46.we have, we all know this, I am not telling you any secrets, is we have

:48:47. > :48:49.not been particularly united in the recent past. One thing that comes up

:48:50. > :48:52.again and again on the doorstep is people said they will not vote for a

:48:53. > :48:54.party that is not united. Stephen Kinnock says that on the doorstep

:48:55. > :48:57.people say they are worried about Jeremy Corbyn, in his word he says

:48:58. > :49:01.it comes up time and time again. Is he wrong about that, do you think he

:49:02. > :49:03.is an asset? I am not saying Jeremy does not come upon the doorstep

:49:04. > :49:06.sometimes but what also comes up is the importance of having a clear,

:49:07. > :49:08.united message. And Stephen and I agree on that, that is what we need

:49:09. > :49:12.to concentrate on. Let's pause for a second because

:49:13. > :49:18.there is a very exciting situation in Northumberland. Let's have a look

:49:19. > :49:24.at Northumberland, is this the final result? Just come in, this was

:49:25. > :49:28.really on a knife edge and it is still a hung council but when we

:49:29. > :49:32.look at this result we see the Conservatives on 33 and Labour on

:49:33. > :49:35.24. Let's have a look at the difference with last time, because

:49:36. > :49:40.what has happened if there has been a bit of a Conservative surge in

:49:41. > :49:44.Northumberland, picking up 12 seats, Labour have dropped eight, the Lib

:49:45. > :49:48.Dems have dropped dead, Independents up four, so not enough for the

:49:49. > :49:51.Conservatives to take control. They had hopes in Northumberland of

:49:52. > :49:57.taking control of the council, they have not done so, they are on 44% of

:49:58. > :50:02.the vote, Labour 27%, if we look at the percentage share of the vote,

:50:03. > :50:08.Independents 12 and Lib Dems on 12. What is the difference with 2013? To

:50:09. > :50:13.underline, the Tories putting on 13% but not enough to take them over the

:50:14. > :50:18.finishing line for overall control, Labour dropping back 9%, Lib Dems

:50:19. > :50:21.dropping back nine, Ukip dropping three in Northumberland.

:50:22. > :50:26.What I would like to do now, because we are looking at some of these key

:50:27. > :50:30.battle grounds, clearly we want to look as well at some of these

:50:31. > :50:35.mayoral contests which is happening. We have not mentioned them yet, they

:50:36. > :50:39.are some of the big political posts that have been invented as part of

:50:40. > :50:43.the devolution strategy of the Conservative Government. The West of

:50:44. > :50:48.England was one of them, we had the West of England result earlier

:50:49. > :50:52.today, let's have a look at it. This was the first preference, to take

:50:53. > :50:56.you through the voting process, this allows people to express preferences

:50:57. > :51:00.on the first preference vote we had Tim Bowles for the Conservatives in

:51:01. > :51:06.first place, Labour in second place, Lib Dems' Stephen Williams in third

:51:07. > :51:10.place. Went through, nobody had the required number of votes necessary

:51:11. > :51:16.to go through straightaway on the first round, as you can see there,

:51:17. > :51:20.27, 22 and 20. We went to a second round, let's have a look at that.

:51:21. > :51:23.There is the result in the West of England, the Lib Dems, by the way,

:51:24. > :51:29.had hoped with Stephen Williams, former Lib Dem MP, to do rather well

:51:30. > :51:33.here but what happened is the Conservatives narrowly won, beating

:51:34. > :51:37.Labour's Lesley Mansell. So Tim Bowles is the first of the big Metro

:51:38. > :51:40.Mayors that we can report on, that is the result in the West of

:51:41. > :51:44.England. There will be several more to come.

:51:45. > :51:49.Now, straight to the Midlands, there is a massive contest happening, in

:51:50. > :51:52.terms of the mayors and important county results as well. Patrick

:51:53. > :51:58.Burns is there for us. Tell us what happened overnight?

:51:59. > :52:03.Well, we had two of our Shire counties counting overnight, most

:52:04. > :52:07.started as no overall control and both now firmly under Conservative

:52:08. > :52:11.controlled. Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. Startling result in

:52:12. > :52:16.Warwickshire, actually, they needed to gain just two extra seats for

:52:17. > :52:23.overall control, they actually gained 12 and the Labour contingent

:52:24. > :52:26.in Warwickshire was halved from 20 to ten. Interest over whether the

:52:27. > :52:29.Liberal Democrats might enjoy something of a Brexit or should I

:52:30. > :52:35.say anti-Brexit bounce, they actually lost one of their seats so

:52:36. > :52:37.not much progress for them. Obviously delighted Conservative

:52:38. > :52:44.council, initially leading a minority administration, and the

:52:45. > :52:47.counsellor says it is a brilliant light, wonderful night, the map of

:52:48. > :52:52.Warwickshire turned blue from top to bottom from left to right. By

:52:53. > :52:57.contrast, thinking of course as you mentioned earlier, Warwickshire has

:52:58. > :53:00.some of those key general election marginal seats, places like

:53:01. > :53:08.Nuneaton, which was a totally marginal seat in 2015. Well, the

:53:09. > :53:11.Labour general election candidate in Nuneaton was actually one of the

:53:12. > :53:15.casualties on the council, he actually lost his seat last night,

:53:16. > :53:20.Phil Johnson, and he put the blame for that very firmly at the door of

:53:21. > :53:25.Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. Also losing their seats were the leader

:53:26. > :53:28.of the former Labour group and indeed the chairman of the local

:53:29. > :53:34.party, so there is no particular gloss to be put on this, it has been

:53:35. > :53:39.a very, very emphatic, bad night for Labour in key electoral area,

:53:40. > :53:43.Warwickshire, with all of those marginal seats, crunching the

:53:44. > :53:45.numbers with the general election in mind.

:53:46. > :53:50.Indeed, Patrick, and while you are with us, tell us, of course we are

:53:51. > :53:54.looking ahead, later today, probably around tea-time, to the result of

:53:55. > :54:00.the West Midlands mayoral contest, that has been a pretty tough fight

:54:01. > :54:04.so tell us what you are looking at at this point?

:54:05. > :54:08.It is a real knife edge, potentially a real thriller. All the suggestions

:54:09. > :54:12.are that it is a very, very close run thing between and Labour

:54:13. > :54:18.candidate, Sion Simon, former Government minister under Gordon

:54:19. > :54:21.Brown, now Labour member of the European Parliament for the West

:54:22. > :54:25.Midlands, and Andy Street, former boss of the John Lewis department

:54:26. > :54:29.store chain, he stood down from that role in order to become the

:54:30. > :54:35.Conservative candidate here. It has been a very close run thing, this

:54:36. > :54:40.contest, and as you say counting is just really in the very early

:54:41. > :54:45.stages. We don't expect anybody to have an overall majority, 50% plus,

:54:46. > :54:49.on the first count, it is almost certainly going to go to second

:54:50. > :54:53.preferences and that obviously does add a certain number of vagaries to

:54:54. > :54:57.the whole process, but I can tell you it is a real knife edge, there

:54:58. > :55:00.is no real confidence I think on either side, nobody has had the

:55:01. > :55:08.temerity to think they have it in the bag, and it is very big job,

:55:09. > :55:13.this it is a major set of political spending powers devolved from

:55:14. > :55:19.Westminster, Whitehall, to head an area through the Black Country,

:55:20. > :55:22.Birmingham, Coventry. I remember the architects of this originally were

:55:23. > :55:27.David Cameron and George Osborne and they said, for the maximum level of

:55:28. > :55:32.devolution to be had in to authorities like that, you need a

:55:33. > :55:36.focal point at the top for accountability, the elected mayor. A

:55:37. > :55:38.controversial figure, and there is a sentiment not just among local

:55:39. > :55:43.councillors but out in the electorate that this is an unwelcome

:55:44. > :55:47.job. In the name of localism the Government has actually insisted on

:55:48. > :55:52.this Mayoral role and we are all set for a thrilling contest with the

:55:53. > :55:55.final result, as you say, maybe late afternoon, tea-time, between 4pm and

:55:56. > :56:02.6pm is my guess. We will see you later, Patrick, but

:56:03. > :56:04.thank you for bringing us up to date in Birmingham.

:56:05. > :56:07.Indeed, some big and important contests there. I must tell you

:56:08. > :56:10.this, we were talking about Northumberland, saying the Tories

:56:11. > :56:15.have not quite managed to take overall control. After two recounts

:56:16. > :56:20.in south Blyth, one of the wards in the council there, the Lib Dems and

:56:21. > :56:25.Conservatives tied at 356 votes each so what happened? The candidates

:56:26. > :56:28.through straws which led to a Lib Dem victory and that is what then

:56:29. > :56:34.denied the Conservatives their overall majority in the county!

:56:35. > :56:39.Brandon, I am sure you will have some thoughts on that! I have

:56:40. > :56:42.experienced, I have to say, in my own county in Great Yarmouth when I

:56:43. > :56:46.was a council leader in Essex I have seen people on the drawing of cards,

:56:47. > :56:50.I have seen straws drawn before, it is a good example of why every vote

:56:51. > :56:57.count that any election, rather than leaving it to cards, every vote

:56:58. > :57:00.counts. Laura? Emily and Suzanne both look like

:57:01. > :57:03.they have their own painful memories of something going so close and

:57:04. > :57:08.going the wrong way for their own party! But about Northumberland,

:57:09. > :57:12.Labour came within an inch of winning outright control in 2013 and

:57:13. > :57:15.yet again we have seen the Tories piling on votes, another early sign

:57:16. > :57:17.that things are very tricky for Labour in parts of England

:57:18. > :57:21.particularly. In a few minutes we will get some

:57:22. > :57:25.Lib Dem reaction to what is going on, we will be talking to Baroness

:57:26. > :57:37.Jenny Randerson from Cardiff, she has been waiting to talk to us, but

:57:38. > :57:40.before we talk to Jenny we will get a full update on the weather first

:57:41. > :57:41.of all, and we will go straight to the BBC Weather Centre and joined

:57:42. > :57:54.the Labour review is there today. The dry spell seems like it is going

:57:55. > :58:00.to go on across most of the country today. Short of rainfall in recent

:58:01. > :58:03.weeks and the news is that this will keep to the French side of the

:58:04. > :58:07.Channel for the most part. For the rest of the day, not a great deal of

:58:08. > :58:11.change from what we have seen of late, the early low cloud lurking

:58:12. > :58:16.offshore for the most part, offshore breeze keeping cool around exposed

:58:17. > :58:21.coast of Scotland. The best of the warm the yet again towards the West,

:58:22. > :58:26.17, 18, possibly 19. Similar prospects across Northern Ireland,

:58:27. > :58:30.Eastern shores that bit cooler. The eastern coast of England, a bit more

:58:31. > :58:33.cloud across East Anglia and the south-east, generally across the

:58:34. > :58:39.southern counties, as has been the way of late. But less of a chance of

:58:40. > :58:43.a shower on the breeze and a greater chance of sunshine. Into the

:58:44. > :58:47.evening, we bring the weather front close by to the Isles of Scilly, the

:58:48. > :58:50.far west Cornwall, down to the Channel Islands and again with clear

:58:51. > :58:54.skies somewhere in the countryside in Scotland could see temperatures a

:58:55. > :58:57.few degrees below zero. But it means a bright start, not a great deal of

:58:58. > :59:01.change across the northern half of Britain but with the French close by

:59:02. > :59:06.to the south there is a chance of rain just getting into part of

:59:07. > :59:09.Cornwall, Devon, towards the Channel Isles, the Isles of Scilly, and

:59:10. > :59:14.there may just be enough cloud ahead of it for there to be the odd spot

:59:15. > :59:17.of rain in mid Wales, the Midlands, onto Lincolnshire, but by the

:59:18. > :59:20.afternoon many of these areas will be dry and the best of the sun

:59:21. > :59:23.shines through the day, the highest temperatures through western

:59:24. > :59:27.Scotland, maybe the western side of Wales, western side of Northern

:59:28. > :59:31.Ireland as well. But the onshore breeze still affecting eastern

:59:32. > :59:35.coasts. The frontal system moves away as the lone trundles off into

:59:36. > :59:38.northern Europe, notice we are cranking some of those isobars

:59:39. > :59:44.towards a northerly so a change of wind direction but not a warm one by

:59:45. > :59:48.any means, said the eastern shores again, nine, ten, 11, 12, still

:59:49. > :59:51.drive for the most part across the British Isles, the best of the

:59:52. > :59:55.sunshine and warmth likely found towards the west and early into next

:59:56. > :59:56.week, staying, for the most part, predominantly dry. Take care,

:59:57. > :00:18.goodbye. Good morning and welcome

:00:19. > :00:21.to viewers on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel

:00:22. > :00:23.for our special live coverage of the local

:00:24. > :00:24.elections in England, Thousands of councillors

:00:25. > :00:28.being elected overnight and today, responsible for delivering your

:00:29. > :00:31.essential public services - and all of this happening, unusually,

:00:32. > :00:38.during a general election campaign. We'll have results as they're

:00:39. > :00:40.declared, and we'll be getting reaction from the parties

:00:41. > :00:48.to what's going on. It's been a very good night

:00:49. > :00:51.for the Conservatives They've taken control

:00:52. > :00:53.of the councils in Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and

:00:54. > :00:57.Monmouthshire. They've also won the West

:00:58. > :00:59.of England Mayoral contest. And it looks - at this early stage

:01:00. > :01:02.that they're heading for their best set of local elections

:01:03. > :01:17.for a decade or more. A disappointing night the Labour,

:01:18. > :01:18.some people say it's disastrous, if you are listening to Stephen

:01:19. > :01:19.Kinnock. And in Wales they've

:01:20. > :01:22.lost overall control of Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil,

:01:23. > :01:24.two councils in their Although they have held

:01:25. > :01:28.on to the capital city, Cardiff. Alongside the other key strongholds,

:01:29. > :01:37.Swansea and Newport. And it has been a pretty

:01:38. > :01:39.bad night for Ukip. And the party has been wiped out

:01:40. > :01:44.on councils like Lincolnshire, Their vote share is down

:01:45. > :01:47.dramatically, most of it The SNP are trying to take

:01:48. > :01:58.the City Council from Labour. That is after decades of Labour

:01:59. > :02:00.rule. Lots of other Scottish results coming in, that should be later this

:02:01. > :02:06.morning and this afternoon. In a moment we'll have more

:02:07. > :02:09.from our politicial guests - Labour's Emily Thornberry,

:02:10. > :02:19.the Shadow Foreign Secretary, And we're now joined

:02:20. > :02:27.by Councillor Peter Reeve from Ukip. And we'll get some more analysis

:02:28. > :02:30.of what these results all mean from our political editor,

:02:31. > :02:31.Laura Kuennsberg. We will be talking to Professor John

:02:32. > :02:33.Curtice as well. But first let's bring you right up

:02:34. > :02:47.to date with the results so far. We will have another surge of

:02:48. > :03:10.results later this morning and into the afternoon.

:03:11. > :03:18.That is the scorecard of National councillors. We will pick up on some

:03:19. > :03:23.of that and talk to some of our guests. We will have more results

:03:24. > :03:27.coming in and we will go head to some of the big results, including

:03:28. > :03:28.some of the big mayoral contests, for example Manchester and the West

:03:29. > :03:29.Midlands. And with all that in mind,

:03:30. > :03:32.let's join Joanna Gosling with a full round up of what's been

:03:33. > :03:34.happening where in these elections. And of course there is other news

:03:35. > :03:37.going on as well. The Conservatives have made

:03:38. > :03:41.big gains in the local elections with Labour

:03:42. > :03:43.and Ukip suffering loses. Many votes are still to be counted,

:03:44. > :03:46.but so far the Tories have gained control of five counties and Labour

:03:47. > :03:49.have lost three. The Conservatives have said

:03:50. > :03:50.the results were encouraging, Labour said it had been

:03:51. > :03:53.tough but not the wipeout With the story so far,

:03:54. > :04:06.here's our political Rosettes worn proudly, better

:04:07. > :04:10.overnight nervous faces, too. Already it is clear that the biggest

:04:11. > :04:17.wins so far are for the Conservatives. Charles Bowles as

:04:18. > :04:24.Julia elected as the West of England Manor. The Tory candidate made

:04:25. > :04:28.history by becoming the regional mayor.

:04:29. > :04:34.This is what winning and retailing power looked and sounded like for

:04:35. > :04:37.the party in Essex, they have won control of Warwickshire,

:04:38. > :04:40.Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and the Isle of Wight.

:04:41. > :04:45.In Cumbria the Tories have replaced Labour is the largest party, but

:04:46. > :04:49.senior Conservatives are playing down expectations.

:04:50. > :04:53.The turnout in local elections, of course, is much, much lower than a

:04:54. > :04:58.general election. It is wrong to protect what will happen on June the

:04:59. > :05:09.8th, we have a general election to campaign for and to win after last

:05:10. > :05:11.night, but encouraging signs. There was some positive news for

:05:12. > :05:14.Labour. In Doncaster they held onto the elected mayor's job, but the

:05:15. > :05:17.party has lost scores of seats in swing areas.

:05:18. > :05:22.These counties are the Tories' strongholds. It was going to be a

:05:23. > :05:26.tough night for Labour, and we're in the middle of the general election

:05:27. > :05:30.campaign. Mixed motives, people voting largely on local issues, not

:05:31. > :05:34.national ones. But what is coming across is that where people

:05:35. > :05:38.predicted we would be wiped out, in places like Wales, we have done very

:05:39. > :05:44.well. In Lincolnshire, the Ukip leader

:05:45. > :05:47.Paul Nuttall will fight for Westminster seat next month, but his

:05:48. > :05:49.party was wiped out overnight on the local authority.

:05:50. > :05:52.It is a great shame because local government is very different from

:05:53. > :05:56.national government. I have been a local councillor, a whole different

:05:57. > :06:00.set of responsibilities. The Tories might not be the best at running

:06:01. > :06:08.them. Our councils in Lincolnshire have been very hard-working, but

:06:09. > :06:12.that does not necessarily translate. The Lib Dems admit it has been a

:06:13. > :06:17.mixed set of results so far. We have held ground in the face of a

:06:18. > :06:22.massive shift, an enormous shift of Ukip voters to the Conservatives,

:06:23. > :06:29.and given that has happened, we have done well to stay where we are. The

:06:30. > :06:32.Green Party says with the Conservatives dominating, other

:06:33. > :06:35.parties need to collaborate. There is a strong message that

:06:36. > :06:39.people want the more progressive parties to work together rather than

:06:40. > :06:43.against each other. Under this type of system it is clear that when we

:06:44. > :06:46.stand against one another we lose ground and the Conservatives gained

:06:47. > :06:49.ground. Back to the counting for now, plenty

:06:50. > :06:51.of that still to be done. The final day of campaigning has

:06:52. > :06:54.begun in the French presidential Polls show that the centrist

:06:55. > :06:58.Emmanuel Macron maintains a clear lead over his Front National

:06:59. > :07:00.opponent Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile Mr Macron has filed

:07:01. > :07:02.a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account

:07:03. > :07:06.in the Caribbean. He has strongly denied

:07:07. > :07:20.the allegations. President Trump has been celebrating

:07:21. > :07:27.at the White House after the US Representatives passed a bill

:07:28. > :07:30.billing -- bringing his pledge to come in his words, finish off

:07:31. > :07:31.ObamaCare, which offered health assurance to millions of less

:07:32. > :07:34.well-off Americans, further forward. That's a summary of the news -

:07:35. > :08:01.now back to Local Elections Welcome back. This is our live

:08:02. > :08:06.coverage of the local elections today in England, Wales and

:08:07. > :08:08.Scotland. Plenty of results to come but some firm pattern is emerging.

:08:09. > :08:12.We will talk about those in a moment. I want to go back to the

:08:13. > :08:17.remarkable story in Northumberland, this is where the Tories failed to

:08:18. > :08:21.gain overall control, they were just picked up the post because this

:08:22. > :08:29.happens, look. Jawing lots, drawing straws. The Lib Dem Leslie Rigby,

:08:30. > :08:36.the Conservative Daniel Xhaka, two recounts in South Blyth in

:08:37. > :08:41.Northumberland. They were tied so they had to draw straws. That is the

:08:42. > :08:48.way to win! They drew straws and the Lib Dem won, thus denying, and

:08:49. > :08:51.Brandon is seething, the Conservatives and overall majority

:08:52. > :08:57.in the county. Just one little element of the drama happening. It

:08:58. > :09:02.was nice to see those images, just to see how that was decided. That is

:09:03. > :09:09.an element of local democracy in action, it goes to show how strongly

:09:10. > :09:14.people feel. Although lots of people are talking about these elections in

:09:15. > :09:18.terms of what they tell us about the general elections, these are local

:09:19. > :09:23.authorities handling billions of pounds of money and delivering

:09:24. > :09:27.essential public services. First and foremost they are important

:09:28. > :09:32.exercises in local democracy. The drift from central government has

:09:33. > :09:38.been to begin think more powers, and less money, to local government. So

:09:39. > :09:46.these elections are more important than they have been recently. The

:09:47. > :09:50.big mayoral results are going away from Whitehall, they have the bigger

:09:51. > :09:53.importance. Northumberland, which I suspect most people will remember

:09:54. > :10:00.because of the straw pulling, there was an 11% swing from Labour to

:10:01. > :10:04.Tories in Northumberland, that is, according to our data, the biggest

:10:05. > :10:07.swing in any key ward councils. It is clearly a very good result for

:10:08. > :10:13.the Tories, the worst results for them was when they failed to take

:10:14. > :10:17.Cardiff, Labour holding better than expected in Wales, but nonetheless

:10:18. > :10:22.it is a very important result. Peter, nice too happy with us.

:10:23. > :10:27.Suzanne was talking about rebranding and saying the party still had a

:10:28. > :10:30.future. Let's not go there yet, let's talk about performance. When

:10:31. > :10:35.you see dozens of losses, as you have in some of these countries

:10:36. > :10:42.where you did so well in 2013, which was a very big year for you, what

:10:43. > :10:44.are you telling your supporters? The same we are saying to everyone and

:10:45. > :10:50.have said before the election started, 2013 was exceptional for

:10:51. > :10:54.Ukip, it really sparked as leading national politics, and we have led

:10:55. > :10:59.national politics in this country ever since. In this round of the

:11:00. > :11:02.elections, it was always going to be incredibly difficult and we have

:11:03. > :11:06.never shied away from that. The difference between Ukip and the

:11:07. > :11:11.other political parties is whilst they sacrifice their principles and

:11:12. > :11:16.policies and morals to win seats and to focus on political power at all

:11:17. > :11:21.costs, we are here to change the country. Even if that is that our

:11:22. > :11:25.own expense. We won't be standing some Westminster candidates in some

:11:26. > :11:28.weeks in the next few does represent seats in the next few weeks because

:11:29. > :11:34.we are putting the country ahead of the party. Ukip is leading the

:11:35. > :11:38.national agenda, we forced a Prime Minister to hold a referendum on EU

:11:39. > :11:43.membership that he did not want, he had to resign. That is the influence

:11:44. > :11:48.of Ukip, we did that with no MPs in Parliament. So is the message of

:11:49. > :11:53.these results that voters think your purpose is over? The message is that

:11:54. > :11:59.Theresa May is wearing the Emperor 's is, she's pretending to be Ukip.

:12:00. > :12:11.She is doing rather well. The Tory spin doctors have played a blinder,

:12:12. > :12:14.on the doorsteps we are hearing people saying we still want to vote

:12:15. > :12:16.Ukip, we still believe in them, the 12th Prime Minister says you have to

:12:17. > :12:19.bowled Conservative to protect real Brexit, our voters will Bullet for

:12:20. > :12:23.her. The spin doctors have done a fantastic job. The reality could not

:12:24. > :12:27.be further from the truth. As Home Office Minister Theresa May said she

:12:28. > :12:31.would cut immigration to tens of thousands instead of hundreds of

:12:32. > :12:37.thousands and failed to deliver, she will fail to deliver on Brexit as

:12:38. > :12:42.well. What makes you think that? She campaigned for Remain, she does not

:12:43. > :12:50.believe in our cause and I guarantee she will start backtracking. Let's

:12:51. > :12:53.watch what she does rather than taking my word for it, but Ukip has

:12:54. > :12:55.a huge feature both now and holding the Government to account, in this

:12:56. > :12:57.general election I predict that people like the candidate in

:12:58. > :13:01.Thurrock will be elected and start holding the feet of the Government

:13:02. > :13:07.to the fire, it is essential we get Ukip MPs to protect a real Brexit.

:13:08. > :13:12.Brandon, just a thought on Ukip's take on the Brexit process under

:13:13. > :13:16.Theresa May? Where his argument falls down is that Theresa May

:13:17. > :13:21.triggered Article 50 and said what -- and did what she said she would.

:13:22. > :13:25.There is a simple choice, extrapolating for two June the 8th,

:13:26. > :13:29.we will be choosing a party that will put into Downing Street a Prime

:13:30. > :13:33.Minister who will be leading the negotiations for leaving the EU. It

:13:34. > :13:37.is either Jeremy Corbyn Theresa May. That is the choice we have to make.

:13:38. > :13:41.What we have seen in Northumberland is the importance that every vote

:13:42. > :13:45.matters, that is why we will continue to work, as Theresa May has

:13:46. > :13:49.done every day open last few weeks, to make the case about why we have

:13:50. > :13:54.the best position and Theresa May is the best person to deliver the best

:13:55. > :14:00.deal for the UK. Let's get a Lib Dem boys, can we go straight to city

:14:01. > :14:06.Hall in Cardiff? Baroness Jenny Rand is and is there thank you for

:14:07. > :14:12.joining us. Your thoughts on the Lib Dem performance today? It has always

:14:13. > :14:16.been our intention to use these elections to start to rebuild the

:14:17. > :14:22.party. They were never going to be simple or straightforward elections,

:14:23. > :14:28.we live in turbulent times. One of the great things we have been able

:14:29. > :14:33.to do in these elections is to use many of our thousands and thousands

:14:34. > :14:40.of new members, and we have tens of thousands of them, in order to make

:14:41. > :14:46.them party activists, actively engaged in campaigning for our core

:14:47. > :14:51.messages, for the future, for the June election. Not easy elections,

:14:52. > :14:56.not the results we would ideally have wanted in some areas, but we

:14:57. > :15:03.have won seats from the other parties in some places and we are

:15:04. > :15:08.really pleased about that. Looking at the figures for Cardiff, if I

:15:09. > :15:12.may, they will, quite soon, and I wonder if you can talk us through

:15:13. > :15:20.the Lib Dem performance? You took 11 seats in Cardiff. By my calculation

:15:21. > :15:25.you lost five seats from 2012, when these elections were last conducted.

:15:26. > :15:27.What accounts for that given that some of your Lib Dem colleagues told

:15:28. > :15:34.me that parts of Cardiff were looking quite promising?

:15:35. > :15:39.What we found on the doorstep was that once the general election had

:15:40. > :15:44.been announced, the conversation we were having with people totally

:15:45. > :15:50.changed. They stopped talking about how the council here in Cardiff was

:15:51. > :15:55.run, they were not talking about bins and potholes and so on, they

:15:56. > :16:01.were talking instead about Theresa May, whether they were in favour of

:16:02. > :16:05.her or not, they were talking about Theresa May and the whole country.

:16:06. > :16:09.And therefore what happened was that the party politics has hardened.

:16:10. > :16:17.There is of course a surge in the Conservative vote but the Labour

:16:18. > :16:22.vote also hardened here as people who are very certainly not

:16:23. > :16:27.Conservatives went to them or tribal allegiance to the Labour Party. It

:16:28. > :16:32.became difficult as a local election campaign to cut through on that, but

:16:33. > :16:39.I think when we get to the general election we will find that we are

:16:40. > :16:44.able to have a very clear message on Brexit and we are have to roll the

:16:45. > :16:50.only UK National party that can give us that one clear message saying, we

:16:51. > :16:54.are in favour of the EU, we are in favour of staying in the single

:16:55. > :17:01.market, and we are in favour of giving people their voice on their

:17:02. > :17:04.future. So far you are down 11 seats in Wales, obviously it is early

:17:05. > :17:08.days, we will see what happens through the rest of the day in lots

:17:09. > :17:12.of these English counties as well, but are you expecting in Wales at

:17:13. > :17:18.least to be down or to be in positive territory? To be honest, I

:17:19. > :17:24.don't know any longer what to expect on anything in politics! At least

:17:25. > :17:32.you are honest, Jenny! LAUGHTER.

:17:33. > :17:39.Every day brings a new shock! And I think quite a few people would agree

:17:40. > :17:43.with me. But I do think that we will probably be down slightly. But it is

:17:44. > :17:48.important to remember these seats were last fought in 2012. We have

:17:49. > :17:56.been through a torrid times since then, not just in 2015 and the

:17:57. > :18:01.general election, but in 2016 in the assembly election. I am proud of the

:18:02. > :18:07.campaign we have run, a positive campaign across Wales and we do have

:18:08. > :18:10.successes, we have won seats of the Conservatives, of Labour, and off

:18:11. > :18:14.Plaid Cymru, and I think it is important that we look at where we

:18:15. > :18:19.won those successes and build on that for the future. But we are not

:18:20. > :18:27.in a really bad place, we are simply in the foothills of exercise. Good

:18:28. > :18:30.to talk to you, Jenny Randerson, thank you very much, outside City

:18:31. > :18:36.Hall in Cardiff for the Lib Dems. Thoughts, Laura?

:18:37. > :18:40.Interesting to hear there, something we have heard quite a few MPs who

:18:41. > :18:44.are now standing against say, actually, they feel there has been

:18:45. > :18:47.more momentum in these local elections because suddenly there was

:18:48. > :18:52.a general election which has made people turn to politics. A few

:18:53. > :18:55.people have said to me in the last couple of weeks in a way they

:18:56. > :18:58.wouldn't normally in local elections, they are pretty obscure,

:18:59. > :19:02.turnout is low, but the general election may have changed the

:19:03. > :19:05.backdrop, that is what Jenny has suggested have happened to the

:19:06. > :19:10.Liberal Democrats in Wales. A couple of tips from my sources, we talked

:19:11. > :19:14.earlier, looking to Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire much later in the

:19:15. > :19:18.day, areas where Labour really wants to hold on because important

:19:19. > :19:23.marginal areas for the general election, just suggestions at this

:19:24. > :19:28.stage that Nottinghamshire may well be heading towards Tory hands, but

:19:29. > :19:32.Derbyshire, in contrast, may well be, I am told, that Labour manages

:19:33. > :19:36.to hold on. Lots of hours to go before we get those results but just

:19:37. > :19:41.a couple of straws in the wind. Are you getting any intelligence on

:19:42. > :19:47.those, Emily? My phone has packed up, so I am in freefall! I feel for

:19:48. > :19:53.you, I really do! But it doesn't mean I don't have anything to say!

:19:54. > :19:59.With Nottinghamshire going one way, Derbyshire and other... Potentially.

:20:00. > :20:05.It underlines what I have been saying, we have been campaigning out

:20:06. > :20:09.there, and realistically while there is Bristol, and large amount of

:20:10. > :20:13.suburbia and countryside that would not be natural Labour hunting

:20:14. > :20:17.territory, for us to end up just 5000 votes behind in the west of

:20:18. > :20:21.England Matt is a fantastic result for Leslie and the local team, and

:20:22. > :20:25.if you translate that across Labour marginals in Bristol and the

:20:26. > :20:29.outskirts, that is a very good result for Labour, so it shows that

:20:30. > :20:33.it is mixed. We will see whether our colleague in Bristol agrees with

:20:34. > :20:38.that, straight to Bristol and join Paul bolt up who is there for us.

:20:39. > :20:43.Picking up from what Emily is saying, talking about the West of

:20:44. > :20:47.England mayoral contest, which was won by the Conservatives, what do

:20:48. > :20:51.you read into that and the relative performances of the party is there?

:20:52. > :20:54.First and foremost the Conservatives pleased to come through, I think

:20:55. > :20:59.they felt they were favourites for it but they were never certain.

:21:00. > :21:02.Having said that, when to May called the general election, it put a

:21:03. > :21:07.spring into their step, gave them a bit of a boost, I think they got

:21:08. > :21:10.more of their core vote out. As for Labour, many pundits had not

:21:11. > :21:18.expected them to come second but if you look back to three consecutive

:21:19. > :21:26.general elections, 97, 2001, 2005, in the areas that are part of the

:21:27. > :21:30.West of England Mayorality, Labour came second in three general

:21:31. > :21:34.elections in that area, so not quite the Tory heartland some people are

:21:35. > :21:37.portraying it as. They did better than expected but didn't win, but

:21:38. > :21:42.they will be looking carefully at how the votes stacked up. The Lib

:21:43. > :21:45.Dems had high hopes round here, it was the one mayoral contest they

:21:46. > :21:51.thought they had a decent chance in, third place, not too far behind, but

:21:52. > :21:53.did not make the final two, so disappointment for their candidate.

:21:54. > :22:04.Let's Hang on to the Lib Dem thought, I

:22:05. > :22:08.will ask you to talk more about Somerset and Gloucestershire because

:22:09. > :22:10.these are areas where in the past Lib Dems have had Parliamentary

:22:11. > :22:12.representation as well, so talk us through those and see what the

:22:13. > :22:14.trends are there. Absolutely, Somerset was a Lib Dem

:22:15. > :22:18.heartland Full Sutton long time, the place where Paddy Ashdown built up

:22:19. > :22:22.the party, they were expecting to go forwards, it was a council run by

:22:23. > :22:25.the Conservatives but with a narrow majority. The Lib Dems even

:22:26. > :22:30.yesterday talking about perhaps taking overall control. They did not

:22:31. > :22:34.just fail to take overall control, it went backwards, they lost seats

:22:35. > :22:39.in Somerset, are very poor result. There are always exceptions to the

:22:40. > :22:50.rule, the county council's Conservative leader was unseated by

:22:51. > :22:54.the Lib Dems, that was the one plus point, but overall a pretty poor

:22:55. > :22:57.picture in Somerset and in what it says about their general election

:22:58. > :23:02.prospects, it does not look good at all. If you go up the M5 into

:23:03. > :23:05.Gloucestershire, slightly different emphasis. Again, Conservative Brent

:23:06. > :23:11.Council, they did not have an overall majority going in but were

:23:12. > :23:15.far and away the largest party in the last couple of years, they

:23:16. > :23:18.increased their hold on the council. But in Gloucestershire's case, the

:23:19. > :23:23.Lib Dems stayed pretty much where they were but it was Labour who lost

:23:24. > :23:27.seats, from nine down to four. Bearing in mind during the early

:23:28. > :23:30.years of the Blair Government, Labour and the Lib Dems together

:23:31. > :23:35.were running Gloucestershire County Council. Labour have fallen an awful

:23:36. > :23:48.long way in places like Gloucester, urban areas where they used to have

:23:49. > :23:49.a Parliamentary seat, they now have just one county councillor

:23:50. > :23:51.representing the city. They were losing seats to the Conservatives

:23:52. > :23:54.yesterday. About Gloucestershire and Somerset, as we have seen elsewhere

:23:55. > :23:56.in the country, Ukip had a pretty bad night. They knocked the

:23:57. > :23:59.political establishment in the West Country four years ago picking up

:24:00. > :24:02.seats on the councils but they lost all of them last night.

:24:03. > :24:06.Good to talk to you, latest thoughts from the West of England,

:24:07. > :24:09.Gloucestershire and Somerset, very interesting trends that we will pick

:24:10. > :24:12.up on again, underlining some of the patterns we have seen elsewhere as

:24:13. > :24:16.well. Lots of results still to come from

:24:17. > :24:20.Scotland because they did not start counting in Scotland until 9am this

:24:21. > :24:30.morning so there are dozens of councils up and of course we are

:24:31. > :24:33.looking specifically Glasgow because that is where Labour has really been

:24:34. > :24:35.dominant for decades and the SNP are very hopeful of getting control of

:24:36. > :24:39.Glasgow. Annita McVeigh is there for us.

:24:40. > :24:43.Good morning, yes, it promises to be a fascinating story in Glasgow,

:24:44. > :24:48.right across Scotland. A number of big questions to consider, how will

:24:49. > :24:52.be SNP do, have we seen peak National is perhaps? Will the

:24:53. > :24:55.Conservatives do as well and Labour do as poorly as some polls have

:24:56. > :24:59.suggested, here in Glasgow for example it is thought Labour might

:25:00. > :25:04.lose control of the Council for the first time in 40 years. All of those

:25:05. > :25:13.questions wrapped up if you like in the twin forces of Brexit and

:25:14. > :25:16.independence, so these be the least local local elections that we have

:25:17. > :25:20.seen here? With me to discuss that, I have members from the SNP and

:25:21. > :25:25.Scottish Labour. Welcome to you both. A big disappointment for the

:25:26. > :25:30.SNP in the last locals not to gain control of Glasgow Council. Can you

:25:31. > :25:36.do it this time? I remember the count in 2012 well, it was a huge

:25:37. > :25:38.disappointment, I have to say from yesterday's turnout and how it felt

:25:39. > :25:45.in the polling stations we are cautiously optimistic. Whether we

:25:46. > :25:51.lead the administration as the largest party, or a majority, would

:25:52. > :25:56.be the icing on the cake, it would be huge for the party in our 18

:25:57. > :25:59.years of existence, having never come close to taking the

:26:00. > :26:04.administration of Glasgow, but it is too early to tell yet. You have to

:26:05. > :26:08.get every man, woman in Scottish Labour past the finishing point yet

:26:09. > :26:13.you have not fielded candidates in all of the possible seats, two new

:26:14. > :26:18.wards, six new seats created. Why haven't you done that? Is it a

:26:19. > :26:22.strategic error? We are standing candidates across the local

:26:23. > :26:33.authority in Glasgow, the reality is everyone accepts we are the underdog

:26:34. > :26:36.in Glasgow, if you look at the elections it is not right to compare

:26:37. > :26:38.like-for-like from the 2012 result, it is more reasonable to compare

:26:39. > :26:42.what happened at the general election in 2015 when the SNP got

:26:43. > :26:47.60% and last year when they got 53% of the vote, in this election the

:26:48. > :26:50.SNP have said they want a majority in Glasgow, I'm not sure how that

:26:51. > :26:53.will fall, we will see as the day goes on but I am proud of the

:26:54. > :26:57.campaign and candidate in Glasgow, we are in the fight here. Why is

:26:58. > :27:02.Scottish Labour the underdog, in your words? Is it because of Brexit,

:27:03. > :27:07.because of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership more widely? We have to

:27:08. > :27:14.accept politics changed in Scotland in 2014 when we saw the SNP surge

:27:15. > :27:19.after the referendum is independent -- independence referendum. It is an

:27:20. > :27:23.uncomfortable place for the Labour Party to be, we talk about

:27:24. > :27:26.solidarity, equality, fairness, hope for our politics but our politics at

:27:27. > :27:30.the moment is consumed with anger and division, that is a challenge

:27:31. > :27:33.for the Labour Party but in Glasgow we have put forward a positive

:27:34. > :27:37.message and a plan to move Glasgow Boreham Wood, we believe we have

:27:38. > :27:41.transformed Glasgow in the last few years. This building shows the

:27:42. > :27:47.amazing transformation Labour has made because Labour decisions in the

:27:48. > :27:50.city, that is the policy plan, not talking endlessly about another

:27:51. > :27:53.divisive referendum. On the doorsteps I'm sure people have been

:27:54. > :27:58.concerned about local issues but have they been equally concerned

:27:59. > :28:01.about Brexit and independence? The permutations would make your head

:28:02. > :28:06.spin, Brexit, independence, local issues as well as many other issues

:28:07. > :28:12.thrown in the mix. But our voters and supporters, I can only speak for

:28:13. > :28:16.SNP supporters, they really want to change in Glasgow, this has been a

:28:17. > :28:20.Labour run council for decades and decades, they are sick and tired of

:28:21. > :28:24.the decisions made at Council level so they want change. Change was our

:28:25. > :28:29.key message and let's see if have responded to that. Politicians all

:28:30. > :28:34.put a spin on their own results, it would be a huge result for the SNP

:28:35. > :28:38.in Glasgow if we were the lead party in the Administration. If you don't

:28:39. > :28:43.emerge as the largest party here and get an overall majority, you may

:28:44. > :28:48.emerge as the largest party but not get the majority to take overall

:28:49. > :28:53.control, I beg your pardon, to take control of the Council, who would

:28:54. > :28:57.you go into coalition with? We would look to the administration, as we

:28:58. > :29:02.have said, we have had a good relationship with the Green Party, a

:29:03. > :29:05.lot of our politics is the same, left of centre, focusing on

:29:06. > :29:09.environmental issues, but similarly with many green counters in terms of

:29:10. > :29:12.the referendum as well, but I am focused here, we want to get the

:29:13. > :29:17.majority, we want to be over the line. If not, there are other

:29:18. > :29:20.permutations, we could lead as a minority administration without

:29:21. > :29:27.going into coalition. What we have said is we would not enter any

:29:28. > :29:30.coalition with the Conservatives. If Labour does poorly in these

:29:31. > :29:35.elections, what is next for the party here in Scotland and

:29:36. > :29:38.nationally? We have to continue to fight for our values, Labour values

:29:39. > :29:41.are more important now than ever before but we have seen that anger

:29:42. > :29:45.and division and have to turn our focus to the general election on the

:29:46. > :29:50.8th of June and said this country faces a clear choice, if you want to

:29:51. > :30:03.carry on divisive politics, Tory versus SNP, but if you want to move

:30:04. > :30:05.on from that and change the lives of people, when, women, children across

:30:06. > :30:08.the United Kingdom, we need to get rid of the Tory Government and get a

:30:09. > :30:11.Labour Government. Voting SNP does not do that. Thank you both so much

:30:12. > :30:13.for your time today. So of course lots of questions about what the

:30:14. > :30:16.eventual results here today will mean for the general election on the

:30:17. > :30:21.8th of June and let me tell you as far as Glasgow is concerned, 43 is

:30:22. > :30:26.the magic number, if the SNP can get 43 men and women elected towards

:30:27. > :30:29.here then they will have overall control of Glasgow Council, removing

:30:30. > :30:36.that controlled from Labour, which has held control for 40 years. And

:30:37. > :30:40.for Labour, just a single one of the men and women standing for Scottish

:30:41. > :30:42.Labour does not get elected today Ben debuts that overall control. A

:30:43. > :30:53.fascinating story to unfold here. Many thanks to you and your guests

:30:54. > :30:58.in Glasgow. Laura, the focus is clearly on Glasgow because it is

:30:59. > :31:03.such a big, symbolic contest. But wait you think to whether

:31:04. > :31:06.Conservatives had Parliamentary representation in the past in

:31:07. > :31:09.Scotland, there are other interesting tests? More tellingly

:31:10. > :31:13.for the general election, and there is not a direct read across, the

:31:14. > :31:18.more telling barometers for the general election will be whether the

:31:19. > :31:29.Tories can start nibbling back more seats in the Borders, Perthshire,

:31:30. > :31:31.parts of Scotland where, years ago, they used to have a relatively

:31:32. > :31:33.decent level of representation which fell away quite dramatically, but

:31:34. > :31:36.now Theresa May and Ruth Davidson, the relatively popular Scottish Tory

:31:37. > :31:40.leader, they are very hopeful of starting to take seats back. Theresa

:31:41. > :31:44.May has already been on the stump in Scotland. Tory leaders in relatively

:31:45. > :31:49.recent history would not have dream. Spending much time there. Emily, I

:31:50. > :31:57.am very concerned about your iPhone. Is it working? I don't know. Leg

:31:58. > :32:02.raid has an apple on it. It only has about 5% battery. The very good news

:32:03. > :32:07.is you will not be getting the spin messages from Labour HQ so you will

:32:08. > :32:09.have $2 what you think. If it was switched on is working, you would

:32:10. > :32:16.know Doncaster has produce good news.

:32:17. > :32:24.This was one of the mayoral contests in a single authority, not a big,

:32:25. > :32:35.multi-authority. Russ Jones has been re-elected for Labour. -- Ros Jones

:32:36. > :32:41.has been re-elected. The turnout was quite low, 29%. That is something we

:32:42. > :32:46.might want to talk about later to do with the profile of these jobs and

:32:47. > :32:52.to what extent they have made an impact on local voters, in many

:32:53. > :32:54.cases they are powerful positions. If I can bring up the difference on

:32:55. > :33:05.the last contest. Quite a significant increase for the

:33:06. > :33:10.Tories but not enough to win the seat.

:33:11. > :33:15.We have a swing in Doncaster, 0.8% from the Labour to the

:33:16. > :33:19.Conservatives. There was an independent there before. Ros Jones

:33:20. > :33:25.has been re-elected, the Conservatives in second place.

:33:26. > :33:33.A quick word on Doncaster, Emily? Boom.

:33:34. > :33:41.I saw an interesting quote from Russ Jones earlier, I hope I'm not being

:33:42. > :33:46.unfair, this is all to do with the fact that we as Labour and Doncaster

:33:47. > :33:52.have done a good job, locally -- I saw an interesting quote from Ros

:33:53. > :33:58.Jones. Was clear about a local campaign. Is that fair? This is what

:33:59. > :34:02.local elections are meant to be about, we have strong local

:34:03. > :34:04.candidates putting out strong local messages, of course that is what

:34:05. > :34:11.local council elections will be about. It is confused when a general

:34:12. > :34:15.election is called the local election, it is difficult to know if

:34:16. > :34:21.people are voting nationally or locally. As we heard from the Lib

:34:22. > :34:23.Dem for Wales, the Labour votes in Wales has solidified. Her

:34:24. > :34:27.interpretation is that in the last couple of weeks and people have been

:34:28. > :34:33.thinking, you know, if there is going to be a conservative or Labour

:34:34. > :34:40.government, we're not going anywhere other than Labour. But listen, we

:34:41. > :34:42.have to work really hard, we have a few weeks left before the general

:34:43. > :34:47.election and we had to make sure that people understand there is a

:34:48. > :34:51.choice, it does not have to be this way, it does not have to be a

:34:52. > :34:55.Conservative Government, Labour is the alternative, but we will not be

:34:56. > :35:01.in government if we do not get the vote out and get people to votes

:35:02. > :35:05.Labour. On the basis of the results elsewhere in England and parts of

:35:06. > :35:09.Wales, where does that leave you in terms of confidence looking ahead in

:35:10. > :35:13.the next few weeks? It is all to fight for. We have a very large

:35:14. > :35:20.membership, we have to make sure people are roads to people and

:35:21. > :35:23.explaining -- people are out talking to people and we need to think

:35:24. > :35:28.carefully about the policies and how we can make Britain better, that is

:35:29. > :35:30.what politics ought to be about. I must break now to join Joanna

:35:31. > :35:33.Gosling again for the latest news. The Conservatives have made big

:35:34. > :35:37.gains in the council elections in England and Wales,

:35:38. > :35:38.recording their best Many of the votes cast

:35:39. > :35:41.yesterday across England, Scotland and Wales are still to be

:35:42. > :35:44.counted, but Labour have suffered losses and Ukip have failed

:35:45. > :35:47.to win a single seat. The Conservatives have been

:35:48. > :35:49.celebrating a series of victories Initial results show the Tories

:35:50. > :35:53.taking control of five local councils and winning more council

:35:54. > :35:57.seats than any other party. The Tories also celebrated victory

:35:58. > :35:59.in the West of England, where the Conservative Tim Bowles

:36:00. > :36:02.was elected to the newly created However, senior members

:36:03. > :36:07.of the Conservative Party are downplaying the significance

:36:08. > :36:11.of that victory, saying many votes I think the early results

:36:12. > :36:16.are encouraging, but they are early We have seen less than a quarter

:36:17. > :36:20.of the vote actually counted The turnout in local elections,

:36:21. > :36:25.of course, is much, much It is wrong to predict

:36:26. > :36:32.what will happen We still have a general

:36:33. > :36:36.election to campaign for and to win after last night,

:36:37. > :36:41.but encouraging signs. Elsewhere Labour have

:36:42. > :36:43.lost three councils, Despite the losses in Wales,

:36:44. > :36:50.Labour did hold Cardiff Council. The party was also victorious

:36:51. > :36:52.in Doncaster, where its candidate Ros Jones, the Labour mayor

:36:53. > :36:54.was re-elected, securing Labour has defended

:36:55. > :36:59.its performance so far. The Party's Shadow Chancellor,

:37:00. > :37:01.John McDonnell, told people to wait for results elsewhere to come

:37:02. > :37:13.in before judging the If you look at where we have really

:37:14. > :37:16.campaigned hard in terms of Wales in particular, Jeremy Corbyn was down

:37:17. > :37:20.in Cardiff, there has been a lot of work on the ground with a membership

:37:21. > :37:25.knocking on doors, we have defied all predictions on the losses. Where

:37:26. > :37:29.we have lost in south Wales, what is interesting, it has not been to the

:37:30. > :37:34.Tories in terms of what has happened in Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent,

:37:35. > :37:39.they have returned to independents, which they were before 2012. It is

:37:40. > :37:42.difficult to extrapolate from local government results anyway.

:37:43. > :37:43.It's been a disappointing night for Ukip.

:37:44. > :37:46.The party failed to win any of the seats it contested -

:37:47. > :37:48.losing 39 previously held council seats.

:37:49. > :37:53.-- losing 42 previously helps... Held council seats.

:37:54. > :37:56.Ukip says it still has sitting councillors in the country,

:37:57. > :37:58.although those positions were not up for election this time.

:37:59. > :38:01.It's been a night of mixed results for the Liberal Democrats.

:38:02. > :38:03.A short time ago the Party had lost 28 council seats.

:38:04. > :38:07.The Lib Dems also failed to retake Somerset Council

:38:08. > :38:09.from the Conservatives, although the Tory leader John Osman

:38:10. > :38:14.was ousted by Lib Dem former MP Tessa Munt.

:38:15. > :38:19.Despite the overall picture of the Conservatives performing well, some

:38:20. > :38:23.electro battles have been very close indeed. The winner of the seat in

:38:24. > :38:27.Northumberland county council was decided by drawing straws after two

:38:28. > :38:31.candidates received the same number of votes. Here is the moment that

:38:32. > :38:37.the Lib Dem candidate selected a longer stroll to claim the seat.

:38:38. > :38:38.That meant the Conservatives were denied overall control of the

:38:39. > :38:39.council. The final day of campaigning has

:38:40. > :38:42.begun in the French presidential election before voting takes

:38:43. > :38:44.place on Sunday. Polls show that the centrist,

:38:45. > :38:46.Emmanuel Macron, maintains a clear lead over the far right candidate

:38:47. > :38:48.Marine Le Pen. Our correspondent Karin Giannone

:38:49. > :39:02.is in Paris with the latest. Welcome to a busy Friday in Central

:39:03. > :39:07.Paris. It is anything but normal because we are into the final hours

:39:08. > :39:11.of the 20 17th residential election campaign. Come midnight French time,

:39:12. > :39:17.the candidates must fall silent and campaigning will be over before the

:39:18. > :39:20.vote on Sunday. It has been an incredible campaign so far,

:39:21. > :39:26.extraordinary and particularly bad tempered. The final debate on

:39:27. > :39:31.Wednesday was one of the most heated that a French presidential election

:39:32. > :39:37.has ever seen. It is not an Marine Le Pen any favours, Emmanuel Macron

:39:38. > :39:41.has increased his lead in the polls to 62% against her 38%. Let's give

:39:42. > :39:47.you a flavour of what the papers make into Friday, the final day.

:39:48. > :39:51.The financial newspaper talks about Macron and Le Pen, a battle against

:39:52. > :39:56.extremism and says that Emmanuel Macron is the favourite going into

:39:57. > :39:59.the second round. They call it an extraordinary, unprecedented

:40:00. > :40:04.election campaign. Le Figaro calls Marine Le Pen's

:40:05. > :40:10.campaign is shipwrecked, they talk about Macron being the arch

:40:11. > :40:13.favourite. Marine Le Pen always says the mainstream media are against her

:40:14. > :40:20.and this would be typical of their stunts. They call her the big loser

:40:21. > :40:25.of the televised debate. Le Monde, another daily, Marine Le

:40:26. > :40:32.Pen, it talks about the strategy of the live. Inside Le Monde they have

:40:33. > :40:35.19 fact that the same Marine Le Pen said in the presidential debate --

:40:36. > :40:39.19 fact that they say Marine Le Pen said. They say she was lying in all

:40:40. > :40:43.maintain cases. Let's show you a left-wing

:40:44. > :40:49.newspaper, that is Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen's father and the

:40:50. > :40:52.founder of the National front. They say she has not changed, forcing

:40:53. > :40:57.what Marine Le Pen has always wanted to move on from a future image

:40:58. > :41:03.without her father's shadow, they say it is effectively the same Le

:41:04. > :41:07.Pen. It is not a dead cert for a Emmanuel Macron, 20% of voters are

:41:08. > :41:13.undecided so there is plenty to pay for. -- play for.

:41:14. > :41:16.The Government is set to publish draft plans to tackle air pollution

:41:17. > :41:17.following a legal battle with environmental campaigners.

:41:18. > :41:20.The measures are expected to include a scheme to encourage

:41:21. > :41:21.drivers of older diesels to scrap their cars.

:41:22. > :41:24.And also the removal of speed bumps to cut pollution caused by cars

:41:25. > :41:27.braking and accelerating. A British man has died

:41:28. > :41:29.while skydiving in Thailand. It happened in the Thai

:41:30. > :41:31.resort town of Pattaya. 69-year-old James McConnell -

:41:32. > :41:33.an experienced skydiver - leapt from a plane and landed

:41:34. > :41:35.in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip

:41:36. > :41:37.at the Thai Sky Adventures airbase. This picture is from a previous

:41:38. > :41:39.jump. His son has posted a message

:41:40. > :41:42.on social media saying That's a summary of the news -

:41:43. > :42:10.now back to Local Elections Welcome back to live coverage of the

:42:11. > :42:13.local election results in England, Wales and Scotland. We have spoken

:42:14. > :42:19.about some of the results already and I want to bring you another, one

:42:20. > :42:23.of the big English counties. Let's look at Essex, this is a county the

:42:24. > :42:29.Conservatives have held, relatively comfortably.

:42:30. > :42:40.A huge majority of 37. You may be wondering why in Essex we do not

:42:41. > :42:44.have Ukip on the graph. The reason is they have actually lost all their

:42:45. > :42:49.seats there and they are not in the first six. That is the history of

:42:50. > :42:54.what is going on, we will ask Peter about that in a second, in Essex, of

:42:55. > :42:56.all places, where they did so well in 2013. 14 games to the

:42:57. > :43:10.Conservatives. Sticking with that, I want to go to

:43:11. > :43:16.my colleague Andrew Sinclair in Norfolk, Great Yarmouth. He can talk

:43:17. > :43:19.to us well the count is going on where you are, talk to us about

:43:20. > :43:28.Essex and what you see in that result?

:43:29. > :43:32.(INAUDIBLE) Stop a second, Andrew, I was hoping

:43:33. > :43:39.we would get your sound but I don't think we have it, do we?

:43:40. > :43:45.Are we likely to get Andrew back? Can you hear me OK now? Andrew, talk

:43:46. > :43:50.us through that ethics result? Yes, I was just about to say that

:43:51. > :43:53.four years ago you could really made a name for themselves both across

:43:54. > :43:58.East Anglia but particularly in Norfolk, they came from nowhere to

:43:59. > :44:06.win seats, a notable number, right across East Anglia. It seems as if

:44:07. > :44:09.we are now seeing the Ukip vote disintegrating before our eyes. In

:44:10. > :44:17.the last few seconds the Tories have taken a seat from Ukip. Ukip, as you

:44:18. > :44:21.said, were completely wiped out in Essex last night. The early

:44:22. > :44:26.indications from Norfolk and Suffolk are that Ukip will do very badly. I

:44:27. > :44:30.was speaking to a senior Ukip figure is short while ago as he looked at

:44:31. > :44:34.the boats coming out of the boxes and he said, I could try to put a

:44:35. > :44:38.positive spin on this but I can see what is before my eyes -- as he

:44:39. > :44:52.looked up the votes coming out of the boxes. We have had two results

:44:53. > :44:54.declared so far, you could have lost both seats, want to Labour, want to

:44:55. > :44:57.the Conservatives. It does not look good for them, if they can't win

:44:58. > :44:59.seats in their Great Yarmouth stronghold in Norfolk, I think they

:45:00. > :45:03.will do badly. Labour lost seats in Essex, they are expecting a bad time

:45:04. > :45:07.in Norfolk but as I just said, they have taken a seat from Ukip this

:45:08. > :45:11.morning. If Brandon Lewis is with you he might want to know that the

:45:12. > :45:14.person who took the seat for Labour is the candidate standing against

:45:15. > :45:20.him in the general election. Very interesting. Looking ahead five

:45:21. > :45:24.weeks, I know this is a risky game, but give us a sense of where you

:45:25. > :45:30.think these patterns of voting are shifting?

:45:31. > :45:37.One has to put in the caveat that this isn't local election with low

:45:38. > :45:39.turnout, and many people vote differently in local elections to

:45:40. > :45:44.general elections but the feeling I have picked up on the ground, begin

:45:45. > :45:48.to be reflected in results in East Anglia, is that Ukip are in serious

:45:49. > :45:51.trouble and that, for Ukip, is very serious because they have seen

:45:52. > :45:57.Anglia as their stronghold of support, it is where they always

:45:58. > :46:01.could be sure of is very big, strong following. East Anglia recorded a

:46:02. > :46:07.very large Leave vote in the referendum last year, so Ukip do

:46:08. > :46:11.seem to be doing very badly at the moment and that does not look good

:46:12. > :46:15.for them as we go into the general election campaigns. No sign either,

:46:16. > :46:19.though, of a Lib Dem revival, not showing at all in Great Yarmouth, no

:46:20. > :46:24.real surprise, they have never done particularly well here, but they did

:46:25. > :46:26.not do very well in Essex last night either.

:46:27. > :46:29.Good to talk to you, we will be back to you when we get some more results

:46:30. > :46:33.from Norfolk, thank you for taking us through the Essex results.

:46:34. > :46:39.Lots of interest in the studio. Laura? It is interesting what we

:46:40. > :46:44.have seen since the referendum with Ukip looking for a new identity.

:46:45. > :46:48.They came up with what were controversial ideas at the start of

:46:49. > :46:53.this general election campaign, such as banning the burqa. Steven Woolfe

:46:54. > :46:57.has just told our colleagues on 5 Live that darker forces, to use his

:46:58. > :47:02.phrase, who pushed policies like banning the burqa are to blame the

:47:03. > :47:06.big Ukip meltdown. Do you think he is right? Steven Woolfe is one of

:47:07. > :47:08.the chaps who got elected as Ukip and then decided to join the

:47:09. > :47:16.Conservative Party so I have very little to say about him, to be

:47:17. > :47:18.frank. But if the right? No, Ukip policies are incredibly consistent,

:47:19. > :47:25.we don't go charging around like the old parties looking at polling and

:47:26. > :47:29.changing our policies based on it. We have a consistent policy. On the

:47:30. > :47:33.burqa, we have always said the law should apply equally to everyone, if

:47:34. > :47:37.I cannot walk into a bank wearing a crash helmet, why should anyone else

:47:38. > :47:41.be able to wear a face covering, no matter their religion? This country

:47:42. > :47:45.has always been tolerant and has always had one rule for all, that is

:47:46. > :47:47.what Ukip is standing up for. In terms of national trends, the big

:47:48. > :48:11.story that does not seem to be being discussed is about the Lib Dem

:48:12. > :48:14.leadership. Look at what the Lib Dem leader campaigned his leadership on,

:48:15. > :48:17.it was all about his track record as a campaigner, all about how he will

:48:18. > :48:19.put the Liberal Democrats back on the map and wind local Government

:48:20. > :48:21.elections with his pro-EU stance, and the fact is his entire mandate

:48:22. > :48:24.as leader of the Liberal Democrats has just collapsed... It is a brave

:48:25. > :48:27.attempt to switch attention to the Lib Dems! We will talk, of course,

:48:28. > :48:29.we spoke to Jenny earlier and will speak to more Lib Dems later when

:48:30. > :48:32.they are here to defend themselves. Looking at Essex, you have nothing

:48:33. > :48:35.left in terms of county councillors there, what is that down to? Why are

:48:36. > :48:38.voters deserted you? It is very clear, we have a Prime Minister who

:48:39. > :48:42.has painted herself in Ukip colours, who has said that in order to do

:48:43. > :48:46.what Ukip is here to achieve, you have to vote Conservative. When they

:48:47. > :48:49.announce the Parliamentary election, going against everything the fixed

:48:50. > :48:54.parliamentary act was made to protect the country from, she has

:48:55. > :48:58.rode roughshod over that, bringing forward a cynical ploy to trick

:48:59. > :49:02.people into voting Conservative. Let's be clear, the Prime Minister

:49:03. > :49:07.is the puppet of Ukip and its agenda, that is absolutely what this

:49:08. > :49:12.election is playing out. That is quite something to say, that Theresa

:49:13. > :49:15.May is a puppet of Ukip, Brendan? I would not think that has any

:49:16. > :49:19.credibility with anyone who hears that. Theresa May is very much a

:49:20. > :49:23.strong, stable person in her own right...

:49:24. > :49:27.LAUGHTER. It is 10:49am, we got through nearly

:49:28. > :49:36.120 minutes on air before that came out, well done! Theresa May gables

:49:37. > :49:41.the biggest U-turn in history, she is now pro-Brexit! This is somebody

:49:42. > :49:47.who has a track record of delivering in top circumstances, it is who we

:49:48. > :49:51.want at the negotiating table in Europe. Let's pause for a second, we

:49:52. > :49:57.have been joined by John Curtice again. It has been at least 1.5

:49:58. > :50:01.hours since we spoke, we were talking about Ukip initially, and

:50:02. > :50:05.note that we have got here from you and your team saying tentative signs

:50:06. > :50:09.that the increase in Conservative support is greater in places where

:50:10. > :50:14.there was a high Leave vote in the referendum in 2016, tell us more

:50:15. > :50:18.about that? Yes, there is, the truth is it looks as though the

:50:19. > :50:23.Conservative vote has increased more heavily in places where the Leave

:50:24. > :50:33.vote was strongest back in June last year. It has risen rather less where

:50:34. > :50:40.it went out the least. The opinion polls having Remain voters switching

:50:41. > :50:44.to the Conservatives, the second thing to bear in mind is the section

:50:45. > :50:48.of England in which we had elections yesterday was the section of England

:50:49. > :50:51.most likely to vote Leave and I think it would therefore be even

:50:52. > :50:56.more interesting now to look to see what happens in those mayoral

:50:57. > :51:01.contests which are taking place in which more urban, rather more

:51:02. > :51:06.pro-stay-macro places to see whether that is replicated. I want to draw

:51:07. > :51:11.your attention to something else more important, we have the first

:51:12. > :51:15.evidence from Scotland, Scotland is going to be a difficult story to

:51:16. > :51:18.follow because as most of the councils are fighting seats on new

:51:19. > :51:22.ward boundaries, so it will be a long time before we get voting

:51:23. > :51:26.figures, however the Scottish Borders, an area the Conservatives

:51:27. > :51:32.are hoping to take a Parliamentary seat from the SNP, is one of the few

:51:33. > :51:35.places where the wards this time I have the same as last time and what

:51:36. > :51:38.we find? The Conservative vote, the share of the first preference vote

:51:39. > :51:44.under the proportional representation system, is up by 19

:51:45. > :51:48.points compared with 2012. That performance is consistent with the

:51:49. > :51:53.kinds of figures of around 30% vote across Scotland as a whole in recent

:51:54. > :51:57.opinion polls. Conversely, the SNP vote is only up by three points,

:51:58. > :52:00.which I think they would certainly hope they will do better than that

:52:01. > :52:06.in other parts of Scotland. The first sign that perhaps those double

:52:07. > :52:09.in Scotland there is a Conservative revival and maybe it is going to

:52:10. > :52:12.tell in places where it could make a difference on June the 8th. One

:52:13. > :52:17.other thing to say about that, there was not much of a Labour vote in

:52:18. > :52:21.this ward in the first place but they still managed to go down by

:52:22. > :52:25.five percentage points. That is intriguing, John. The hold

:52:26. > :52:28.that thought on Scotland for a moment, we expect most of the

:52:29. > :52:32.results to come through this afternoon and towards tea-time, so

:52:33. > :52:34.with what you said in mind, we have concentrated on Glasgow because of

:52:35. > :52:39.the battle between the SNP and Labour, which are the ones should we

:52:40. > :52:51.now be looking out for? You mentioned the Scottish Borders,

:52:52. > :53:03.which areas will be most telling? As far as the English border where

:53:04. > :53:06.support tends to be low. Perth, Kinross, Aberdeenshire, places where

:53:07. > :53:11.the SNP have historically been strong but in last year's Scottish

:53:12. > :53:14.parliament election the Conservatives did relatively well,

:53:15. > :53:18.so as far as the Conservative SNP battle is concerned, that is where

:53:19. > :53:25.we are focused, that is where the Tories' hopes of getting seats in

:53:26. > :53:31.July. Another completely different battle between the SNP and Labour, I

:53:32. > :53:34.certainly wouldn't presume that we can infer anything about Glasgow

:53:35. > :53:38.from what happened in the Scottish Borders and we will need to wait

:53:39. > :53:42.much longer before we get some evidence as to whether the SNP is

:53:43. > :53:48.advancing relatively strongly in what we used to call red Clydeside

:53:49. > :53:52.but these days seems to be rather more like nationalist Clydeside. One

:53:53. > :53:56.final point, we have had quite a debate in the studio about the

:53:57. > :54:01.relative areas of Labour's performance, just a judgment on how

:54:02. > :54:06.Labour is doing generally? The truth is, if one takes the Labour Party's

:54:07. > :54:10.objective on June the 8th to be elected as the Government and to

:54:11. > :54:14.replace the Conservative Party in office, the evidence at these local

:54:15. > :54:16.elections is that it is an awful long way away from that objective,

:54:17. > :54:33.and that indeed if the general election had

:54:34. > :54:36.been held yesterday the Labour Party would have suffered an even bigger

:54:37. > :54:39.defeat than it did in 2015, so from that point of view this is not good

:54:40. > :54:42.news for the Labour Party. But, more results to come, we will see whether

:54:43. > :54:45.or not the pattern is different in more urban parts of England, but the

:54:46. > :54:47.truth if it is not encouraging for existing Labour MPs. Labour might

:54:48. > :54:50.still hope to narrow the Tory lead but winning this election, well,

:54:51. > :54:52.shall we say it would be quite a stupendous performance if Labour win

:54:53. > :54:54.the general election from the baseline that these local election

:54:55. > :55:00.results seem to be pointing to. John, we will talk again later. John

:55:01. > :55:05.mentioned the big battle in Glasgow between the SNP and Labour, the

:55:06. > :55:09.SNP's sister party in Wales is Plaid Cymru, and Leanne Wood, the leader,

:55:10. > :55:18.is in the Rhondda for us. Bore da, Leanne, thank you for joining us.

:55:19. > :55:25.Bore da, Hugh Labour holds onto Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea, the

:55:26. > :55:28.Plaid Cymru has not managed to put the brakes on their performance in

:55:29. > :55:35.those areas, what is your explanation for that? I haven't got

:55:36. > :55:39.an idea of the whole picture yet, results are still coming out for

:55:40. > :55:44.Wales but it looks as though Plaid Cymru has made breakthroughs in new

:55:45. > :55:50.ground, I'm delighted to be able to report to you that Darren Macey has

:55:51. > :55:58.just taken a seat in the Rhondda which we have never held before, we

:55:59. > :56:02.have held all but two in the Rhondda but that is why we have never held

:56:03. > :56:07.and we have just taken new ground in Denbighshire on top of gains in

:56:08. > :56:15.Bridgend, in Port Talbot, and other places throughout the country. We

:56:16. > :56:19.are looking set to do well as well as holding onto control in Kerry did

:56:20. > :56:23.young, so it is a good picture for us today in Plaid Cymru, I am here

:56:24. > :56:27.to talk about Plaid Cymru, not other parties. If you want to comment on

:56:28. > :56:33.Labour's woes, I suggest you speak to them. I certainly will, but given

:56:34. > :56:39.you don't have the overall picture, B give you the figures. So far in

:56:40. > :56:42.Wales, Labour have lost 75 councillors, the Independents have

:56:43. > :56:47.gained 21, the Tories have gained 50, Plaid Cymru have gained 14, the

:56:48. > :56:52.Lib Dems have lost nine, the Greens have gained one. 15 games now, we

:56:53. > :56:59.have just put it in, to Plaid Cymru, is that the level of performance you

:57:00. > :57:02.are satisfied with? Well, we still have a lot of results to come

:57:03. > :57:08.through yet, we are in the middle of account here in the Rhondda, some

:57:09. > :57:17.interesting looking piles of votes here, there are results expected in

:57:18. > :57:20.Carmarthenshire and Gwyneth, we are expecting some more surprises in

:57:21. > :57:26.areas that we have never held ground in before. So far things are looking

:57:27. > :57:32.good for Plaid Cymru, and it puts us in a good position to contest the UK

:57:33. > :57:36.election on June the 8th, especially in places like this in the Rhondda

:57:37. > :57:41.and seats that we will be looking to take, like Ynys Mon. Leanne Wood,

:57:42. > :57:44.good to talk to you from the Rhondda, thank you for joining us

:57:45. > :57:51.today. The Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.

:57:52. > :57:55.Going back to Scotland, Labour and Tory sources telling me that in

:57:56. > :57:58.Scotland the Tory vote share is up very significantly, suggested by

:57:59. > :58:02.Tory sources that they are doing well in what would normally be

:58:03. > :58:06.considered no-go areas for them like Midlothian, that part of the Central

:58:07. > :58:10.belt between Edinburgh and Glasgow that for decades has been Labour

:58:11. > :58:13.held, the SNP surge the last couple of years, the Tories picking up

:58:14. > :58:19.there as well. We will be back with the panel in a

:58:20. > :58:22.while. Time for us to take a quick break and we are going to get the

:58:23. > :58:26.latest now on the weather, with Phil.

:58:27. > :58:32.The weather not only for Wales but across the British Isles, and I take

:58:33. > :58:36.you immediately to a fine line of washing in Tadcaster, that is to

:58:37. > :58:40.remind me to tell you later how windy it is across the Pennines

:58:41. > :58:44.area. From the south, you can make other uses of a fairly strong wind

:58:45. > :58:49.affecting some of the channel coast at the moment. Cloudy in painting

:58:50. > :58:52.but across Lyme Bay I have seen superb pictures from the weather

:58:53. > :58:54.Watchers this morning of just how glorious the weather is in the area

:58:55. > :59:14.around about Portland. It is not just there,

:59:15. > :59:17.thanks to the area of high pressure which has been a familiar friend in

:59:18. > :59:19.recent days, not a great deal of change at the moment in the weather

:59:20. > :59:22.Overall. We still have a noticeable breeze coming in off a chilly North

:59:23. > :59:25.Sea so if you are spending any time in the Eastern counties of Scotland

:59:26. > :59:27.and England, you will know about the suppressed temperatures, despite the

:59:28. > :59:29.glorious weather that goes with it. The western side of Scotland, the

:59:30. > :59:32.West of Northern Ireland, out towards the Lancashire coast, we

:59:33. > :59:34.could be looking at 16, 17, 18, possibly 19 degrees. Further south,

:59:35. > :59:38.though I showed you the grim picture in Paignton, there is a breeze, more

:59:39. > :59:41.of a chance today of staying dry and seeing some sunshine, which has not

:59:42. > :59:53.been that prevalent across the South. It could well be that we will

:59:54. > :59:54.see some rain from the weather front getting into the very far

:59:55. > :59:57.south-west, towards the Channel Islands, certainly into the Isles of

:59:58. > :59:59.Scilly, as we go through the evening. Overnight, I think a game

:00:00. > :00:02.there is a touch of frost across Scotland as we go through the first

:00:03. > :00:05.part of the night so watch out for that as well. Into Saturday, still

:00:06. > :00:09.have the weather front close by to the far south-west but if you are

:00:10. > :00:12.looking for rain more widely across central and southern parts of

:00:13. > :00:16.England, having had such a dry spell, it is probably not a feature

:00:17. > :00:26.for you. Further north, essentially dry, fair amount of cloud, through

:00:27. > :00:29.Wales and the Midlands may a spot of rain first up, and again the onshore

:00:30. > :00:31.breeze kills the feel of the day across eastern shores. To complete

:00:32. > :00:36.the weekend, Saturday into Sunday, a change of wind direction but still

:00:37. > :00:40.cool, coming in from the north and north-east, said the eastern coast

:00:41. > :00:42.again perhaps a bit more cloud than you have seen of late across

:00:43. > :00:46.Scotland, towards the West is where you see the best of the temperatures

:00:47. > :00:59.and still but rather chilly feel in the East.

:01:00. > :01:03.It's 11 o'clock, and you're watching our special live

:01:04. > :01:07.coverage of the local elections in England, Wales and Scotland.

:01:08. > :01:12.Thousands of councillors being elected overnight and today,

:01:13. > :01:18.responsible for delivering your essential public services - and all

:01:19. > :01:27.of this happening, unusually, during a general election campaign.

:01:28. > :01:29.That has cast a shadow over these contests.

:01:30. > :01:32.We'll have results as they're declared, and we'll be getting

:01:33. > :01:35.reaction from the parties to what's going on.

:01:36. > :01:37.It's been a very good night for the Conservatives

:01:38. > :01:41.They've taken control of the councils in Gloucestershire,

:01:42. > :01:47.Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and Monmouthshire.

:01:48. > :01:53.They've also won the West of England Mayoral contest.

:01:54. > :01:56.And it looks at this early stage that they're heading for their best

:01:57. > :01:59.set of local elections for a decade or more.

:02:00. > :02:01.It has been a disappointing night the Labour.

:02:02. > :02:03.They're going backwards in England, and in Wales they've lost

:02:04. > :02:05.overall control of Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil, two councils

:02:06. > :02:09.But they have held on to their key Welsh strongholds of Cardiff,

:02:10. > :02:17.They've also won the mayoral contest in Doncaster.

:02:18. > :02:20.And it has been a pretty bad night for Ukip.

:02:21. > :02:26.And the party has been wiped out on councils like Lincolnshire,

:02:27. > :02:29.Their vote share is down dramatically, most of it

:02:30. > :02:48.-- we will be live in Birmingham to look at the West Midlands metro may

:02:49. > :02:53.contest. Expected to be a close contest between the Conservatives

:02:54. > :02:58.and Labour. That count will go on for quite some time yet. And we will

:02:59. > :03:03.be live in Glasgow as well, when the counting is on the way. -- where.

:03:04. > :03:05.The SNP are trying to take the City Council from Labour.

:03:06. > :03:21.We'll be covering the results from Scotland as they come in.

:03:22. > :03:26.In a moment, more from our guests, and we have some new members of the

:03:27. > :03:32.panel. I will give them a proper introduction. Laura is still with

:03:33. > :03:37.me. Before we do any of that, let's look at the latest numbers that we

:03:38. > :03:42.have. This is very important. The numbers have been changing a little.

:03:43. > :03:45.We had a huge surge overnight and now we are in a bit of a lull before

:03:46. > :03:53.we get more results in the afternoon. So far, 170 games for the

:03:54. > :04:09.Tories. -- gains. Ukip have not held any seeds so far.

:04:10. > :04:15.12 seats to the Green Party. That is the picture. That is the picture in

:04:16. > :04:20.terms of councillors. In a short while we will look at more specific

:04:21. > :04:24.areas. We will have a full round-up. It is a good moment to join Joanna

:04:25. > :04:25.further news and the other news as well.

:04:26. > :04:28.The Conservatives have made big gains in the local

:04:29. > :04:31.elections in England and Wales, recording their best

:04:32. > :04:38.Many votes are still to be counted, but the Tories have gained

:04:39. > :04:42.control of five councils, while Labour have lost three.

:04:43. > :04:45.Ukip have so far failed to win a single seat they were defending.

:04:46. > :04:47.With the story so far, here's our political

:04:48. > :05:03.It is the Conservatives with the biggest cheers. They won control of

:05:04. > :05:04.Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and the Isle of

:05:05. > :05:06.Wight. Charles Bowles is duly elected

:05:07. > :05:14.as the West of England Mayor. In the West of England the

:05:15. > :05:19.Conservative candidate made history by becoming a regional mayor. In

:05:20. > :05:23.Cumbria, the Tories have replaced Labour as the largest party. But

:05:24. > :05:24.senior Conservatives are playing down expectations ahead of the

:05:25. > :05:26.general election. The turnout in local

:05:27. > :05:28.elections, of course, is much, much lower

:05:29. > :05:29.than a general election. It is wrong to predict

:05:30. > :05:32.what will happen on June the 8th.

:05:33. > :05:33.We have a general election to campaign

:05:34. > :05:47.for and to win after The Tories are celebrating in Essex

:05:48. > :05:53.as well, where this time around voters turned their back on Ukip. In

:05:54. > :05:56.Lincolnshire, where the Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, will fight for a

:05:57. > :06:01.Westminster seat next month, the party was wiped out. With no win so

:06:02. > :06:07.far, the Ukip future is in question. I have been Ukip for four years. The

:06:08. > :06:11.amount of times I have heard a Ukip is finished, if I had a pound for

:06:12. > :06:15.everyone, I would probably quite a bit woman. It is not over until it

:06:16. > :06:21.is over. And despite these pretty poor election results so far, it is

:06:22. > :06:22.not over. There was positive news for Labour.

:06:23. > :06:25.In Doncaster, they held onto the elected mayor's job, but the

:06:26. > :06:27.party has lost scores of seats in swing areas.

:06:28. > :06:29.These counties are the Tories' strongholds.

:06:30. > :06:32.It was going to be a tough night for Labour, and we're in

:06:33. > :06:35.the middle of the general election campaign.

:06:36. > :06:39.Mixed motives, people voting largely on local issues, not national ones.

:06:40. > :06:43.But what is coming across is that where people

:06:44. > :06:45.predicted we would be wiped out, in places like Wales,

:06:46. > :06:57.The Lib Dems are made so far it has been a mixed set of results for

:06:58. > :07:04.them. We have held our ground in the face of a massive shift. An enormous

:07:05. > :07:08.shift of Ukip voters to the Conservatives. Given that that

:07:09. > :07:12.happened, we have done well to stay where we are. The Green Party says

:07:13. > :07:16.with the Conservatives dominating, other parties need to collaborate.

:07:17. > :07:22.There is a strong message that people want the parties to be

:07:23. > :07:26.working together rather than against one another. Under this kind of

:07:27. > :07:29.system it is clear when we stand against one another, we lose ground

:07:30. > :07:35.and the Conservatives gain. Local elections results do not translate

:07:36. > :07:38.to a general election, but they are a significant barometer. The outcome

:07:39. > :07:42.will influence the tactics of the main parties over the next few

:07:43. > :07:46.weeks. First son, the results today have been too close to call. The

:07:47. > :07:53.Tories were denied an overall majority in Northumberland after the

:07:54. > :07:56.Lib Dem candidate literally drew the longest straw. For now, back to the

:07:57. > :07:59.counting. Plenty of that to be done. The final day of campaigning has

:08:00. > :08:01.begun in the French presidential Polls show that the centrist

:08:02. > :08:05.Emmanuel Macron maintains a clear lead over his Front National

:08:06. > :08:07.opponent Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile Mr Macron has filed

:08:08. > :08:09.a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account

:08:10. > :08:12.in the Caribbean. He has strongly denied

:08:13. > :08:22.the allegations. A British man has died

:08:23. > :08:24.while skydiving in Thailand. It happened in the Thai

:08:25. > :08:26.resort town of Pattaya. 69-year-old James McConnell -

:08:27. > :08:28.an experienced skydiver - leapt from a plane and landed

:08:29. > :08:32.in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip

:08:33. > :08:35.at the Thai Sky Adventures airbase. His son has posted a message

:08:36. > :08:38.on social media saying That's a summary of the news -

:08:39. > :09:05.now back to Local Elections Welcome back once again to our

:09:06. > :09:08.studio at Westminster. We are covering the live results from the

:09:09. > :09:14.local elections in England and Wales. Getting some signals of what

:09:15. > :09:19.might be in store in Scotland. Very early days there of course because

:09:20. > :09:23.most of the Scottish results will not come in until later this

:09:24. > :09:28.afternoon. Key battle grounds, not just in terms of the local contests,

:09:29. > :09:33.but we might look at Padron 's looking ahead towards the general

:09:34. > :09:37.election. Lots to discuss. -- patter ands. We have a look at some of the

:09:38. > :09:41.results we have already had and maybe look at some of the details.

:09:42. > :09:49.We have a new panel. Diane Abbott is with us. And the Conservative Sam

:09:50. > :09:54.Gyimah. And the Lib Dems Tom Brake. Laura is still with me. Can we start

:09:55. > :09:59.on Scotland? I know you have been getting some intelligence? There is

:10:00. > :10:02.a pattern emerging. What the Tories hope to do in the general election

:10:03. > :10:07.is borne out by the local results. That is, start to make progress in

:10:08. > :10:13.areas where Tories frankly went out with the ark. In Midlothian and

:10:14. > :10:18.five, parts of Scotland that are laboured to the core, seats are

:10:19. > :10:21.being won by the Conservatives. -- Labour. In Clackmannanshire are

:10:22. > :10:25.there was no Tory representation whatsoever, but overnight that has

:10:26. > :10:33.changed. They have representation in every ward. And one big scalp, I'm

:10:34. > :10:38.told the SNP leader in Fife Council, Gordon Brown's old backyard, has

:10:39. > :10:41.lost his seat to a Conservative. A picture that is bad for the Labour

:10:42. > :10:49.Party and bad for the SNP, although we do expect the SNP to take Glasgow

:10:50. > :10:53.Consul, a big totemic win. Can we pick up on the Conservative prospect

:10:54. > :10:59.in Scotland, and whether what Laura says makes sense to you? We are

:11:00. > :11:03.seeing encouraging results across the country for the Conservative

:11:04. > :11:07.Party. In Scotland, we have had Ruth Davidson, who has run a terrific and

:11:08. > :11:13.energetic campaign, we would expect to move forward. It will be a

:11:14. > :11:16.challenge overtaking Labour. They have four times as many councillors

:11:17. > :11:20.as we have. The key thing emerging from not just Scotland but England

:11:21. > :11:28.and Wales is that on the Theresa May, her strong and stable

:11:29. > :11:32.leadership is cutting through. Her position on Brexit is resonating.

:11:33. > :11:36.Particularly in Scotland, we are the party that supports the union and

:11:37. > :11:42.will stand up for the union while the other parties want to break up

:11:43. > :11:45.our country. That last comment is clearly not true. The Liberal

:11:46. > :11:49.Democrats don't want to break up the union in Scotland. I think perhaps

:11:50. > :11:54.there was some of that happening in terms of people identify which of

:11:55. > :11:57.the parties could challenge the SNP. Maybe the Conservatives benefited

:11:58. > :12:03.from that. I hope the same will be true in some areas where the Liberal

:12:04. > :12:08.Democrats are strong. Diane, your thoughts so far on the Labour

:12:09. > :12:11.performance? There is no question these are different results --

:12:12. > :12:16.disappointing results. But I think we have to be careful from

:12:17. > :12:20.extrapolating from local elections to the general. The turnout is much

:12:21. > :12:24.lower. And in many cases people vote on specifically local issues. But I

:12:25. > :12:28.am not pretending that these are not disappointing results. Stephen

:12:29. > :12:33.Kinnock was on early saying something similar to what you said

:12:34. > :12:37.but he said that they were frankly with disastrous results. Is that a

:12:38. > :12:42.word you would use? I wouldn't use that word. In Wales there were

:12:43. > :12:46.disappointing but certainly not as bad as the polling suggested. We

:12:47. > :12:50.have held Cardiff, we have increased representation in Swansea. So I

:12:51. > :12:56.wouldn't use the word disastrous at all. The point he was making was

:12:57. > :13:03.that lots of Labour campaigners have been let down, he felt, by weakness

:13:04. > :13:08.in terms of the leadership. I know that is a theme we have discussed

:13:09. > :13:11.many times in the past. But on a day when Labour is counting significant

:13:12. > :13:17.losses in some areas, is it fair for him to raise that theme? Stephen is

:13:18. > :13:22.entitled to his own opinion. What we are saying is that we do better

:13:23. > :13:26.overall in Wales than the opinion polls would seem to indicate. We

:13:27. > :13:31.still think there is all to play for in the general election. Laura, what

:13:32. > :13:36.is your thought in terms of the Labour performance generally? Are

:13:37. > :13:42.not being specific in terms of Wales or Scotland. Look, the convention

:13:43. > :13:45.is, and this is challenged by Labour HQ this morning, if it parties on

:13:46. > :13:49.track to even have a shot at taking power in a general election, they

:13:50. > :13:57.should be stacking up seats in local elections. It is not a direct reader

:13:58. > :14:00.cross. There are local issues. But that is what convention dictates. If

:14:01. > :14:05.you follow that convention, this is a bad set of results for the Labour

:14:06. > :14:08.Party. I think what we will hear more from Labour MPs across the

:14:09. > :14:13.piece, apart from the core around Jeremy Corbyn, is people saying, as

:14:14. > :14:16.they already have been saying, they will talk about voting for their

:14:17. > :14:21.local MPs, they will talk about voting to have a strong opposition,

:14:22. > :14:25.they will, wherever possible, not talk about Jeremy Corbyn. And the

:14:26. > :14:28.message from the core around Jeremy Corbyn would be very different. We

:14:29. > :14:31.have heard John McDonnell saying this morning that the more people

:14:32. > :14:37.see of Jeremy Corbyn, the more they like him. That is not what the

:14:38. > :14:42.results suggest. We are in a political era where the conventions

:14:43. > :14:46.are being smashed. Dangerous to refer to convention. I still think

:14:47. > :14:51.there is everything to play for. Everything to play for when it comes

:14:52. > :14:55.to June the 8th? Yes, there is everything to play for. We know that

:14:56. > :15:01.in a local election people would do things that they wouldn't do in a

:15:02. > :15:07.general. The idea that it is all done and dusted for the general

:15:08. > :15:11.election is a fallacy. You can't extrapolate from the local

:15:12. > :15:14.to the general election, even though this is a highly unusual local

:15:15. > :15:19.election happening in the middle of the general election. So she is

:15:20. > :15:22.right. That is why we are not taking anything for granted under the

:15:23. > :15:25.Conservative side. If you want to Theresa May as your Prime Minister

:15:26. > :15:31.you have two fold for her on June the 8th. Something quite clear about

:15:32. > :15:39.the Korber leadership is he has lost his party, he has -- he is losing in

:15:40. > :15:46.the Labour heartlands and he hasn't spoken on Brexit. Not many people

:15:47. > :15:51.can see him sitting opposite 27 leaders negotiating for our country.

:15:52. > :15:57.If you do want the right Prime Minister, who I believe is Theresa

:15:58. > :16:01.May, you have two vote for her. One thing that is certain as a result of

:16:02. > :16:05.these results is that the Conservatives are not going to be

:16:06. > :16:08.able to run this line of the coalition of chaos. We can

:16:09. > :16:12.extrapolate something from these results. That looks as though it is

:16:13. > :16:15.very likely there will be a Conservative majority. Who is going

:16:16. > :16:21.to be providing the opposition and what size will that majority be due

:16:22. > :16:24.I hope we're not going to hear from the Prime Minister, coalition of

:16:25. > :16:29.chaos, and that is something Tim Farron has completely excluded. The

:16:30. > :16:33.only way in which Jeremy Corbyn get into Downing Street is if he rides

:16:34. > :16:42.on the coat-tails of other political parties like the Liberal Democrats.

:16:43. > :16:44.A high street betting shop predicts that the Labour Party,

:16:45. > :16:49.unfortunately, will be winning 160 seats at the general election. They

:16:50. > :16:58.cannot form a majority government. And we excluded that option anyway.

:16:59. > :17:03.The option is not on the table. Vote for Theresa May on June the 8th. If

:17:04. > :17:06.you vote for any other political party, you risk voting for Jeremy

:17:07. > :17:14.Corbyn. Vote Conservative to get Theresa May. Very quickly, a quick

:17:15. > :17:20.word? We have no intention of riding and anybody's coat-tails. When we

:17:21. > :17:25.see the results from the big cities, ride, we will see what people think

:17:26. > :17:28.of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. We have been talking about the Ukip

:17:29. > :17:32.collapse overnight, they have their white dead in quite a few the

:17:33. > :17:35.councils were they did so well in 2013. -- wiped out.

:17:36. > :18:04.This is Paul Nuttall's response. Laura, looking at those words, that

:18:05. > :18:08.goes way beyond anything that Suzanne and Peter were talking about

:18:09. > :18:12.earlier? They were talking about a rebrand, a bright future.

:18:13. > :18:15.Essentially he has not just admitted defeat but essentially said that

:18:16. > :18:19.defeat is worth it, Ukip has achieved what it set out to do all

:18:20. > :18:22.those years ago. I think following that statement it will be very

:18:23. > :18:27.difficult for Paul Nuttall to say what you give is for. He is

:18:28. > :18:35.basically saying, job done. I get why people didn't vote for us. It is

:18:36. > :18:40.a curious position. Four years ago in this studio Nigel Farage came in

:18:41. > :18:43.and we couldn't get him out. He said their first several hours. It was

:18:44. > :18:49.their big breakthrough. This is implying, and I hope I am not being

:18:50. > :18:54.unfair to Paul Nuttall, the purpose has gone, has evaporated. That is

:18:55. > :18:58.the imprecation. He does say in another part of the statement that

:18:59. > :19:05.the party has a bright future. The wave that swept it in in 2013 has

:19:06. > :19:12.swept back out again. What do you make of that? He is putting a brave

:19:13. > :19:16.face on what is a Ukip defeat. What I am encouraged by is that we are

:19:17. > :19:21.winning votes across the political spectrum and across the country. But

:19:22. > :19:27.you are being massively helped by a Ukip collapse, that is clear. In

:19:28. > :19:34.Essex and elsewhere. It is still early. There are lots of results yet

:19:35. > :19:37.to come. We had a referendum. Theresa May has the right approach

:19:38. > :19:43.to the Brexit negotiations. Voters are recognising that stable

:19:44. > :19:47.leadership is what will deliver the right result in terms of Brexit and

:19:48. > :19:53.beyond. I welcome that. But it is not just a Ukip collapse that is

:19:54. > :19:56.helping the Conservatives. It is in Wales and Scotland, we are yet to

:19:57. > :20:00.see what is happening, but another part of the country, we are waiting

:20:01. > :20:05.across the board. -- winning. That is encouraging. Before we go to

:20:06. > :20:10.Edinburgh, just to set the scene again, what is at stake in the

:20:11. > :20:15.Scottish elections? Well, a lot. There are local elections across the

:20:16. > :20:19.country but this is a testing ground, if you like, for whether or

:20:20. > :20:23.not the SNP will fall back from their huge peak that they achieved

:20:24. > :20:30.in the 2015 election, extremely good results in 2016. Can the Tories make

:20:31. > :20:33.genuinely big inroads, not just in part of the country that they have

:20:34. > :20:39.held before but right across the board in Scotland? That is what

:20:40. > :20:43.Theresa May once, that is what Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader,

:20:44. > :20:48.has been working on, and it seems from these early signs they may have

:20:49. > :20:52.made huge strides. I am hearing rumours of tactical voting, people

:20:53. > :20:56.going to the Lib Dems. I am hearing of straight switches from Labour to

:20:57. > :21:01.the Tories. All sorts of stuff. A lot of action happening in Scotland.

:21:02. > :21:05.It is a really, really important set of results, because it will dictate

:21:06. > :21:13.some of what will happen on June the 8th. Let's see if with the evidence

:21:14. > :21:18.in Edinburgh. We join our correspondent. What is the state of

:21:19. > :21:23.play as you see it? The SNP think they are continuing to

:21:24. > :21:28.do well, based on results from 2012. They think they have increased their

:21:29. > :21:32.number from last times. But the Conservatives and the Lib Dems are

:21:33. > :21:37.happy. We have only had a couple of declarations. Many in egg --

:21:38. > :21:41.Edinburgh West. That is a big constituency for the Lib Dems. They

:21:42. > :21:46.are very optimistic that would give them a good base on which to fight

:21:47. > :21:49.the general election. You heard Laura talking about the

:21:50. > :21:53.Conservatives been buoyant in Scotland. I think that is absolutely

:21:54. > :21:58.the case. My phone has been ringing off the hook with Conservatives

:21:59. > :22:06.around the country optimistic about what they are seeing. The result we

:22:07. > :22:10.had a moment ago, the party won a seat from Labour. And across the

:22:11. > :22:15.country, there are areas where typically the Conservatives have

:22:16. > :22:18.been very poorly represented in the past. Many of them traditional

:22:19. > :22:26.Labour heartlands. The party thinks today they are doing extremely well.

:22:27. > :22:32.A talk about how patterns of voting change. People inevitably are

:22:33. > :22:40.looking ahead a few weeks to the general election. What kind of

:22:41. > :22:44.lessons are you learning? There is a certain signal coming from SNP

:22:45. > :22:48.voters that they preferred the Greens as their back-up preference.

:22:49. > :22:52.Single transferable vote here. They are voting firstly for the SNP

:22:53. > :22:58.candidate, and afterwards, their next preferences the greens. Some

:22:59. > :23:03.sources here think that yes, there are transfers of votes. But in areas

:23:04. > :23:09.where certain parties, unionist parties, are preferred to others,

:23:10. > :23:13.those votes are going elsewhere. Take Edinburgh West, where the Lib

:23:14. > :23:17.Dems are the main opponent of the SNP, many unionists are not voting

:23:18. > :23:22.for Labour or the Tories, thereby straight to the Lib Dems. The

:23:23. > :23:29.Conservatives think that the Unionist vote in Glasgow West is

:23:30. > :23:33.coalescing around them. We will look at the wards that comprise Edinburgh

:23:34. > :23:39.South. That is the last remaining Edinburgh seat that Labour won in

:23:40. > :23:43.2015. Ian Murray's seat. The SNP elected to put by big challenge. We

:23:44. > :23:47.will look to see if the Labour Party are winning those Unionist votes in

:23:48. > :23:52.Edinburgh South, or weather that has been chipped away and whether

:23:53. > :23:55.potentially in a few weeks, we could see Labour pots last seat in

:23:56. > :24:02.Scotland go to another party. Nick, thank you. We are going to go

:24:03. > :24:07.from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. We are joined by the former first minister,

:24:08. > :24:13.former leader of the SNP, Alex Salmond. Thank you for joining us.

:24:14. > :24:20.Hull pleasure. What you make of things so far? Well, it's early in

:24:21. > :24:27.the day in terms of a total pattern. But here in the north-east the SNP

:24:28. > :24:32.are running very strongly. The SNP have high hopes of taking control of

:24:33. > :24:37.the city. The Conservative vote is very strong and we will have to do

:24:38. > :24:41.something about that in few weeks. To what extent would you agree with

:24:42. > :24:49.the reports of a Conservative in parts of Scotland, and what do you

:24:50. > :24:53.attribute that to? Well, the Conservative vote is on the rise but

:24:54. > :24:56.at the end of today, probably Scotland would be the only place

:24:57. > :25:01.where the Conservatives have been beaten. That is to say the objective

:25:02. > :25:05.of an election campaign is to win more votes and more seats than any

:25:06. > :25:10.the party, and we are confident the SNP will do exactly that across

:25:11. > :25:14.Scotland. So when it comes to the general election, we want to

:25:15. > :25:18.reinforce this trend. There is one thing desperately needed in this

:25:19. > :25:22.country and that is a real opposition to Theresa May and the

:25:23. > :25:28.Conservative Party. The SNP in Scotland intend to provide it. There

:25:29. > :25:36.is a little problem on the sand. I will carry on and hope for the best.

:25:37. > :25:40.That is a wee bit disconcerting! We are going to carry on. I am

:25:41. > :25:45.wondering about Glasgow. Clearly it is a big battle between the SNP and

:25:46. > :25:54.Labour. How do you read that battle and how important is it for the SNP?

:25:55. > :25:58.One of the SNP's key targets, if you take Glasgow, the iconic city the

:25:59. > :26:04.SNP are looking to take control of, that would be a major moment for the

:26:05. > :26:07.Scots -- SNP. In the north-east of Scotland we are hoping to take

:26:08. > :26:12.control of Aberdeen, the Northern Lights, which would also be a major

:26:13. > :26:17.moment. These are two very important targets. But votes across the

:26:18. > :26:21.country can. We will be looking to become the largest party in terms of

:26:22. > :26:24.seeds and votes after all the votes are counted today. I think one very

:26:25. > :26:29.interesting trend, when you see the disappearance of Ukip from English

:26:30. > :26:33.politics and welts politics for that matter, is the extent to which the

:26:34. > :26:39.Conservative Party have actually become Ukip. They have eliminated

:26:40. > :26:43.Ukip by becoming Ukip. And the sort of extreme language that the Theresa

:26:44. > :26:49.May used in Downing Street the other day, that could have come from Nigel

:26:50. > :26:54.Farage. The Conservative party have managed to assimilate Ukip votes by

:26:55. > :26:57.becoming Ukip. I think a lot of people will think twice before

:26:58. > :27:03.endorsing this type of Conservative Party.

:27:04. > :27:08.Alex Salmond, thank you very much. Alex Salmond, the former Scotland

:27:09. > :27:12.First Minister for the SNP, saying some forthright things. Sam, you

:27:13. > :27:16.want to come in on that. I will bring you in in a moment. I just

:27:17. > :27:21.want to bring in Professor John Curtice. Just a thought on the

:27:22. > :27:28.Scottish picture first before I bring in my panel. What did you make

:27:29. > :27:32.of that? We need to decode what Alex Salmond said. He set himself the

:27:33. > :27:37.rather low objective of being the largest party in Scotland in terms

:27:38. > :27:41.of votes and seats. Actually the SMP micromanaged that in 2012 and what

:27:42. > :27:44.was widely regarded as a disappointing performance. Given

:27:45. > :27:50.that no opinion poll has put the SNP other than being the most popular

:27:51. > :27:54.party in Scotland for a very long time, his objective seems rather

:27:55. > :27:59.low. I thought in truth there was perhaps, and certainly it was an

:28:00. > :28:02.acknowledgement, that the Conservatives are advancing

:28:03. > :28:06.significantly. We have heard that from Aberdeen and Edinburgh. What

:28:07. > :28:10.will perhaps worry the SNP more, and we saw this happened last year in

:28:11. > :28:17.the Scottish Parliament election, that in individual areas voters

:28:18. > :28:21.start to go to one Unionist party, maybe the Lib Dem is -- the Liberal

:28:22. > :28:26.Democrats in Edinburgh West. That makes it more difficult for the SNP

:28:27. > :28:29.to win this many seeds if the Unionist vote becomes more

:28:30. > :28:34.congregated. It is early days. But as it were, I think we will now

:28:35. > :28:37.begin to be surprised if there was a very substantial Conservative

:28:38. > :28:42.advance north of the border, bearing in mind it 2012 they did not do very

:28:43. > :28:47.well. We are still asking the key question, how well are the SMP going

:28:48. > :28:51.to do? SNP gains are expected. It is the size of the gains that are

:28:52. > :28:56.crucial to understanding how well they have done.

:28:57. > :29:02.That will give us a flavour as to how much Nicola Sturgeon's very bold

:29:03. > :29:08.moves to force a second Independence Referendum have played. Some inside

:29:09. > :29:12.the SNP will think, hang on, Nicola Sturgeon made an audacious move by

:29:13. > :29:16.demanding a second referendum, knowing that Theresa May would say

:29:17. > :29:20.no. If that has translated into a search for the Scottish

:29:21. > :29:25.Conservatives, that may be a worry for some inside the SNP. It was a

:29:26. > :29:29.finely balanced decision. There were people on different sides, playing

:29:30. > :29:33.different ways. It reminds us that the Constitution has been an issue.

:29:34. > :29:39.The dominant political issue in Scotland is the constitution.

:29:40. > :29:43.John, can we have a final word at this point from you? We dealt with

:29:44. > :29:46.part of the picture in Scotland. Just a broad view of where we are

:29:47. > :29:50.with the other party across England, Scotland and Wales? We started the

:29:51. > :29:55.morning saying the Conservatives had done well. Getting further results

:29:56. > :29:58.from England and a variety of other councils. That impression has been

:29:59. > :30:02.reinforced. It looks as if Conservatives are doing that little

:30:03. > :30:07.bit better than they were doing on average overnight. The broad pattern

:30:08. > :30:11.we told you about at nine o'clock is still in force and maybe the

:30:12. > :30:12.Conservatives just doing that and that better than before that. Thank

:30:13. > :30:21.you. John will join us again later on. We

:30:22. > :30:26.will have a good conversation about those points. There are several

:30:27. > :30:30.things there to pick up on, not least from Alex Salmond's

:30:31. > :30:32.contribution. At 11. 30am, we watch catch up with the latest news and

:30:33. > :30:36.let's join Joanna. The Conservatives have made big

:30:37. > :30:40.gains in the council elections in England and Wales,

:30:41. > :30:42.recording their best Many of the votes cast

:30:43. > :30:45.yesterday across England, Scotland and Wales are still to be

:30:46. > :30:48.counted, but Labour have suffered losses and Ukip have failed

:30:49. > :30:51.to win a single seat. The Conservatives have been

:30:52. > :30:53.celebrating a series of victories The results so far show the Tories

:30:54. > :30:59.taking control of five local councils and winning more council

:31:00. > :31:02.seats than any other party. The Tories also celebrated victory

:31:03. > :31:06.in the West of England, where the Conservative Tim Bowles

:31:07. > :31:10.was elected to the newly created However, senior members

:31:11. > :31:15.of the Conservative Party are downplaying the significance

:31:16. > :31:24.of their victories saying many votes I think the early results are

:31:25. > :31:29.encouraging, but they are early results. We've seen less than a

:31:30. > :31:32.quarter of the vote actually counted and reported. The turnout in

:31:33. > :31:38.locational elections is much, much lower than in a general election, so

:31:39. > :31:42.you know, it's wrong to predict what's going to happen on June 8. We

:31:43. > :31:44.still have a general election to campaign for and to win, after last

:31:45. > :31:48.night. But encouraging signs. Elsewhere Labour have

:31:49. > :31:49.lost three councils, Despite the losses in Wales,

:31:50. > :31:54.Labour did hold Cardiff council. The party was also victorious

:31:55. > :31:59.in Doncaster, where its candidate Ros Jones, the Labour mayor,

:32:00. > :32:01.was re-elected, securing Labour's John McDonnell told people

:32:02. > :32:05.to wait for results elsewhere to come in before judging

:32:06. > :32:13.the party's performance. If you look at where we've really

:32:14. > :32:16.campaigned hard, in terms of Wales, in particular, Jeremy Corbyn was

:32:17. > :32:19.down in Cardiff. There's been a lot of work on the ground with our

:32:20. > :32:23.membership out there knocking on doors. We've defied all the

:32:24. > :32:27.predictions on the losses. Where we've lost in South Wales, what's

:32:28. > :32:40.interesting, it hasn't been to the Tories actually in terms of what's

:32:41. > :32:43.happened in Merthyr Tydfil, they've returned to independents.

:32:44. > :32:45.The results have been disappointing for UKIP.

:32:46. > :32:48.The party failed to win any of the seats it contested -

:32:49. > :32:50.losing 46 previously held council seats.

:32:51. > :32:53.UKIP says it still has sitting councillors in the country,

:32:54. > :32:57.although those positions were not up for election this time.

:32:58. > :33:05.The results have been mixed for the Liberal Democrats.

:33:06. > :33:07.A short time ago, the party had lost 23 council seats.

:33:08. > :33:10.The Lib Dems also failed to retake Somerset Council

:33:11. > :33:12.from the Conservatives, although the Tory leader John Osman

:33:13. > :33:14.was ousted by Lib Dem former MP Tessa Munt.

:33:15. > :33:17.Despite the overall picture of the Conservatives performing

:33:18. > :33:19.well, some electoral battles have been very close indeed.

:33:20. > :33:21.The winner of a seat in Northumberland County Council

:33:22. > :33:24.was decided by drawing straws, after two candidates received

:33:25. > :33:31.Here is the moment that the Lib Dem candidate Lesley Rickerby selected

:33:32. > :33:37.It meant that the Conservatives were denied overall

:33:38. > :33:47.The final day of campaigning is under way in the French

:33:48. > :33:49.presidential election before voting takes place on Sunday.

:33:50. > :33:51.Polls show that the centrist, Emmanuel Macron, maintains a clear

:33:52. > :33:57.lead over the far right candidate Marine Le Pen.

:33:58. > :34:04.Hello and welcome to a busy Friday in Paris, but it's anything but

:34:05. > :34:10.normal here in France, as we enter the final hours of the presidential

:34:11. > :34:14.election campaign 2017. At midnight tonight, local time, the candidates

:34:15. > :34:19.must fall silent, the campaigning must end, before a day of pause and

:34:20. > :34:25.reflection on Saturday and then the final vote on Sunday. What an

:34:26. > :34:29.extraordinary campaign it's been, so fractious, so bad tempered, cull

:34:30. > :34:33.mainiating in the debate on Wednesday night when the two

:34:34. > :34:36.candidates sat face to face for two-and-a-half hours and argued

:34:37. > :34:42.bitterly. It hasn't done Marine Le Pen favours in the poll. Emmanuel

:34:43. > :34:47.Macron is now on 62% edging up slightly against her 38%, following

:34:48. > :34:50.that debate. Let's look through the papers quickly to see how they are

:34:51. > :34:59.mulling over this moment in French politics. They are very much in the

:35:00. > :35:04.Macron camp. Marine Le Pen this paper says has a strategy of lies.

:35:05. > :35:11.They have put the 19 points she said in the debate calling them all

:35:12. > :35:17.untrue. Le Figaro called the Le Pen campaign a shipwreck and say the

:35:18. > :35:23.Macron is the arch favourite. Calling Marine Le Pen the big loser.

:35:24. > :35:29.The financial paper talks about Macron, Le Pen, the battling of

:35:30. > :35:34.extremism. Then very stark message on the front of the left-wing paper,

:35:35. > :35:38.that is a picture of Marine Le Pen's father, the founder of the National

:35:39. > :35:41.Front. It says she has not changed. Despite all her efforts to move away

:35:42. > :35:46.from the past of the National Front, this paper says she is still her

:35:47. > :35:51.father's daughter. It is a big lead for Emmanuel Macron in the polls.

:35:52. > :35:55.Remember, up to 20% of French voters are still undecided. Abstention is a

:35:56. > :35:59.big thing in French elections, many people could simply stay away or

:36:00. > :36:06.spoil their ballots. There still is everything to play for.

:36:07. > :36:08.The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker,

:36:09. > :36:11.has raised a few eyebrows for comments he made about English

:36:12. > :36:15.During a conference in Italy on the state of the European Union,

:36:16. > :36:18.Mr Juncker chose to speak in French, due to the presidential elections

:36:19. > :36:28.I'm hesitating between English and French, but I make my choice. I will

:36:29. > :36:40.express myself in French. Because... APPLAUSE

:36:41. > :36:41.Slowly but surely English is losing importance in Europe...

:36:42. > :36:44.LAUGHTER The head of the world's second

:36:45. > :36:46.largest investment bank, Goldman Sachs, has warned that

:36:47. > :36:49.Britain's financial centre - the City of London -

:36:50. > :36:57."will stall" when the country leaves Lloyd Blanfein told the BBC that the

:36:58. > :37:01.future of the sector, which employs more than a million people and pays

:37:02. > :37:03.about 12% of all Government tax revenue would depend on the terms of

:37:04. > :37:11.Britain's exit from the EU. That's a summary of the news -

:37:12. > :37:25.now back to Local Election Welcome back to our live coverage of

:37:26. > :37:29.the local election results in England and Wales and Scotland.

:37:30. > :37:32.Let's stay with Scotland, because we have our first Scottish local

:37:33. > :37:38.authority result in. One of the smallest local authorities in

:37:39. > :37:44.Scotland. This is Clackmannanshire. This is a hung council. The SNP

:37:45. > :37:48.short by two seats of overall control.

:37:49. > :37:57.The Conservatives on five, that will be seen as a gain for them.

:37:58. > :38:08.That means tla we can look at the scoreboard for Scotland:

:38:09. > :38:19.Er we've had ray result from Orkney as well. We're adding those in. The

:38:20. > :38:25.independents on 20. Very early days, let me underline that again.

:38:26. > :38:31.Orkney and Clackmannanshire are the first two. Laura, a quick word on

:38:32. > :38:35.that. Clackmannanshire an area where the SNP are just short there. But a

:38:36. > :38:39.Conservative, well, four seats I think, can we call that a surge,

:38:40. > :38:43.certainly an increase. What we're seeing is Tory foot prints going

:38:44. > :38:47.into place where's they didn't previously exist. That's the chatter

:38:48. > :38:52.out of Scotland, potentially by the end of the day, an extraordinary set

:38:53. > :38:57.of results for the Tory party that they will hope to translate into

:38:58. > :39:03.Westminster increased representation, which has been so

:39:04. > :39:06.tiny for such a long time. The question of the constitution is the

:39:07. > :39:10.thing that has been on the table, this is a Unionist versus

:39:11. > :39:14.independence battle, rather than anything to do with lockal issues in

:39:15. > :39:20.most places. Let's' see how the Conservatives are doing else wr. We

:39:21. > :39:24.go to Kent. A traditional strong hold and Ukip has in the past done

:39:25. > :39:31.rather well. Peter, just bring us up to date there.

:39:32. > :39:36.Here in Thanet, they're counting seven of the 81 Kent County Council

:39:37. > :39:42.seats. This area is Margate, Ramsgate and broad stairs, the area

:39:43. > :39:45.that Ukip thinks as a strong hold, they hold the local District Council

:39:46. > :39:49.here. Nigel Farage stood in the general election here and came close

:39:50. > :39:54.second. In the other national seat, also Ukip came second. As they're

:39:55. > :39:58.counting away, they've said that the turnout is just below 32%, lower

:39:59. > :40:02.than the national average. What is the important thing here, is the

:40:03. > :40:07.Conservative it's are walking around with broad smiles on their faces.

:40:08. > :40:11.Last time round, Ukip won six of the seats here. Labour won one and there

:40:12. > :40:15.was an independent. It's gone down to seven seats. Now I'm told by the

:40:16. > :40:20.Conservatives that it's completely changed. They say that the Ukip vote

:40:21. > :40:24.has totally collapsed and it's almost like winding the clock back

:40:25. > :40:29.and now it's just between them and Labour. Ukip have not appeared on

:40:30. > :40:32.the ballot papers at all. People just haven't gone out and voted

:40:33. > :40:35.Labour. Now the Conservatives are predicting that they could win up to

:40:36. > :40:41.five of these seats and Labour could win two. So it's a complete change

:40:42. > :40:45.of the political geography in this area which was seen as a Ukip strong

:40:46. > :40:49.hold. Can we ask the question why and what

:40:50. > :40:53.are Ukip telling you and what are others saying about what's happened

:40:54. > :40:59.to that Ukip vote and what are the reasons people are giving for not

:41:00. > :41:02.backing them this time? When I've been on the streets and you've been

:41:03. > :41:06.asking people how are you going to vote in the general election, what

:41:07. > :41:10.do you think will happen, will Nigel Farage stand in south Thanet again

:41:11. > :41:18.and talking about local issues, people have just said Brexit is

:41:19. > :41:21.Brexit, job done. That's what is coming from the count at the moment.

:41:22. > :41:29.People think Brexit is done. Ukip has done their job. Also, the

:41:30. > :41:35.council, the only council run by Ukip. There's one key issue over an

:41:36. > :41:39.airport closure and whether this will be compulsory purchased by the

:41:40. > :41:42.local council. The Council when they came in, Ukip said they would do

:41:43. > :41:49.everything to keep this as an airport, that ended. There's a bit

:41:50. > :41:51.of local opposition against the sitting District Council and that's

:41:52. > :41:55.reflected in the County Council votes and how people are voting in

:41:56. > :41:59.this area. A final thought, though, as I keep on saying, this is a bit

:42:00. > :42:02.of a risky business, do you want to give us any thought about the

:42:03. > :42:09.Parliamentary battles coming up in a few weeks' time in that part of

:42:10. > :42:14.world? Well, I'd say on the Parliamentary basis, you've got one

:42:15. > :42:19.seat, north Thanet, that is safe as houses, Conservative, always has

:42:20. > :42:24.been. The MP has been there since 1983. He's carrying on. He's very

:42:25. > :42:27.well known locally. The other seat is the one that Nigel Farage only

:42:28. > :42:31.announced a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't going to stand against. I

:42:32. > :42:36.saw Nigel Farage a few weeks ago and said, why aren't you going to stand?

:42:37. > :42:39.He gave a wry smile. He was meeting the party faithful. I believed when

:42:40. > :42:46.I looked him in the eyes, that he believed job done, I'm not going to

:42:47. > :42:50.win here. There is the issue locally of the expenses claims and Ukip

:42:51. > :42:53.always said that it wasn't a fair fight, wasn't a level playing field.

:42:54. > :42:58.The Conservatives have said that it was a level playing field and the

:42:59. > :43:01.file was passed to the criminal prosecution service. I think the

:43:02. > :43:05.Conservatives from the results here and from what they're looking at by

:43:06. > :43:09.sampling the votes as they're coming in, it looks like these two seats

:43:10. > :43:12.will definitely be Conservative come the general election.

:43:13. > :43:18.Peter, once again, thank you very much for bringing us up to date in

:43:19. > :43:22.Thanet. Back to the studio. Let's talk to Dan and to Sam and Tom. Sam,

:43:23. > :43:27.first of all, the picture there in Kent, what do you make of it? Again,

:43:28. > :43:32.encouraging. Again, good to see that we are winning seats in places where

:43:33. > :43:38.Ukip did very well last time round. We are doing quite well. I think the

:43:39. > :43:41.overall picture as I've been saying throughout is that we are

:43:42. > :43:48.competitive everywhere. The Conservative Party is the only party

:43:49. > :43:52.that is competitive in England, in Scotland and Wales. Going back to

:43:53. > :43:56.Alex Salmond's comments, what we saw was a denial, the SNP are in denial.

:43:57. > :44:01.They are so tunnel visioned about the independence referendum that

:44:02. > :44:04.they've taken their eye off the ball on governing. That's what Ruth

:44:05. > :44:08.Davidson and Theresa May have focussed on in the elections there.

:44:09. > :44:13.We've seen that that's being played out around the country. This is not

:44:14. > :44:16.a Ukip collapse that is benefitting the Conservatives. If you take

:44:17. > :44:21.Warwickshire, it's a Labour-Conservative battleground.

:44:22. > :44:23.We've come out on top. Somerset, Gloucestershire, that was

:44:24. > :44:28.Conservative, Liberal Democrats. In Wales, where Labour are saying it's

:44:29. > :44:35.a mixed picture, we know that the First Minister, Carwyn Jones, h

:44:36. > :44:39.shielded Jeremy Corbyn from what could have been more difficult

:44:40. > :44:41.election results for them. Kent, you know, which is generally

:44:42. > :44:44.Conservative heart land, the rest of England and Wales, shows that we are

:44:45. > :44:48.competitive because we are speaking for all of Britain. Is that a fair

:44:49. > :44:52.point that Carwyn Jones in Wales has been able to shield Labour from

:44:53. > :44:57.Jeremy Corbyn, that's the phrase used? He is the leader in Wales. And

:44:58. > :45:06.people will know that. It's not about shielding anybody. Let me just

:45:07. > :45:11.say this: We heard Paul Nuttal say that a big Tory advance is a price

:45:12. > :45:15.worth paying. There will be Labour voters, including those who haven't

:45:16. > :45:20.voted in the local elections, who will not think a big Tory advance is

:45:21. > :45:23.a price worth paying. They will be frightened what will happen if

:45:24. > :45:28.Theresa May wins or even if she gets a big irmajority. -- bigger

:45:29. > :45:31.majority. That will focus minds. Ukip may think a big Tory advance is

:45:32. > :45:36.a price worth paying. Millions of voters will not think that. When I

:45:37. > :45:39.speak to people on the doorstep they are terrified of the prospect of a

:45:40. > :45:45.Jeremy Corbyn Premiership. This is a man who is not supported by 75% of

:45:46. > :45:48.his own MPs. Come on. Indeed. That's why he's not going to be the next

:45:49. > :45:51.Prime Minister. What is clear certainly in England is that Ukip

:45:52. > :45:56.has made a substantial contribution to helping the Conservatives win. I

:45:57. > :46:00.think the Prime Minister has very deliberately pitched a hard Brexit

:46:01. > :46:04.to attract those voters. I think it will quite cynical of her to have

:46:05. > :46:08.launched her barrage against the European Union the day before the

:46:09. > :46:12.council elections, which I think the purpose of that was to say to Ukip

:46:13. > :46:17.voters - come to me, I will represent the hard Brexit views that

:46:18. > :46:21.you represent or you believe in, which personally I think will do

:46:22. > :46:24.huge damage to the British economy and British families and jobs. I

:46:25. > :46:28.think that's a distraction by the way. This is a pivotal time in our

:46:29. > :46:34.country's history. The time that we will face on June 8 is do you want

:46:35. > :46:40.Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn as your Prime Minister? Who do you trust to

:46:41. > :46:47.deliver on Brexit? Who do you trust to lock in the economic progress?

:46:48. > :46:51.It's not just about Brexit. The uncertainty and the risk that is

:46:52. > :46:56.posed by a Jeremy Corbyn Premiership will hit jobs, will hit people's pay

:46:57. > :46:59.packets and - Are you saying it's a distraction for voters to think

:47:00. > :47:02.about anything other than the choice between Theresa May and Jeremy

:47:03. > :47:05.Corbyn in a general election? This is a general election, it's about

:47:06. > :47:09.every issue in people's lives. It's not just a choice between the

:47:10. > :47:13.leaders at the top of the party. But ultimately, when I talk to people on

:47:14. > :47:16.the doorstep, when most people think about this, they are concerned about

:47:17. > :47:20.leadership, a lot flows from leadership. They Can You Hear Me?

:47:21. > :47:26.Can are concerned about whether the leader can -- they are concerned

:47:27. > :47:32.about whether they can deliver. I went to a school this morning and

:47:33. > :47:36.had an interesting Q with the school council and two thirds of

:47:37. > :47:40.those questions were about cuts. The ?3 billion worth of cuts proposed by

:47:41. > :47:42.2020 and the impact on the number of teachers and class sizes. This is a

:47:43. > :47:48.general election - Is that a distraction? So who do you want to

:47:49. > :47:52.be Prime Minister? Is that a distraction, you used to be an

:47:53. > :47:58.Education Minister. Is it a distraction for voters to worry

:47:59. > :48:03.about schools or less money for head teachers? I wasn't commenting on

:48:04. > :48:08.voters. I was speaking to the point. Our economy is impacted by Brexit

:48:09. > :48:13.but I believe that strong and stable leadership from Theresa May... Does

:48:14. > :48:16.Sam get a prize for every time he says strong and stable. It's

:48:17. > :48:23.important. It's the most important thing in the election. It's

:48:24. > :48:28.antidemocratic to say that the NHS and education is a distraction.

:48:29. > :48:33.Demonising Jeremy Corbyn may yet rebound on you. I think triumphalism

:48:34. > :48:38.will rebound on you. Thank you very much. Lots of strong views here. We

:48:39. > :48:40.want to catch up on what's going on in Glasgow, because we have some

:48:41. > :48:46.news there. Anita? We certainly do. Quite a

:48:47. > :48:50.story for you here from Glasgow, because we've just had the first

:48:51. > :48:55.three wards declared and we know because of those results that Labour

:48:56. > :48:59.cannot have an overall majority here in Glasgow. So we know already at

:49:00. > :49:03.this early stage that Labour has lost overall control of Glasgow

:49:04. > :49:08.Council for the first time in 40 years. That really is quite a story

:49:09. > :49:11.here developing. With me is our Scotland political correspondent

:49:12. > :49:15.Glenn Campbell. That's a bit of a wow moment hearing that first

:49:16. > :49:19.result. Yeah, there are 85 seats in Glasgow. Labour were fielding 43

:49:20. > :49:24.candidates. In other words, they needed all of those to be elected

:49:25. > :49:30.here in Glasgow for them to retain overall control of the city

:49:31. > :49:34.chambers. We know that they have lost in Shettleston and therefore

:49:35. > :49:38.they can't get to the magic number. Whether they end up being part of a

:49:39. > :49:42.power-sharing deal or not we have to wait and see the the SNP have been

:49:43. > :49:48.targeting this city for years. They would hope to finish as the largest

:49:49. > :49:51.party perhaps with overall control but one other factor here is there

:49:52. > :49:58.are breakthroughs for the Conservative Party in Glasgow. Let's

:49:59. > :50:02.look at that. Shettleston ward, one of the more deprived parts of

:50:03. > :50:07.Glasgow, yet a Conservative has won a seat there. There was a huge cheer

:50:08. > :50:11.when that was declared. One wouldn't have expected necessarily this to be

:50:12. > :50:14.natural territory for the Conservatives, what's the

:50:15. > :50:17.significance of that? Absolutely, that's a big breakthrough for the

:50:18. > :50:22.Conservative Party getting a councillor elected in Shettleston.

:50:23. > :50:23.There was a huge cheer, a celebration because the

:50:24. > :50:29.Conservatives until now have only had one seat in the city as a whole.

:50:30. > :50:33.Ruth Davidson, the Scottish party leader, has fought this campaign not

:50:34. > :50:37.so much on local issues but on the big national picture and campaigning

:50:38. > :50:43.against a second referendum on Scottish independence. So it may be

:50:44. > :50:46.that has played an important factor in the Tories making that

:50:47. > :50:50.breakthrough. We're hearing this have broken through this what I

:50:51. > :50:54.believe is the most deprived ward in the whole of Scotland in Fergusly

:50:55. > :50:58.Park in paisley, an astonishing result for them. It seems that in

:50:59. > :51:01.certain parts of the country they're winning over support from Labour and

:51:02. > :51:10.perhaps from elsewhere to make those gains. Glenn, thank you very much.

:51:11. > :51:14.So, let's see if that early gain for the Conservatives transitions into

:51:15. > :51:19.more gains across Glasgow Council and also, that big, developing story

:51:20. > :51:24.here, Labour has lost some of the seats it held. We've heard that in

:51:25. > :51:30.the first three declarations that. Means they cannot have an overall

:51:31. > :51:36.majority at Glasgow Council. If we look back to 2012, in a quarter of

:51:37. > :51:41.the councils in Scotland, the party that won the largest number of seats

:51:42. > :51:45.didn't actually go on to form or be part of the administration. It is

:51:46. > :51:49.still possible that Labour in some sort of coalition could be running

:51:50. > :51:54.Glasgow Council, but the SNP, as we know, this is a big, symbolic target

:51:55. > :51:58.for them. They are trying to get to the magic number of 43 seats and web

:51:59. > :52:01.overall control -- win overall control here. Very interesting.

:52:02. > :52:07.Thanks very much. What do we make of that? You heard Glenn's thought on

:52:08. > :52:11.the kind of mix of, the peaks, if you like, which is causing surprise.

:52:12. > :52:14.Sure, massive moment for Glasgow to go to the SNP in terms of council

:52:15. > :52:17.control, remember, Glasgow is absolutely a yes city in the

:52:18. > :52:22.independence referendum. Now the test for the SNP is whether or not

:52:23. > :52:27.they can take an overall majority. And what has been a phenomenal SNP

:52:28. > :52:30.campaigning machine has been targeting to try to do that. It will

:52:31. > :52:34.be a disappointment for them if they don't actually manage to take

:52:35. > :52:38.control of the Council. I'm hearing whispers that might not happen. Yet

:52:39. > :52:43.again, you hear evidence that the Tories creeping back and frankly,

:52:44. > :52:48.until very recently, no bookie in the crown triwould have even given

:52:49. > :52:54.you a bet that the Tories would have been able to take Council wards in

:52:55. > :52:56.places like Shettleston. That is an astonishing change, absolutely

:52:57. > :53:00.astonishing. Thanks very much for now. We were reporting earlier about

:53:01. > :53:05.Conservative performance in Scotland, but also in Wales. They

:53:06. > :53:11.now control Monmouthshire Council. They made gains there. We will speak

:53:12. > :53:15.to the leader of the Welsh Conservatives, at City Hall in

:53:16. > :53:20.Cardiff. How would you describe your performance overnight? We've worked

:53:21. > :53:24.tirelessly over the last 365 days leading up to this campaign.

:53:25. > :53:30.Ultimately our local champions have come through and won in all areas we

:53:31. > :53:35.needed to win, Wrexham, overall control in Monmouthshire. Very good

:53:36. > :53:38.result in the Vale of Glamorgan and doubled numbers in Bridgend, double

:53:39. > :53:41.digits there, the home constituency of the First Minister. We take

:53:42. > :53:46.nothing for granted. We know there's a lot of hard work to be done. It is

:53:47. > :53:51.pleasing to see local communicates being rewarded for all their hard

:53:52. > :53:55.work. Labour still in overall control of Cardiff, Swansea and

:53:56. > :54:00.Newport. You can't be that chuffed with that. Well, we've doubled our

:54:01. > :54:04.representation here in Cardiff. As I've said, I've given you a list of

:54:05. > :54:08.where we have moved forward. We have moved forward across all parties

:54:09. > :54:14.really. I've come from the Vale of Glamorgan, where we have taken a

:54:15. > :54:18.seat there, which was four Plaid Cymru Councillors, they've held it

:54:19. > :54:22.for 30 years. Now Conservative Councillors there. We have taken off

:54:23. > :54:27.Labour and off the remember domes. We're taking -- Lib Dems. We are

:54:28. > :54:30.taking seats from all parties. People recognise the hard work that

:54:31. > :54:34.local champions have been undertaking over the last 365 days,

:54:35. > :54:38.not just when it leads up to election time. It's local issues,

:54:39. > :54:41.yes? Not about national issues at all despite the fact that this is

:54:42. > :54:48.taking place during a general election campaign? Well, what has

:54:49. > :54:50.interested me is the amount of people who have disassociated the

:54:51. > :54:58.general election from the local election. I was out knocking on

:54:59. > :55:03.doors up until 10pm last night, it was such as about the bypass, it was

:55:04. > :55:06.an incinerator in Barry and provision of education in some

:55:07. > :55:10.areas. There were local issues playing right the way through this

:55:11. > :55:13.campaign, but I don't doubt obviously the general election has

:55:14. > :55:16.had an impact as well. But we know full well that our local champions

:55:17. > :55:20.have been out because we take nothing for granted here in Wales.

:55:21. > :55:24.Every day of the week, leading up to this campaign and before, promoting

:55:25. > :55:26.what they stand for, promoting the beliefs of the Welsh Conservative

:55:27. > :55:30.Party and they've been rewarded in the ballot box. Now the hard work of

:55:31. > :55:32.delivering in county halls. We move into the general election and we

:55:33. > :55:37.continue those conversations in all parts of Wales to make sure that we

:55:38. > :55:40.succeed at general election in delivering MPs to support Theresa

:55:41. > :55:44.May, because it's vital that the choice before the British people is

:55:45. > :55:47.over Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn. Final point, are you going to

:55:48. > :55:52.acknowledge that the collapse in Ukip's vote has at least helped you

:55:53. > :55:56.quite a big deal in some areas? Well, as I said, we take nothing for

:55:57. > :55:59.granted here in Wales. We work tirelessly in all parts of Wales to

:56:00. > :56:04.try and secure people's confidence. That has been rewarded in parts of

:56:05. > :56:10.Wales. We still have nine councils counting here. The full picture

:56:11. > :56:13.hasn't emerged yet. I heard what you said about Glasgow and the

:56:14. > :56:17.Conservatives moving forward there. There's a ward in Barry Caddock

:56:18. > :56:20.where we haven't had representation ever before. That was the leader of

:56:21. > :56:26.the council's ward and we have taken a seat there. The leader got back in

:56:27. > :56:30.with just 14 votes. We're succeeding in taking votes from Labour, Plaid

:56:31. > :56:35.Cymru, the liberals across the board. We know what hard work Hier

:56:36. > :56:39.in Wales and -- work is here in Wales. We're prepared to work

:56:40. > :56:42.tirelessly to deliver a majority for Theresa May. The consequences if we

:56:43. > :56:45.don't, is a coalition of chaos under Jeremy Corbyn, the Nationalists and

:56:46. > :56:50.the liberals. Andrew, thank you very much for joining us.

:56:51. > :56:54.I'm sorry the picture was slightly breaking up towards the end. We

:56:55. > :56:58.heard every word there. We heard coalition of chaos again Tom. We

:56:59. > :57:03.did, even though it's clearly not going to happen and Tim Farron my

:57:04. > :57:06.party leader has ruled it out. Clearly the results from Wales for

:57:07. > :57:09.the Lib Dems are not particularly good. We think for instance that

:57:10. > :57:13.Cardiff, the city, is something that's hay real Ross -- that's a

:57:14. > :57:17.real prospect at the general election. We lost our Council leader

:57:18. > :57:23.in Cardiff. We gained a seed from Plaid Cymru. The -- seat from Plaid

:57:24. > :57:26.Cymru. The picture is mixed. I hope we will speak about the south-west

:57:27. > :57:29.of England, where the Lib Dems have done well, taking a seat from the

:57:30. > :57:34.Council leader in Dorset and Somerset. We will be talking to

:57:35. > :57:37.Martin Oats shortly. We have been talking earlier on about Somerset

:57:38. > :57:41.and Gloucestershire too and the west of England. We will come back to

:57:42. > :57:44.that. Laura, we will see you in a short while. We're back here in the

:57:45. > :57:50.studio in a moment. I think the best thing now is to look at weather.

:57:51. > :57:54.It's Phil. Thanks very much. Always a safe bet. Let's continue that

:57:55. > :58:01.theme about the west that you picked up on there. I will trants port you

:58:02. > :58:05.towards the Paignton area. Quite a bit of cloud there. The exception to

:58:06. > :58:10.the rule. Here, brighter than it has been of late in parts of the

:58:11. > :58:13.south-east. And as you work your way further north, I'm sure you're

:58:14. > :58:16.getting used to it Scotland, Northern Ireland, north of England,

:58:17. > :58:20.parts of Wales too, it has been a glorious week for many. Slightly

:58:21. > :58:23.marred by the flow around that area of high pressure which has brought

:58:24. > :58:29.so much of this settled weather because the winds are coming in off

:58:30. > :58:35.a chilly North Sea. At the moment, no better than ten degrees or so, as

:58:36. > :58:38.my son found out on Sunday at broad stairs. If we come to the north of

:58:39. > :58:44.Scotland, mid-afternoon, there is low cloud just flirting with some of

:58:45. > :58:49.these Eastern shores. It's the onshore breeze that pegs you back.

:58:50. > :58:52.In the west, as high as 20, 18 or 19 today. Similar across Northern

:58:53. > :58:56.Ireland. A lot of dry weather. You've seen the satellite picture.

:58:57. > :58:59.Glorious conditions for much of Walesant north of England. Further

:59:00. > :59:03.south, yes, there is more cloud here than anywhere else across the

:59:04. > :59:10.British Isles. But it is pink waited with more holes -- punctuated with

:59:11. > :59:13.more holes. Some of those holes are in the south-western quarter, Devon,

:59:14. > :59:18.Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and Channel Islands. You will find

:59:19. > :59:21.eventually some rain for some. Further north in Scotland, away from

:59:22. > :59:25.the influence of that front, the skies stay clear. There will be a

:59:26. > :59:28.frost. As there has been the past couple of mornings. That band of

:59:29. > :59:33.weather, if you're wanting rain, only really is a concern down across

:59:34. > :59:36.the far south-west and into the Channel Islands, through the course

:59:37. > :59:39.of the day on Saturday. More cloud than of late perhaps across the

:59:40. > :59:44.greater part of England and Wales and it may just have enough about it

:59:45. > :59:46.across the heart of Wales, the Midlands and Lincolnshire, on the

:59:47. > :59:51.first part of Saturday to give a spot of rain. We still have that

:59:52. > :59:57.temperatures differential from east to west. From Saturday into Sunday,

:59:58. > :00:00.the one noticeable change is that we're bending the isobars into a

:00:01. > :00:05.slightly different direction. No warmer really for the most part,

:00:06. > :00:09.because there's still that hint of north and North Westerly about it.

:00:10. > :00:13.Cloud and cool over on the Eastern shores. In the west, the best of the

:00:14. > :00:16.sunshine and things bucking up nicely I would have thought across

:00:17. > :00:18.the south-east into the start of next week, we'll still see a lot of

:00:19. > :00:31.dry weather. Welcome to viewers on BBC Two

:00:32. > :00:38.and the BBC News Channel, for our special live

:00:39. > :00:40.coverage of the local elections in England,

:00:41. > :00:47.Wales and Scotland. Quite a few important threads to

:00:48. > :00:50.discuss. Thousands of councillors

:00:51. > :00:52.being elected overnight and today, responsible for delivering your

:00:53. > :00:54.essential public services, and all of this happening, unusually,

:00:55. > :01:09.during a general election campaign. We are talking about lots of things.

:01:10. > :01:10.We are talking about local authorities delivering very

:01:11. > :01:13.important local services. We'll have results as they're

:01:14. > :01:16.declared, and we'll be getting reaction from the parties

:01:17. > :01:24.to what's going on. It's been a very good night

:01:25. > :01:29.for the Conservatives They've taken control

:01:30. > :01:32.of the councils in Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire,

:01:33. > :01:35.the Isle of Wight and Monmouthshire. They've also won the West

:01:36. > :01:38.of England mayoral contest. And it looks at this early stage

:01:39. > :01:43.that they're heading for their best set of local elections

:01:44. > :01:47.for a decade or more. Its been a disappointing

:01:48. > :01:52.night for Labour. And in Wales they've

:01:53. > :01:56.lost overall control of Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil,

:01:57. > :01:58.two councils in their But they have held on to their key

:01:59. > :02:03.Welsh strongholds of Cardiff, They've also won the mayoral

:02:04. > :02:10.contest in Doncaster. And it has been a terrible

:02:11. > :02:13.night for Ukip. Overnight they lost every

:02:14. > :02:16.seat they were defending. And the party has been wiped out

:02:17. > :02:19.on councils like Lincolnshire, Their vote share is down

:02:20. > :02:36.dramatically, most of it Counting still under way in Glasgow.

:02:37. > :02:42.We now know from results already in that Labour have lost their overall

:02:43. > :02:47.control of Glasgow. That is a very big development. Lots of results

:02:48. > :02:50.still to come in. We're basing that on the so far.

:02:51. > :02:52.Coming up, we'll be live in Birmingham to look

:02:53. > :02:56.It's expected to be a close contest between

:02:57. > :03:20.Here we are back in the studio. I have been joined by Peter Kellner,

:03:21. > :03:27.the distinguished analyst. Peter will be talking about some of these

:03:28. > :03:31.trends. Laura will be back. And Dianne, Sam and Tom are still here.

:03:32. > :03:36.We will be talking a bit more about those things. The most important

:03:37. > :03:46.thing at this point is to look at the figures. We need to get right

:03:47. > :03:50.up-to-date with where we are. The Conservatives have made 199 gains in

:03:51. > :04:02.terms of council seats. Labour 142 losses. The Lib Dems 23 losses.

:04:03. > :04:09.Plaid Cymru on 19 games. The SNP on a single game. Lots of Scottish

:04:10. > :04:14.results to come. Ukip, that is a pretty dramatic tally. No seats to

:04:15. > :04:18.their name so far. 59 losses. When we said it has been a brutal night

:04:19. > :04:25.and day for Ukip, it has been. Seven games for the Green Party. Those are

:04:26. > :04:30.the results. We will have a little chat in a moment about what it

:04:31. > :04:32.means. But first, Joanna has the latest news.

:04:33. > :04:34.The Conservatives have made big gains in the local

:04:35. > :04:36.elections in England and Wales, recording their best

:04:37. > :04:45.Ukip have so far failed to win a single seat they were defending.

:04:46. > :04:53.Labour have suffered losses. They have lost overall control of Glasgow

:04:54. > :04:54.for the first time in more than 35 years, although the counting in the

:04:55. > :05:08.city is continuing. It is the Conservatives with the

:05:09. > :05:09.biggest cheers. The party has won control of Warwickshire,

:05:10. > :05:10.Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and the Isle of Wight.

:05:11. > :05:17.Charles Bowles is duly elected as the West of England Mayor.

:05:18. > :05:25.In the West of England the Conservative candidate made history

:05:26. > :05:30.by becoming the regional mayor. In Cumbria the Tories have replaced

:05:31. > :05:31.labour as the largest party. Senior Conservatives are playing down

:05:32. > :05:32.expectations ahead of the general election.

:05:33. > :05:34.The turnout in local elections, of course,

:05:35. > :05:38.is much, much lower than a general election.

:05:39. > :05:41.It is wrong to predict what will happen on June the

:05:42. > :05:42.8th. We have a general election

:05:43. > :05:49.to campaign for and to win after last night, but encouraging signs.

:05:50. > :05:59.The Tories are celebrating in Essex, too. Voters turned their back on

:06:00. > :06:03.Ukip. In Lincolnshire, where the Ukip leader will fight for a

:06:04. > :06:06.Westminster seat next month, the party was wiped out. With no wins so

:06:07. > :06:08.far, the Ukip future is in question. The amount of times

:06:09. > :06:12.I have heard that Ukip is finished - if I had

:06:13. > :06:14.a pound for everyone, I would probably quite a rich woman.

:06:15. > :06:18.It is not over until it is over. And despite these pretty

:06:19. > :06:31.poor election results There was some positive news for a

:06:32. > :06:36.Labour. In Doncaster, they held onto the elected mayor's job. But the

:06:37. > :06:37.party as last scores of seeds in swing areas.

:06:38. > :06:39.These counties are the Tories' strongholds.

:06:40. > :06:42.It was going to be a tough night for Labour, and we're in

:06:43. > :06:43.the middle of the general election campaign.

:06:44. > :06:46.Mixed motives, people voting largely on local issues, not national ones.

:06:47. > :06:49.But what is coming across is that where people

:06:50. > :06:51.predicted we would be wiped out, in places like Wales,

:06:52. > :07:01.The Lib Dems are made so far it has been a mixed set of results for

:07:02. > :07:02.them. An enormous shift

:07:03. > :07:07.of Ukip voters to the Given that that happened,

:07:08. > :07:19.we have done well to stay The Green Party says with the

:07:20. > :07:20.Conservatives dominating, other parties need to collaborate.

:07:21. > :07:23.There is a strong message that people want the parties to be

:07:24. > :07:25.working together rather than against one another.

:07:26. > :07:28.Under this kind of system it is clear when we stand

:07:29. > :07:36.against one another, we lose ground and the Conservatives gain.

:07:37. > :07:43.Local election results do not translate directly to a general

:07:44. > :07:46.election. But they are a significant barometer. The outcome will

:07:47. > :07:50.influence the tactics of the main parties in the next few weeks. For

:07:51. > :07:55.some, the results have been too close to call. The Tories were

:07:56. > :07:59.denied an overall majority in Northumberland after the Lib Dem

:08:00. > :08:02.candidate literally drew the longest straw. For now though, it is back to

:08:03. > :08:11.the counting. There is plenty of that to be done.

:08:12. > :08:12.The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker,

:08:13. > :08:14.has said the English language is losing its importance.

:08:15. > :08:17.During a conference in Italy on the state of the European Union,

:08:18. > :08:20.Mr Juncker chose to speak in French, due to the presidential elections

:08:21. > :08:29.I'm agitated between English and French. But I made my choice. I will

:08:30. > :08:39.express myself in French. APPLAUSE.

:08:40. > :08:44.Because slowly but surely English is losing importance in Europe.

:08:45. > :08:46.The final day of campaigning has begun in the French presidential

:08:47. > :08:57.Voters will choose between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen.

:08:58. > :09:00.Meanwhile Mr Macron has filed a lawsuit over online rumours

:09:01. > :09:02.that he had a secret bank account in the Caribbean.

:09:03. > :09:06.He has strongly denied the allegations.

:09:07. > :09:22.That is a summary of the news. Now back to you Edwards.

:09:23. > :09:30.Welcome back. Lots to talk about. We have taken stock. I have shown you

:09:31. > :09:34.some of the figures. The Conservatives have made quite solid

:09:35. > :09:40.gains. Labour had a disappointing performance. Peter Kellner is here.

:09:41. > :09:45.Some headline thoughts. What are your thoughts at this stage? Clearly

:09:46. > :09:48.very good for the Conservatives. They have beaten all the predictions

:09:49. > :09:54.that were made ahead of yesterday as to how they would do. Certainly in

:09:55. > :09:59.England. To some degree in Wales. Probably Scotland but it is early

:10:00. > :10:03.days. Disappointing for a Labour. Both against where they should be at

:10:04. > :10:08.this stage and against the expectations, which were very low

:10:09. > :10:11.before yesterday. I think also the Liberal Democrats and the SNP will

:10:12. > :10:20.be disappointed. Ukip, it's a catastrophe. One of the big picture

:10:21. > :10:24.points, each time we have local elections, there are bits of Britain

:10:25. > :10:27.that didn't vote yesterday, London didn't vote, the big metropolitan

:10:28. > :10:33.cities did not vote on the whole, and that is where the Remain vote

:10:34. > :10:36.which lost the referendum is strongest. There is a big gap in our

:10:37. > :10:41.understanding as to whether Labour or the Liberal Democrats might be

:10:42. > :10:49.appearing to underperform because most of the English votes have been

:10:50. > :10:56.cast in Leave England. You extending that note of caution to most people

:10:57. > :10:59.who want to read into what will happen in four Weeks? I wouldn't

:11:00. > :11:08.read specific numbers into what will happen. But two general elections in

:11:09. > :11:13.the 1980s, which came in 1983 and in 1987. In 1983, the Tory lead in the

:11:14. > :11:21.local elections was three percentage points. The opinion polls gave them

:11:22. > :11:27.a lead of 10%. They won the general election by 15. Similar in 1987.

:11:28. > :11:33.Local elections showed a modest Tory lead, they won big. Past performance

:11:34. > :11:38.does not guarantee what happens in the future. In as far as we have

:11:39. > :11:41.something like an equivalent pattern going into a June election with the

:11:42. > :11:47.Conservatives ahead in the polls, look at what happened in the locals

:11:48. > :11:55.then, in the campaigns then. It does not look good for a Labour.

:11:56. > :11:58.A quick note. I'm going to go to west Sussex, areas where the Lib

:11:59. > :12:04.Dems have held seats in the past. A note on the Lib Dems? Their

:12:05. > :12:10.performances party. They were hoping they would make net gains. They are

:12:11. > :12:17.making gains in some places, losses in others. Tom may have better award

:12:18. > :12:22.by Ward data. It is not clear to me that tactical voting is happening on

:12:23. > :12:26.the left of politics very much. On the right what we can say is that

:12:27. > :12:33.where the Ukip vote was biggest, four years ago, that is where the

:12:34. > :12:39.Conservatives have gained this time. Look at Essex, look at Lincolnshire.

:12:40. > :12:42.If there is going to be tactical voting, it might be more efficient

:12:43. > :12:49.on the right of politics than on the left. Let's get some evidence. Let's

:12:50. > :12:58.go to West Sussex. Wording. Peter Henley is there. Where are you so

:12:59. > :13:02.far? -- Worthing. Across the south of England, the Conservatives doing

:13:03. > :13:09.well. Ukip wiped out in Hampshire. Last ten seats. A lot of nervous

:13:10. > :13:13.faces here. West Sussex, Ukip is the official opposition to the

:13:14. > :13:19.Conservatives. In general, the shire counties are Conservative dominated.

:13:20. > :13:22.Some government MPs were saying they felt their harshest critics were on

:13:23. > :13:32.the Schar county councils over school funding and social care. --

:13:33. > :13:37.shire. There are worried faces in Ukip. They should be able to hold

:13:38. > :13:45.one seed. It may be the only Ukip seed they hold. They have got 54% of

:13:46. > :13:50.the vote. -- they got 54% of the vote in 2013. Fingers crossed they

:13:51. > :13:56.can at least hold onto something. It thought about the Lib Dem

:13:57. > :14:01.performance on the south coast? What would you say? They picked up one in

:14:02. > :14:06.Hampshire. You mentioned Eastleigh. It is a stronghold, Eastleigh. They

:14:07. > :14:10.still have the district council. I think that as buoyed them by little

:14:11. > :14:14.bit for the general election. In the by-election they held onto it. They

:14:15. > :14:19.lost it in the general. The Lib Dems are hoping they make come back in

:14:20. > :14:24.Eastleigh. They seem to be able to pick off individual areas. They

:14:25. > :14:27.picked off in Dorset the leader of the Council, the Conservative

:14:28. > :14:37.leader. The same thing happened in Somerset. Looking at the Hampshire

:14:38. > :14:45.figures, ten gains for the Tories. A single gain for the Lib Dems. Ukip

:14:46. > :14:50.taking that hit, losing eight seeds. Whatever the reason people are

:14:51. > :14:57.giving for not voting Ukip this time when they voted in such big numbers

:14:58. > :15:02.in 2013? They say, what is the point? Brexit is happening. Even in

:15:03. > :15:07.areas where there were strong Leave votes. Ukip have not made the impact

:15:08. > :15:12.in local government we might have expected. Interesting quote from

:15:13. > :15:15.Aaron Banks, who has just said that the current leadership has crashed

:15:16. > :15:19.the car at the first bend of the race. Ukip on the current leadership

:15:20. > :15:25.without positive radical politics it is finished as an electoral force.

:15:26. > :15:33.Is that a theme, given what you have just said, that will chime with

:15:34. > :15:37.people? Yes, absolutely. They don't seem unhappy about it. Talking to

:15:38. > :15:40.the Ukip people, they say they have done their job. And in local

:15:41. > :15:45.government I think they did feel lost. How can they campaign on

:15:46. > :15:49.something like school funding? How can they offer a protest vote? I

:15:50. > :15:52.will be watching the Green Party closely as well. They have high

:15:53. > :15:57.hopes on the Isle of Wight, where the Conservatives took back the

:15:58. > :16:01.council and independents went down. Also in Dorset they picked up a seat

:16:02. > :16:05.there. I think the Greens feel they may be able to get some of those

:16:06. > :16:16.protest votes, particularly from Remainers. Straight to Cornwall.

:16:17. > :16:24.Martyn Oates is there. Can you give me your thoughts on what is going

:16:25. > :16:28.on? Broad thoughts. The broad picture in the south-west, as ever,

:16:29. > :16:34.really, is the great conflict between the Conservatives and the

:16:35. > :16:39.Lib Dems. Here in Cornwall, the Lib Dems fancy their chances of taking

:16:40. > :16:43.overall control. I suspect they may be sobered by that result in

:16:44. > :16:47.Somerset, where they took the scalp of the Tory leader of the council

:16:48. > :16:52.but saw the Tories reinforce their hold on the council. More

:16:53. > :16:55.specifically about the Conservative performance and where you think it

:16:56. > :17:01.has done well and where they have been vulnerable? ? Well, the Lib

:17:02. > :17:06.Dems were optimistic in Somerset. Clearly that has been disproven by

:17:07. > :17:13.the results. A very interesting result just in from Devon. The

:17:14. > :17:17.former Liberal Democrat MP lost his seat in 2010 and went on to become a

:17:18. > :17:24.county council. He has just lost his council seat to the Tories. We are

:17:25. > :17:40.just looking at the Somerset figures. Six gains for the Tories,

:17:41. > :17:45.six losses for the Lib Dems. In your experience, has the Ukip vote fed to

:17:46. > :17:50.the Conservatives? It looks as if that is happening. It is also

:17:51. > :17:53.interesting to look at the Ukip presents in council zones in the

:17:54. > :17:58.south-west anyway. In Cornwall at the last election they won six

:17:59. > :18:01.seats, which was quite a dramatic breakthrough, through resignations

:18:02. > :18:05.and by-elections that dwindled to just one in this election. That

:18:06. > :18:11.single Ukip councillor is standing again. But they are really not

:18:12. > :18:17.defending very much. Yes, the mood of the vote, the shift of the vote

:18:18. > :18:21.across the region, seems to be very much from Ukip to the Conservatives.

:18:22. > :18:26.A final fraud on the parliamentary battles ahead, with usual caution

:18:27. > :18:30.about translating these local results, because there are so many

:18:31. > :18:39.local issues. What is your sense of it? I have no doubt of the Lib Dems

:18:40. > :18:44.nationally would be looking at these elections as a pointer as to whether

:18:45. > :18:50.they might be able to make big gains or Anni gains at the general

:18:51. > :19:00.election. The Cornwall result may be one to watch. If they do gain

:19:01. > :19:06.overall control in Cornwall, they are the biggest group already. In

:19:07. > :19:11.Ukip terms, a lot of talk here, not finalised, but you not standing

:19:12. > :19:18.candidates against Cornish MPs, three of them at least, who were

:19:19. > :19:22.seen to be staunch Brexiteers. In terms of vote shift already, that is

:19:23. > :19:27.potentially ominous for the Lib Dem challenges.

:19:28. > :19:30.Martin, thank you. Tom, you wanted to talk about the

:19:31. > :19:40.south-west. We are now talking about it. What about the Lib Dem

:19:41. > :19:43.performance? I accepted his party. However, in these seats we want to

:19:44. > :19:51.regain the general election, there are good signs. Dorset going

:19:52. > :19:54.slightly closer to England, Eastleigh, places like Cheltenham.

:19:55. > :19:59.Where the Liberal Democrats have worked hard, we are actually

:20:00. > :20:04.managing to improve, even if that is not filtering through to additional

:20:05. > :20:09.council seats. If you look at Somerset, although we lost seats,

:20:10. > :20:14.the percentage vote for the Lib Dems went up 5%. There is some hope

:20:15. > :20:17.there. It is something to build on. In many of the seats that we lost,

:20:18. > :20:24.the margins were not necessarily that big. A shift potentially opens

:20:25. > :20:28.up some of those seats for the Liberal Democrats. Is that kind of

:20:29. > :20:33.increment going to give you more confidence going into the general

:20:34. > :20:40.election? Well, yes. I think it will. Places like Eastleigh where we

:20:41. > :20:44.took seats, including from Ukip, three seats. That puts us in a

:20:45. > :20:49.strong position. In Cheltenham we took Mac -- took seven out of ten

:20:50. > :20:53.seats. Whether it is those towns, the south-west, there is potential.

:20:54. > :20:57.The strong message we are trying to put across is that if people want an

:20:58. > :21:01.opposition, they should support the Liberal Democrats. It is very clear

:21:02. > :21:04.that Labour have not provided that opposition. And we want to be strong

:21:05. > :21:08.enough to have the large enough numbers in parliament to do that in

:21:09. > :21:12.what does look increasingly likely to be a Conservative government,

:21:13. > :21:16.either with a majority or potentially a very large majority.

:21:17. > :21:19.And I hope some people will think twice about that. Ukip voters who

:21:20. > :21:27.have switched to the Tories may think it is job done. Brexit is

:21:28. > :21:30.under way. Conservative voters may want to start thinking about what it

:21:31. > :21:37.means for things like the funding of the NHS, the funding of schools.

:21:38. > :21:40.Will those issues be better addressed by conservatives, would

:21:41. > :21:45.they like opposition MPs to argue the case for better investment? I

:21:46. > :21:53.haven't met many Ukip voters thinking about voting Lib Dems. That

:21:54. > :21:58.is what you are implying. Surely they are not coming from a

:21:59. > :22:02.background, whether natural port is going to be the Lib Dems? It has

:22:03. > :22:05.always been the case that the majority of Ukip voters, the

:22:06. > :22:14.Conservative Party is there a natural alternative. It is also true

:22:15. > :22:17.there is not a 100% chance that Mac transfer you -- of Ukip voters to

:22:18. > :22:21.the Conservatives. I think the Lib Dems, with the

:22:22. > :22:26.greatest respect, are whistling in the wind. They have bet the house on

:22:27. > :22:34.this right or wrong position on the EU. It will not, go off. The Labour

:22:35. > :22:40.Party represent the most anti-Brexit constituencies and the sixth six

:22:41. > :22:46.most pro. We have tried to provide a national approach. One thing on

:22:47. > :22:49.Ukip. The swift Ukip collapse is quite extraordinary. I don't think

:22:50. > :22:54.we have seen anything like this in modern times. Even the SNP held on

:22:55. > :22:58.for longer. The general election is a completely different ball game. We

:22:59. > :23:03.have to make the case that a vote for Theresa May is a vote in the

:23:04. > :23:10.national interest. The question for Dianne is, you have been an MP for

:23:11. > :23:12.30 years, I think, this year. Very experienced, long-standing and

:23:13. > :23:17.respected member of Parliament. Surely it must be depressing seeing

:23:18. > :23:23.the leadership that Jeremy Corbyn is offering to the Labour Party at the

:23:24. > :23:26.moment? Sam, I don't find Jeremy Corbyn's leadership depressing at

:23:27. > :23:30.all. It is precisely because I have been an MP for a long time, I know

:23:31. > :23:35.we live in a very interesting times where the past is not a predictor of

:23:36. > :23:40.the future. Tories have always gone on for a big opinion poll leads to

:23:41. > :23:43.have a win in a general election. The past is not a predictor of the

:23:44. > :23:47.future. There is everything to play for.

:23:48. > :23:51.We have the final result in from Cardiff, which Dianne will like.

:23:52. > :23:57.Labour holding onto Cardiff. 40 seats on Cardiff City Council. Can

:23:58. > :24:01.we have a look at the figures? The Conservatives on 20 having put up a

:24:02. > :24:12.strong performance. The Lib Dems on 11. Lied, Rihanna three. Just look

:24:13. > :24:18.at the difference. -- Plaid Cymru. The Tories have gained 13 seats in

:24:19. > :24:23.Cardiff. A strong performance. But Labour still in charge. The Lib Dems

:24:24. > :24:30.down five because there are strong pockets of Lib Dems supported areas

:24:31. > :24:33.in Cardiff. Plaid Cymru up one. That will be a disappointment. They were

:24:34. > :24:39.hoping for a bigger performance. That is the picture in Cardiff. The

:24:40. > :24:42.results Justin because that is the final Cardiff result. We were

:24:43. > :24:47.waiting for the last couple of Wards. What is going on in Scotland?

:24:48. > :24:54.Straight to Glasgow thoroughly latest on what is developing. Anita

:24:55. > :25:00.McVeigh will bring us up-to-date. Some more declarations made. Wins in

:25:01. > :25:05.a number of awards for the SNP, the Scottish Conservatives, the Greens

:25:06. > :25:09.and Labour as well. It was those declarations are little earlier that

:25:10. > :25:12.were perhaps the most significant so far. With those first three

:25:13. > :25:17.declarations we realised that Scottish Labour would not be able to

:25:18. > :25:22.have an overall majority here in Glasgow. And also there was an

:25:23. > :25:25.interesting win for the Conservatives in the ward of

:25:26. > :25:31.Shettleston, not an area where traditionally you might expect the

:25:32. > :25:36.Conservatives to make those gains. With me I have an E Wells, MSP from

:25:37. > :25:44.the Scottish Conservatives, and Katy Gordon from the Lib Dems. Firstly,

:25:45. > :25:48.to the gain at Shettleston. Was that something going into the contest you

:25:49. > :25:52.thought the Conservatives could win? I think Shettleston is probably one

:25:53. > :25:58.of the ones we thought we had a good chance in. We had campaigned there

:25:59. > :26:03.during the 2016 election and we could see the Labour vote was coming

:26:04. > :26:11.to us. We knew that independence was playing a part. Independence was

:26:12. > :26:20.playing a part. We found that people wanted the SNP. Even the local

:26:21. > :26:23.council issues, the local council issues are festering away.

:26:24. > :26:28.Independence was one of the key message is that we are the strong

:26:29. > :26:33.independent -- opposition to stand against the SNP. Katy Gordon, as it

:26:34. > :26:37.been hard to make your voice heard, to get your message across, in

:26:38. > :26:43.between the class of Labour and the SNP? What I'm really excited about

:26:44. > :26:45.is the areas where we are campaigning really hard and

:26:46. > :26:51.challenging for Westminster, that is where we are making the gains. We

:26:52. > :27:02.are tying to get local issues across despite national noise. Here in

:27:03. > :27:06.Glasgow? Glasgow, to be fair, it's difficult when there are two major

:27:07. > :27:10.competing parties and trying to get your voice heard is quite difficult.

:27:11. > :27:16.I go back to the fact that in the areas where we are hoping to win at

:27:17. > :27:20.Westminster, that is where we are doing well. Has it been a tactic for

:27:21. > :27:23.the Scottish Conservatives to wrap up the discussion on local issues in

:27:24. > :27:30.this pro union message that you have been talking about? We made it very

:27:31. > :27:35.clear we will call for growth as well. Each candidate has done local

:27:36. > :27:39.issues and had serviced on. However, we know Independence is huge. The

:27:40. > :27:48.First Minister only announced a few weeks of back. It is a big thing in

:27:49. > :27:52.Glasgow. Thank you both very much. As the day progresses, lots more

:27:53. > :27:59.wards still to be declared. Big things that we will be looking out

:28:00. > :28:04.for, will the SNP gained 43 seats? That magic number would mean they

:28:05. > :28:10.have overall control and overall majority of Glasgow Council, hosting

:28:11. > :28:12.Labour control after 40 years. That would be very significant. And we

:28:13. > :28:18.wait to see how well the Conservatives do, can they make the

:28:19. > :28:20.sort of games here in Glasgow and across Scotland that the opinion

:28:21. > :28:27.polls have been suggesting they might do? Back to the studio.

:28:28. > :28:31.Making the point about a big battle for a Labour. One of the biggest

:28:32. > :28:34.battles for Labour is can they hang on to Derbyshire? This has been a

:28:35. > :28:40.stronghold. They have in hanging on there with a pretty big majority.

:28:41. > :28:44.More than 20 last time. This is a halfway house, if you like. These

:28:45. > :28:55.figures I am showing you know. Look at that. So far, the Tories on 20,

:28:56. > :29:00.Labour on 15. We are looking at 35 out of 64 wards declared. It is

:29:01. > :29:03.basically halfway. But clearly, that is so far is strong Conservative

:29:04. > :29:08.performance. If you look at the change, that will tell you they have

:29:09. > :29:16.put on nine seats in Derbyshire so far. Labour down by nine seats. We

:29:17. > :29:21.are expecting another 30 results from those wards. We're nowhere near

:29:22. > :29:27.the final result. But it is obviously a strong Conservative

:29:28. > :29:30.performance so far. Let's talk to my colleague in Matlock in Derbyshire.

:29:31. > :29:35.Bring us up-to-date with how you see things?

:29:36. > :29:42.It is worse for a Labour then you just said. Look behind me, 27

:29:43. > :29:46.Conservative seats to 17 Labour. We are now in a position where Labour

:29:47. > :29:50.has lost 11 seats to the Conservatives. They have lost one to