Results - Part 1 Local Elections 2017

Good morning from Westminster, and welcome to our live coverage

of the local election results in England, Wales and Scotland.

At stake is control of dozens of local authorities,

providing essential local services to millions of people.

It's a very important exercise in local democracy,

but it's also a useful insight into the state of public

opinion ahead of next month's general election.

We'll have coverage of results as they happen, but we already have

plenty of news from the counting overnight.

It's been a very good night for the Conservatives

They've taken control of the councils in Gloucestershire,

Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and Monmouthshire.

They've also won the West of England Mayoral contest.

And it looks at this early stage that they're heading for their best

set of local elections for a decade or more.

They are losing ground in England as we speak.

And in Wales they've lost overall control

of Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil, two councils in their

Although they have held on to the capital city, Cardiff.

And it has been a bad night for Ukip - overnight they lost every

And the party has been wiped out on councils like Lincolnshire,

Their vote share is down dramatically, most of it going

The SNP are trying to take the city council from Labour.

The Scottish counting has only just started, so those results are all to

come. Labour have had decades of controlling Glasgow City Council.

We'll be covering the results from Scotland as they come in.

To say the least, there is plenty to talk about!

Here in the studio we're joined by our political

A very good morning to you all. Take a breath, we will be with you in a

moment. But first let's bring

you right up to date As I said, lots of results have

already come in. We have loads to come. I would like to see the

scorecard of councillors, which will change during the day but, so far,

this is the picture. The Conservatives have made 155 gains in

terms of council seats, Labour 125 losses so far. Independents are

about 25. Nothing for the SNP because, as I

have said, no Scottish results in yet. They will come in during the

late morning and into the afternoon. Early days, plenty to come. We will

have reaction from my guests in a moment. Before that we will catch up

with the full story of the election so far and the rest of the day's

news, let's say good morning to Joanna Gosling. Let's bring you up

to date with the results. The Conservatives have made big

gains in the council elections in England and Wales,

recording their best The Tories have gained control of

five counties and Labour have lost three. The Conservatives say the

results are encouraging, Labour said it was tough but not the wipe-out

predicted by many. Our political corresponding Chris

Mason has the story so far. It's been a night of

nocturnal arithmetic. Democracy in the small hours,

the will of the electorate Rosettes worn proudly but plenty

of nervous faces too. Tim Charles Bowles is duly elected

as the West of England Here in the West of England

the Conservative candidate made history by becoming the regional

Mayor. This is what winning

and retaining power looked They've won control of Warwickshire,

Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire Here in Cumbria the Tories

have replaced Labour I think that the national scene has

a lot to do with it. I think Theresa May came

across on the doorstep really, We've had no negativity towards

the Conservative Party at all. I think it bodes extremely well

for the general election Clearly Labour nationally is a long

way behind in the opinion polls and inevitably the election

will reflect that. My own view is that the result

in the general election won't be as bad as the polls

would currently indicate. I think we will be able

to close the gap between now But there was some positive news

for Labour when the counting It's in Lincolnshire that this man,

Ukip's leader Paul Nuttall, will fight for a Westminster

seat next month. But overnight his party was wiped

out from the local authority. I don't think people have stopped

voting Ukip, I concede we have lost seats today but we have always said

we expect this to be a very tough election for Ukip, we have said it

for several years. The Liberal Democrats acknowledge it has been a

mixed set of results for them. That is fair, we have held ground, unlike

Labour, which has collapsed, and Ukip, which has virtually

disappeared. In areas where we hope to win back MPs in the general

election, like Cheltenham, Eastleigh and Wells, we have done

exceptionally well. The Green Party says that with the Conservatives

dominant, other parties need to collaborate. There is a strong

message that people want the more progressive parties to work together

rather than against each other, it is clear that when we stand against

one another we lose ground and the Conservatives gain. Back to the

coating for now, still plenty of that to be done. -- back to the

counting. The final day of campaigning has

begun in the French presidential Polls show that the centrist

Emmanuel Macron maintains a clear lead over his Front National

opponent Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile Mr Macron has filed

a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account

in the Caribbean. He has strongly denied

the allegations. The Government is set to publish

draft plans to tackle air pollution following a legal battle

with environmental campaigners. The measures are expected to contain

a scrappage scheme for older diesel cars and the removal of speed bumps

to cut pollution caused by cars That's a summary of the news -

now back to Local Election Welcome back to our election

special, we are here all day because there was plenty to talk about,

results overnight but lots to come across Scotland, England and Wales.

To what extent can we look at these results and then maybe have a

clearer picture about what might or might not happen in five weeks at

the general election? It is a cautious process.

Our political editor Laura Kuenssberg is with us.

Your thoughts so far? It is a barometer rather than something

directly translates to the general election, but two things stand out.

The bottom line is for an opposition party to look anything like

realistically heading towards number ten they should be gobbling up seats

in local elections that this kind of stage. Labour, in these early is

falling back. Part of the reason is the second thing which is extremely

striking, a total collapse, so far, in the Ukip votes, losing all the

seats in some councils, falling back all over the place. It seems that so

far what the Tories hoped for and what they hope will happen in spades

in the general election is that many Ukip voters, there will be more all

is a straight switch that Brexit, the vote last year has more or less

removed Ukip's reason for being. A thought about the kind of things we

will be looking out for in the coming hours? We will be on air this

morning and this afternoon, what will be the main signals you are

looking for? When we get to mid-afternoon and see the results

coming back from councils like Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, those

results with marginal seats, where traditionally general elections are

decided. Nottinghamshire was held by Labour, if the Tories took

significant seats and maybe grab the council from the Labour Party, that

is the kind of signal that would suggest we would see that repeated

in the general election and therefore that Labour might be in

big trouble in the marginals. The West Midlands mayoral contest, for

the first time a big political job has been created in Birmingham, that

has been a very fierce fight between Labour and the Tory party. That

matters not just because it is a big, new important job, but because

voters live in marginal seats in the Midlands that, again, play into the

eventual general election results. Lots of things will happen through

the day, it will be fascinating to see of the Tories make significant

inroads in Scottish councils, do the SNP hold-up? But the big picture,

the bottom line is opposition parties with a realistic chance of

gaining power ought to be taking seats, not counting losses.

Let's get a quick thought from my three guests. Emily, do you quibble

with Laura's take on Labour so far? It is a mixed picture, we have had

some good results. Winning the Doncaster Merrell on the first count

was good. There are seats like new court where the Prime Minister

herself campaigns, where is the Tory surge in Wales we were hearing about

so much? There has been a lot of spinning in advance of this, we were

told Labour would do extremely badly, it has been a picture so far.

Your take? The results are encouraging, there are lots more

results to come and we are looking at trying to extrapolate that the

June the 8th, there is a long way to go, a much bigger turnout of June

Yates and a lot of work to do to make sure we get the votes we want

to put Theresa May back into Downing Street. And early thought from you,

Suzanne? We have been dealing with headline saying that Ukip is

finished for many years. Emily mentioned the Doncaster Merrell

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

reason for being is on the way, we are on the way out of the EU. After

the Brexit process, there is a huge opportunity for us to rebrand, look

at policies that are very hard-hitting outside of the EU

portfolio, I think it is a great challenge for Ukip to surge ahead in

future months. Thank you very much, we will be back with you in a

moment. Emily was talking about Wales and

the fact there was talk about a big conservative surge in Wales, but we

need to look at all of the parties there. Let's look at them and the

Welsh context. What has happened so far is that Labour has sustained 73

losses so far. The Independents in Wales

traditionally do very well in lots of the Ryu areas. -- rural areas.

Not all the Welsh results are in. I will show you one specific result,

Bridgend, where Carwyn Jones operates as a politician, he is the

First Minister and this is his backyard, if you like. Labour has

lost overall control of Bridgend. If you look at the difference you

will see the Conservative surge in Bridgend. The Prime Minister was

campaigning quite recently. My colleague Tomos Morgan is in

Cardiff. Tellers where Labour isn't what you think of the other parties'

performances. The Garbutt started off very difficultly, they lost

Bridgend early on, they lost the leader in Merthyr Tydfil, but then

it's picked up. They held onto Cardiff, the largest council in

Wales. It has strengthened what can be a difficult night. They were

under attack from the west of Cardiff from Plaid Cymru, from the

north of Cardiff from the tourism from the central from the Lib Dems.

Plaid Cymru realise they had not done as well as expected early in

the camps, that has maybe been reflected in how it has been turned

out in the rest of Wales, they have made some gains but not as

significant as they would have liked. The Tories made a slight gain

in the north, not as significant as they would have liked. The Tories

have taken Monmouthshire and made gains in the Vale of Glamorgan, they

now have the most amount of seats in Glamorgan, taken over from Labour,

although there is no overall control. You mentioned that

independents play a big part in Wales. In Wrexham, they held onto

having the most number of seats in Wrexham after ten Labour councillors

in 2015 switched allegiance to being independent. Holding on in Wrexham.

Bridgend is the most interesting story in that the Conservatives

going from one seat to 11, that'll be the target for Theresa May and

the main target when the general election comes. A mixed night for

Labour, disappointment for the Lib Dems losing seats, reasonable

happiness from Plaid Cymru. I think they expected a few more but there

is Rhondda later to come in the counter. Ukip doing nothing here,

emulating how they did across England. Thank you, Tomos Morgan.

Some interesting patterns to pick up on as we go through the morning. I

want to look at the performances in the English counties. Why don't we

pick Lincolnshire? That is a good example of relative strength, Ukip

Tidwell there in 2013 and the Conservatives have now gained

control from no overall control. 58 seats in Lincolnshire for the

Tories, Labour on six, Independents on five, Lib Dems on one. What does

that tell us if we look at 2013, looking at the difference between

today and 2013. 23 games for the Conservatives, 13 losses for Ukip.

This was a county which was part of the great Ukip surge of 2013. I

should make the point that 2013 was an exceptionally strong year for

Ukip, it is when they burst onto the scene, so it is a high watermark

that we are comparing with. 13 losses there food Ukip in

Lincolnshire. I would like to talk to Tim Iredale in Lincoln. Talk us

through the results and what you read into them.

The Conservatives were always confident of gaining control of

Lincolnshire but they have done so with what amounts to a local

landslide, securing 58 out of 70 seats available. You mention the

last county council election here in 2013. Then, the Tories were forced

into a minority administration, largely because of the success of

Ukip. Four years ago Ukip 116 seats here, a mixture of defections and

some leaving the party, said they came into these elections with nine

councillors. Ukip have been wiped out here in Lincolnshire, they have

no county council seats in this county. To put it into perspective,

this, Lincolnshire, is the most Eurosceptic county in the country.

In last year's EU referendum it for some of the highest percentage of

votes in favour of leaving the European Union. It will be where

Paul Nuttall stands in the general election, in the constituency of

Boston and Skegness down the road from here. I am sure he will be very

disappointed man this morning, he may not admit it but to use the buzz

phrase, a mixed picture, I don't think you can say that, they have

been wiped out in Lincolnshire. Just a thought before I let you go,

how we can translate local issues and project forward five weeks,

because it has to be cautious process, but to what extent would

you characterise this election as a very, very local one, or is it one

you think was informed in many cases by national issues?

Ukip are going out onto the doorstep today, they were not really talking

about the big local issues, they were claiming that a vote for the

Conservatives would see the Government backsliding, to use their

favourite phrase, hard Brexit, so they were going completely gung ho

for the Brexit vote is here in Lincolnshire. The same with the

Conservatives, all belief that I have seen have had Theresa made 's

picture on. It feels like a warm up act for the main event in just under

five weeks' time, the joke going around Lincolnshire County Council

today with the Conservatives is that the Tories have eaten the Kupers for

breakfast. -- the Kippers. If it is about rebranding, what do

you put this performance down to? It is a national agenda, that is the

issue. It is a great shame because local Government is very different

to national Government. I have been a local councillor myself, a

different set of responsibilities and local level and the Tories might

not be the best at running, our councillors in Lincolnshire have

been very hard working but we all know that does not necessarily

translate into votes when you have a situation like this nationally. It

is interesting, we heard there that every single local election leaflet

had Theresa May's face on it. I have to say I think the way the

Conservatives have gone into this general election, ripping up the

Fixed Term Parliaments Act, what was the point of that? Theresa may may

have looked down the camera lens on several occasions and said, I am not

going to call a snap election, the speed at which they have got these

things out, that is not true, they have been planning this for months

and have had a head start on the other parties. I am not going to

play foul, we all know the Tories will take every opportunity they can

to win elections, that is in a sense what politics is all about. But it

is a great shame. We are going to see potentially a Tory landslide on

June the 8th, we are going to possibly see the beginnings of a

1-party state. That is not going to be good for the people of this

country, ultimately. I know you both want to answer that, Emily and

Brandon, but I want to bring Jim Professor John Curtice, who is

joining us now, our resident Guru. Nice too with us. Can we have some

headline thoughts? We heard Suzanne there with the Ukip angle on this

but can we have your judgment on how the parties have done so far? The

truth is there isn't much joy for Ukip, though I think perhaps we

should say it is not a case of Ukip disappearing entirely, there are

plenty of wards where they can still get five, six, 7% of the vote. The

trouble is in a lot of these wards four years ago there were getting

20, 25, 30% of the vote. They have gone back to being one of

Britain's's small parties, rather than being the challenge to English

party politics that we had seen, the biggest in post-war Britain. There

are some signs of recovery, the vote seems to be up three points, the

truth however it is still not a performance of the scale that we got

used to with the Liberal Democrats before they joined the coalition

with the Conservatives, getting 20% of the vote in local elections even

in difficult years. But still some progress, some encouragement, but

still far too early to talk about a significant Liberal Democrats

revival from the no theatre which they fell during the coalition. But

the big story is Conservative and Labour. A pretty bad night for

Labour. Just a couple of glimmers of hope, hanging onto Cardiff, which we

were not necessarily expecting, hanging on to Newport as well, which

is a good result. And riding the Conservatives much closer in the

West of England Merrill election than we might have anticipated. It

is those results and one or two others that mean, yes, the

Conservatives have done well, no doubt they have done. Is the spring

really to the Conservatives of the scale we might expect in the opinion

polls or is it a bit shorter? Why does that matter? Mrs May wants to

get a bigger overall majority, and she needs a big double-digit lead

and at the moment I'm not sure what we might be saying later on about

how big her lead is. Very early results from Staffordshire this

morning are good for the Conservatives so maybe the numbers

will pick up in their favour. Let's have a look at the figures we were

sharing again, these are changes since 2013 in keyboards. Keyboard

share changes, 13% up for the Tories, 14% down for Ukip, Lib Dems

up 2%, Labour down three, greens up one. Back in 2013, Ukip Tidwell, the

equivalent of 22, 20 3% in general elections, that is why they can fall

so far. As a result, neither the Conservatives nor Labour did very

well in 2013 so the big increase of the Conservative vote is from a low

baseline and a much lower baseline than they got in the general

election. Conversely, however, Labour doing badly in 2013 and their

vote even lower tells the tale of how, whatever doubts we have about

how good the Conservatives are, the Labour Party not showing much sign

of posing a significant challenge to the Conservatives and the opinion

polls showing the party is a long, long way from being able,

apparently, to being a contender -- credible contender for power in this

election, broadly confirmed by the evidence of those figures you have

shown. I don't want to get bogged down into much detail but we are

showing share changes since 2013, if viewers are wondering why we are not

comparing with 2015, what would you say to them? In England, at least,

the elections that were held yesterday were four seats that were

last fought in 2013 so what we are trying to do is explain, the

Conservatives getting more seeds, Labour getting fewer, we are showing

how the pattern of voting compared with local elections in 2013 looks.

Of course, as you have gathered, during the course of the day we will

also be giving you insight into perhaps what does this mean, for the

general election, but initially we are being faithful to the fact these

are local elections, lots of others have taken place in the last 20 or

30 years, we are getting an idea how good or bad these results are for

the parties. A few markers, maybe the best results for the

Conservatives but ten years, maybe 25, so definitely a good set of

local election performances by the standard of local elections, and for

Labour is probably their worst since they lost power at Westminster in

2010. Don't go too far, John, we will be back!

Professor John Curtice there, with us throughout the day crunching the

numbers. A quick comment from Brandon and Emily at this point,

picking up from what John said. I thought about the extent to which

you are confidently saying, Brandon, that yesterday, today makes you

rather more bullish about what might happen on June the 8th? I refer back

to what I said when we first started speaking a few minutes ago, these

are encouraging but different to a general election, is very different

turnout and I disagree with something Suzanne said, our

councillors and candidates have been campaigning for local elections for

many, many months on local issues, it is only the last couple of weeks

we have been into the start of a general election so I credit the

voters to know that yesterday they were voting for local Government and

it is normal in local elections to have the leader of your party on

your leaflet, it always has been for the Conservative Party. Emily? I

would like to say something about the way the Conservatives are

hunting down Ukip voters, it says something about the way Theresa May

has been behaving lately. When she came back from visiting the Queen

and stood on the steps of 10 Downing Street and came out with the most

extraordinarily Paranoid statement about Europeans conspiring against

our country and needing to stand up and fight, I think it was either a

cynical ploy for Ukip votes and believing it is to the

Conservative's advantage to become old Tory Eurosceptic in that way.

What it might mean for this country if the Tories were elected on the

back of such votes, it either means that she is doing it on purpose in

order to try to get those votes, or potentially we have a Prime Minister

who is as paranoid as she is, so we have a choice, she is either

paranoid or extremely cynical. Probably the better interpretation

is that she is extremely cynical but it is worrying, the way in which our

country might be governed when it comes to dealing with Brexit in the

future. Would today's results so far suggests she is rather more in touch

with public opinion than you are? I think it is very easy when people

are worried to whip up that worry and say, we can stand firm and fight

against Europeans. But I think that is not the way to go into

negotiations and it is not the way for a responsible politician to

behave, because once you have said those things, you cannot take them

back and she is on record saying the most extraordinary things and if she

wants to be re-elected, which we hope she won't be, but if she is to

be re-elected, what does that mean? We are trying to re-establish a

relationship with the Europeans and the only way to get a strong Brexit

is to get one that works for Britain and it has to be agreed by the

Europeans. Has that stance damage Labour? We will see, we have five

weeks. It is important that we go out and argue what I have just said,

that a strong Brexit is a deal that works and does not mean alienating

our European allies. We have to treat them as friends and we must

not be treading down, occupying Ukip territory because, with respect, I

don't think it is our country any good and for the Conservatives to

shift into Ukip territory in that way to get votes is very worrying.

Laura? The problem for the Labour Party,

many parts of the country that they had seen as traditional Labour

territory, they were also appealing areas for Ukip, so there will be

seats that had been held by Labour, 71 of them, where the size of the

Labour majority was smaller than the number of Ukip votes, so Ukip have

not just been about taking voters from the Tories but also in the last

few years been taking votes from the Labour Party. What I would say, as

we discussed on Wednesday night, after Theresa May's statement in

Downing Street, Tory sources behind the scenes were saying, of course

part of the reasoning behind the statement, not all of it because

there was genuine irritation in Government of what was coming out

from Brussels, but part of the calculation was they are aware they

were 4 million voters for Ukip at the last election and they want

them. The point is that you can talk to people and say to them what is in

the interest of the country and how that works. Of course, Labour wants

the best possible deal for Britain as a whole, it is just a question of

how you do it, the language you use and what you are saying. We can

stand up for Britain better, we would say, than the Conservative

hard Brexit trying to climb into the Ukip vote.

What Theresa May said the other night was absolutely clear.

Bureaucrats from Brussels have leaked things from their side, not

ours. She wants the right deal for the United Kingdom. I think it was a

very clear statement to people across the country, whether they

voted Remain or Leave, it is in all of our interests to get a deal that

is good for the United Kingdom and she will stand in for Great Britain.

That is what I want is a Prime Minister. She has said we will stay

in the Europe Ian Court of Human Rights, we are abandoning targets

for net migration. If she is to get the Brexit that people voted for, we

have to keep pushing for that, I don't see much sign at the moment. I

have spoken to other Labour MPs, Emily, it is not just the Ukip vote

moving to the Conservatives, but the Tories, for the same reason. Labour

has completely abandoned people in its heartlands. The issues Ukip has

talked about are resonating. Let's pause, a very quick word from Laura

before the news. The referendum boat through all the pieces in the air,

this is part of the settling down and it is shaping up to be quite a

different map. I promise we will pick up on some of those points when

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

with Joanna Gosling. The Conservatives have made big

gains in the council elections in England and Wales,

recording their best Many of the votes cast

yesterday across England, Scotland and Wales are still to be

counted, but Labour have suffered losses and Ukip have so far failed

to win a single seat. The Conservatives have been

celebrating a series Initial results show the Tories

taking control of five local councils and winning more council

seats than any other party. The Tories also celebrated victory

in the West of England. The Conservative Tim Bowles was also

elected to the newly created position of West of England Mayor

was also victorious. However, senior members

of the Conservative Party appeared to downplay the victory,

suggesting that there were still I think the early results are

encouraging, but they are early results. We have seen less than a

quarter of the vote actually counted and reported. The turnout in local

elections, of course, is much, much lower than in a general election. It

is wrong to predict what will happen on June Yates. We still have a

general election to campaign for and to win after last night, but

encouraging signs. Elsewhere Labour have

lost three councils, Despite the losses in Wales,

Labour did hold onto The party was also victorious

in Doncaster, where its candidate Ros Jones, the Labour mayor

was re-elected after getting Labour has defended

its performance so far. The Party's Shadow Chancellor,

John McDonnell, told people to wait for results elsewhere to come

in before judging the It's been a disappointing

night for Ukip. The Party failed to win any

of the seats it contested - losing 39 previously

held council seats. Ukip points out that it still has

sitting councillors in the country, although those positions were not up

for election this time. The Lib Dems have

seen mixed results. A short time ago the Party had

lost 28 council seats. The Party also failed

to retake Somerset Council from the Conservatives,

although leader John Osman was ousted by Lib Dem

former MP Tessa Munt. The final day of campaigning has

begun in the French presidential election before voting

takes place on Sunday. Polls show that the centrist

Emmanuel Macron maintains a clear lead over his Front National

opponent Marine Le Pen. Our correspondent Karin

Giannone is in Paris. What reaction has there been

as we enter the final Welcome to a busy Friday in the

centre of Paris, it is anything but normal because we are into the final

hours of the 2017 presidential election campaign. Come midnight

French time, the candidates must fall silent and campaigning will be

over before the vote on Sunday. It has been an incredible campaign so

far, extraordinary particularly bad tempered. The final debate on

Wednesday was one of the most heated that a French presidential election

has ever seen. It has not done Marine Le Pen any favours, Emmanuel

Macron has increased his lead to 62% against her 38%. Let me give you a

flavour of what the papers are making up the campaign going into

the final day. The financial newspaper talks about Macron Le Pen,

a battle against extremism, it says that a Emmanuel Macron is the

favourite going into the second round. They call it an

extraordinary, unprecedented election campaign. Le Figaro calls

Marine Le Pen's campaign a shipwreck. They talk about Macron

B arch favourite. Marine Le Pen always says that the mainstream

media are against, this would be typical of their stands, they call

her The Big Loser of the televised debate. Le Monde, Marine Le Pen

talks about the strategy of the lie. Inside Le Monde they have 19 facts

that they say Marine Le Pen said in the presidential debates, they have

dissected them, fact check them, they say she was lying in all 19

cases. Let's show you this left-wing paper, that is Jean-Marie Le Pen,

Marine Le Pen's father and the friends of the National front in

France, they say she has not changed, reinforcing what Marine Le

Pen has always wanted to move on, into a future image. They say it is

still effectively the same Le Pen. It is not a dead cert Macron, 20% of

French voters are undecided so there is plenty to play for. Thank you.

The Government is set to publish draft plans to tackle air pollution

following a legal battle with environmental campaigners.

The measures are expected to include a scheme to encourage

drivers of older diesels to scrap their cars.

And also the removal of speed bumps to cut pollution caused by braking

and acceleration. A British man has died

while skydiving in Thailand. It happened in the Thai

resort town of Pattaya. The 69-year-old man -

an experienced skydiver - leapt from a plane and landed

in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip

at the Thai Sky Adventures airbase. His name was James McConnell. His

son has posted a message on social media saying fly free, my hero.

That's a summary of the news - now back to Local Election

Welcome back to our day of live coverage of the local election

results in Scotland, England and Wales. In the studio we have our

political editor Laura Kuenssberg, Emily Thornberry of Labour, Brandon

Lewis of the Conservatives and Suzanne Evans of Ukip. Thank you for

still being with us. If you have just joined us I would like to

remind you of what is going on. We are lots of results in, but lots

to come. This is England and Wales, no

results from Scotland yet. That is the picture across England

and Wales, let's look more specifically at Wales in a second.

Can I just stress, again, very early days. We will talk to Labour's

Stephen Kinnock in Cardiff. Good morning, Stephen. We were talking

earlier about a rather mixed picture, Labour in England suffering

some pretty heavy losses. In Wales, holding onto Cardiff, Newport and

Swansea, very big results, clearly, but how would you characterise the

overall picture? I would agree with your word, mixed.

I think there is a contrast between England and Wales. In Wales it is

great to see we have held onto Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, in

England, I don't think we can sugar-coat the pill, it is pretty

disastrous. It is simply not good enough for a party that has been an

opposition for seven years, heading towards a general election in five

weeks, to not be picking up sensible results are not making progress. The

explanation is that it Wales they have had strong Labour leadership, a

fantastic First Minister in Carwyn and Labour cancels delivering public

services that people want to see. I think there is a pretty clear

distinction and what we need to do is recognise there is a mountain to

climb over the next five weeks, and it is time we started climbing it.

You have been very critical in the past the leadership of the party in

terms of Jeremy Corbyn, I wonder to what extent you are pinning the

performance in England on that leadership, or rather more local

issues? Which is it? We can't just put a spin on this, the fact of the

matter is that Jeremy's leadership comes up on the doorstep on a very

regular basis. We had to make this election about more than leadership,

we had to make it about the future of the country, the referendum has

shown what a divided country we are and we have a deeply divisive Tory

leadership, a deeply divisive campaign from Theresa May, she is

losing friends and alienating people every time she engages with the

European Union. We have to make this bigger and make it clear to people

that it is about the future of our democracy. Theresa May wants a

landslide victory and to create a one-party states, we are saying at a

local level in every constituency, don't give the Tories a blank

cheque, don't let them turn our country into a European version of

the Cayman Islands. We have to have a strong Labour representation in

Parliament to hold the Tories in check. Stephen, please stay with us.

I have your colleague Emily Thornberry. When you save -- when

Stephen says pretty disastrous and not good enough, that is different

to your tome, what would you say to him? It is early days and Stephen

and I agree it is important to unite, to make sure we take this

fight to the Tories with a general election coming up, fight this on

issues, on the way in which a different Government could make life

different for people. In the end, issues count. It does not matter how

Theresa styles her hair, we're not a presidential system. We have

representatives at a local level and the Government is a collection of

individuals, but most importantly be implemented policies and, as Stephen

has said, the biggest challenge will be Brexit. We share a profound

concern about what kind of Brexit we're heading for if this Tory

Government gets back with a huge majority, particularly if they will

be running the election on such a sceptical to Europe basis.

If I can take you back to the original quote, he thought that the

performance is pretty disastrous so far, can you agree with those words?

I think it is too early to say, across the country it is mixed, I

would say. Not good enough in terms of looking ahead five weeks hence?

We have to work hard to make sure we stick together, we are united, that

we remember that the common enemy is the Tory party and Tory Government

and we need to make sure our 600,000 members are right on the doorstep

arguing about and arguing in a united way and showing we have much

more that unites than divides us. Stephen, are you convinced that the

leadership is picking up the message you would like it to get?

I think we have to learn from the success we have had, certainly, in

the cities in Swansea, Cardiff and Newport, which I think is a

reflection of the very impressive leadership that Carwyn has shown us

in Wales. We have the next five weeks to prove we are picking up

those messages and to prove that we are an alternative party of

Government, that we have the leadership in place that can present

a real picture and a real alternative to this Tory Government.

That will be a factor on the doorsteps. We have to absolutely

focus on what we are achieving locally, what we have done for the

steel industry and at a local level in terms of regenerating our

communities and rebuilding the public services in the face of a

deeply damaging austerity from the Tories. The other good news from

today and yesterday 's selves is the complete falling apart and implosion

of Ukip. Very good news. We have seen the back of Ukip, I think that

is the end of them as a party, a serious force in British politics.

We have to turn our guns on the Tories and start doing the same to

them. Paddy Ashdown treated a short time ago the huge progressive voice

in the UK is being crucified by the lack of courage and leadership to

get our act together, in other words suggesting he would like a

Progressive Alliance. Can you briefly give us your response?

I think the British people care about four things, work, family,

community and country, and the Labour Party is a deeply

patriotically, the party that took the United Kingdom into Nato, we

were the driving force behind it. We are a party that unite communities

and stands up for families and makes your working day a better day, and

that is the message, the mainstream message that we have had, and have

had since our party was created in 1901. We have got to get back to

that mainstream, clear, centrist, patron got a vision for our party

and our country and if we can do that there is absolutely no reason

why we cannot be an alternative to the party of Government and cannot

get a good result on the 8th of June. Your key message was that you

have to get back to that region, the message that you are not on that

message right now? We are seeing from people on the doorstep that

they are worried about the polarisation of politics, they feel

there is a shift to the hard left and a shift to the hard right and my

vision for the Labour Party is not one where we are anywhere near the

hard left, we are a party that is a centrist, patriotically party,

stands up for working people, that believes in rebuilding public

services and realises that we have got principles but if you want to

put those principles into practice you have to win power, and if you

are going to win power you have to be in touch with the people of this

country. That is what we have to get back to. Labour's Stephen Kinnock,

thank you very much. That was interesting, Laura.

I would like to ask Emily, Stephen Kinnock clearly thinks that the

Labour Party has gone too far to the left and Jeremy Corbyn is a problem

on the doorstep? There is nothing in terms of policy that Stephen was

talking about that I would disagree with, so I think sometimes we set up

straw men for ourselves, when it comes to policies, when it comes to

the way in which we can make Britain better, Stephen and I agree. His

analysis is clearly that you have gone too far away from the

mainstream. He used the phrase, the hard left, worried about Labour

being the party of the hard left. Is he wrong? He did say that... Is he

wrong about that? It is sometimes a Conservative attack that is put

out... It is from one of your own MPs! The point is that although some

people may say that, the question is, what policies is it, what is it

that Labour stands for that is a hard left policy? If you look at

what we stand for, we are certainly a party at the left, a Progressive

party, we want the world to move on, our country to move on for the

better, and we are a party of hope. But the problem that

we have, we all know this, I am not telling you any secrets, is we have

not been particularly united in the recent past. One thing that comes up

again and again on the doorstep is people said they will not vote for a

party that is not united. Stephen Kinnock says that on the doorstep

people say they are worried about Jeremy Corbyn, in his word he says

it comes up time and time again. Is he wrong about that, do you think he

is an asset? I am not saying Jeremy does not come upon the doorstep

sometimes but what also comes up is the importance of having a clear,

united message. And Stephen and I agree on that, that is what we need

to concentrate on. Let's pause for a second because

there is a very exciting situation in Northumberland. Let's have a look

at Northumberland, is this the final result? Just come in, this was

really on a knife edge and it is still a hung council but when we

look at this result we see the Conservatives on 33 and Labour on

24. Let's have a look at the difference with last time, because

what has happened if there has been a bit of a Conservative surge in

Northumberland, picking up 12 seats, Labour have dropped eight, the Lib

Dems have dropped dead, Independents up four, so not enough for the

Conservatives to take control. They had hopes in Northumberland of

taking control of the council, they have not done so, they are on 44% of

the vote, Labour 27%, if we look at the percentage share of the vote,

Independents 12 and Lib Dems on 12. What is the difference with 2013? To

underline, the Tories putting on 13% but not enough to take them over the

finishing line for overall control, Labour dropping back 9%, Lib Dems

dropping back nine, Ukip dropping three in Northumberland.

What I would like to do now, because we are looking at some of these key

battle grounds, clearly we want to look as well at some of these

mayoral contests which is happening. We have not mentioned them yet, they

are some of the big political posts that have been invented as part of

the devolution strategy of the Conservative Government. The West of

England was one of them, we had the West of England result earlier

today, let's have a look at it. This was the first preference, to take

you through the voting process, this allows people to express preferences

on the first preference vote we had Tim Bowles for the Conservatives in

first place, Labour in second place, Lib Dems' Stephen Williams in third

place. Went through, nobody had the required number of votes necessary

to go through straightaway on the first round, as you can see there,

27, 22 and 20. We went to a second round, let's have a look at that.

There is the result in the West of England, the Lib Dems, by the way,

had hoped with Stephen Williams, former Lib Dem MP, to do rather well

here but what happened is the Conservatives narrowly won, beating

Labour's Lesley Mansell. So Tim Bowles is the first of the big Metro

Mayors that we can report on, that is the result in the West of

England. There will be several more to come.

Now, straight to the Midlands, there is a massive contest happening, in

terms of the mayors and important county results as well. Patrick

Burns is there for us. Tell us what happened overnight?

Well, we had two of our Shire counties counting overnight, most

started as no overall control and both now firmly under Conservative

controlled. Gloucestershire and Warwickshire. Startling result in

Warwickshire, actually, they needed to gain just two extra seats for

overall control, they actually gained 12 and the Labour contingent

in Warwickshire was halved from 20 to ten. Interest over whether the

Liberal Democrats might enjoy something of a Brexit or should I

say anti-Brexit bounce, they actually lost one of their seats so

not much progress for them. Obviously delighted Conservative

council, initially leading a minority administration, and the

counsellor says it is a brilliant light, wonderful night, the map of

Warwickshire turned blue from top to bottom from left to right. By

contrast, thinking of course as you mentioned earlier, Warwickshire has

some of those key general election marginal seats, places like

Nuneaton, which was a totally marginal seat in 2015. Well, the

Labour general election candidate in Nuneaton was actually one of the

casualties on the council, he actually lost his seat last night,

Phil Johnson, and he put the blame for that very firmly at the door of

Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. Also losing their seats were the leader

of the former Labour group and indeed the chairman of the local

party, so there is no particular gloss to be put on this, it has been

a very, very emphatic, bad night for Labour in key electoral area,

Warwickshire, with all of those marginal seats, crunching the

numbers with the general election in mind.

Indeed, Patrick, and while you are with us, tell us, of course we are

looking ahead, later today, probably around tea-time, to the result of

the West Midlands mayoral contest, that has been a pretty tough fight

so tell us what you are looking at at this point?

It is a real knife edge, potentially a real thriller. All the suggestions

are that it is a very, very close run thing between and Labour

candidate, Sion Simon, former Government minister under Gordon

Brown, now Labour member of the European Parliament for the West

Midlands, and Andy Street, former boss of the John Lewis department

store chain, he stood down from that role in order to become the

Conservative candidate here. It has been a very close run thing, this

contest, and as you say counting is just really in the very early

stages. We don't expect anybody to have an overall majority, 50% plus,

on the first count, it is almost certainly going to go to second

preferences and that obviously does add a certain number of vagaries to

the whole process, but I can tell you it is a real knife edge, there

is no real confidence I think on either side, nobody has had the

temerity to think they have it in the bag, and it is very big job,

this it is a major set of political spending powers devolved from

Westminster, Whitehall, to head an area through the Black Country,

Birmingham, Coventry. I remember the architects of this originally were

David Cameron and George Osborne and they said, for the maximum level of

devolution to be had in to authorities like that, you need a

focal point at the top for accountability, the elected mayor. A

controversial figure, and there is a sentiment not just among local

councillors but out in the electorate that this is an unwelcome

job. In the name of localism the Government has actually insisted on

this Mayoral role and we are all set for a thrilling contest with the

final result, as you say, maybe late afternoon, tea-time, between 4pm and

6pm is my guess. We will see you later, Patrick, but

thank you for bringing us up to date in Birmingham.

Indeed, some big and important contests there. I must tell you

this, we were talking about Northumberland, saying the Tories

have not quite managed to take overall control. After two recounts

in south Blyth, one of the wards in the council there, the Lib Dems and

Conservatives tied at 356 votes each so what happened? The candidates

through straws which led to a Lib Dem victory and that is what then

denied the Conservatives their overall majority in the county!

Brandon, I am sure you will have some thoughts on that! I have

experienced, I have to say, in my own county in Great Yarmouth when I

was a council leader in Essex I have seen people on the drawing of cards,

I have seen straws drawn before, it is a good example of why every vote

count that any election, rather than leaving it to cards, every vote

counts. Laura? Emily and Suzanne both look like

they have their own painful memories of something going so close and

going the wrong way for their own party! But about Northumberland,

Labour came within an inch of winning outright control in 2013 and

yet again we have seen the Tories piling on votes, another early sign

that things are very tricky for Labour in parts of England

particularly. In a few minutes we will get some

Lib Dem reaction to what is going on, we will be talking to Baroness

Jenny Randerson from Cardiff, she has been waiting to talk to us, but

before we talk to Jenny we will get a full update on the weather first

of all, and we will go straight to the BBC Weather Centre and joined

the Labour review is there today. The dry spell seems like it is going

to go on across most of the country today. Short of rainfall in recent

weeks and the news is that this will keep to the French side of the

Channel for the most part. For the rest of the day, not a great deal of

change from what we have seen of late, the early low cloud lurking

offshore for the most part, offshore breeze keeping cool around exposed

coast of Scotland. The best of the warm the yet again towards the West,

17, 18, possibly 19. Similar prospects across Northern Ireland,

Eastern shores that bit cooler. The eastern coast of England, a bit more

cloud across East Anglia and the south-east, generally across the

southern counties, as has been the way of late. But less of a chance of

a shower on the breeze and a greater chance of sunshine. Into the

evening, we bring the weather front close by to the Isles of Scilly, the

far west Cornwall, down to the Channel Islands and again with clear

skies somewhere in the countryside in Scotland could see temperatures a

few degrees below zero. But it means a bright start, not a great deal of

change across the northern half of Britain but with the French close by

to the south there is a chance of rain just getting into part of

Cornwall, Devon, towards the Channel Isles, the Isles of Scilly, and

there may just be enough cloud ahead of it for there to be the odd spot

of rain in mid Wales, the Midlands, onto Lincolnshire, but by the

afternoon many of these areas will be dry and the best of the sun

shines through the day, the highest temperatures through western

Scotland, maybe the western side of Wales, western side of Northern

Ireland as well. But the onshore breeze still affecting eastern

coasts. The frontal system moves away as the lone trundles off into

northern Europe, notice we are cranking some of those isobars

towards a northerly so a change of wind direction but not a warm one by

any means, said the eastern shores again, nine, ten, 11, 12, still

drive for the most part across the British Isles, the best of the

sunshine and warmth likely found towards the west and early into next

week, staying, for the most part, predominantly dry. Take care,

goodbye. Good morning and welcome

to viewers on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel

for our special live coverage of the local

elections in England, Thousands of councillors

being elected overnight and today, responsible for delivering your

essential public services - and all of this happening, unusually,

during a general election campaign. We'll have results as they're

declared, and we'll be getting reaction from the parties

to what's going on. It's been a very good night

for the Conservatives They've taken control

of the councils in Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and

Monmouthshire. They've also won the West

of England Mayoral contest. And it looks - at this early stage

that they're heading for their best set of local elections

for a decade or more. A disappointing night the Labour,

some people say it's disastrous, if you are listening to Stephen

Kinnock. And in Wales they've

lost overall control of Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil,

two councils in their Although they have held

on to the capital city, Cardiff. Alongside the other key strongholds,

Swansea and Newport. And it has been a pretty

bad night for Ukip. And the party has been wiped out

on councils like Lincolnshire, Their vote share is down

dramatically, most of it The SNP are trying to take

the City Council from Labour. That is after decades of Labour

rule. Lots of other Scottish results coming in, that should be later this

morning and this afternoon. In a moment we'll have more

from our politicial guests - Labour's Emily Thornberry,

the Shadow Foreign Secretary, And we're now joined

by Councillor Peter Reeve from Ukip. And we'll get some more analysis

of what these results all mean from our political editor,

Laura Kuennsberg. We will be talking to Professor John

Curtice as well. But first let's bring you right up

to date with the results so far. We will have another surge of

results later this morning and into the afternoon.

That is the scorecard of National councillors. We will pick up on some

of that and talk to some of our guests. We will have more results

coming in and we will go head to some of the big results, including

some of the big mayoral contests, for example Manchester and the West

Midlands. And with all that in mind,

let's join Joanna Gosling with a full round up of what's been

happening where in these elections. And of course there is other news

going on as well. The Conservatives have made

big gains in the local elections with Labour

and Ukip suffering loses. Many votes are still to be counted,

but so far the Tories have gained control of five counties and Labour

have lost three. The Conservatives have said

the results were encouraging, Labour said it had been

tough but not the wipeout With the story so far,

here's our political Rosettes worn proudly, better

overnight nervous faces, too. Already it is clear that the biggest

wins so far are for the Conservatives. Charles Bowles as

Julia elected as the West of England Manor. The Tory candidate made

history by becoming the regional mayor.

This is what winning and retailing power looked and sounded like for

the party in Essex, they have won control of Warwickshire,

Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire and the Isle of Wight.

In Cumbria the Tories have replaced Labour is the largest party, but

senior Conservatives are playing down expectations.

The turnout in local elections, of course, is much, much lower than a

general election. It is wrong to protect what will happen on June the

8th, we have a general election to campaign for and to win after last

night, but encouraging signs. There was some positive news for

Labour. In Doncaster they held onto the elected mayor's job, but the

party has lost scores of seats in swing areas.

These counties are the Tories' strongholds. It was going to be a

tough night for Labour, and we're in the middle of the general election

campaign. Mixed motives, people voting largely on local issues, not

national ones. But what is coming across is that where people

predicted we would be wiped out, in places like Wales, we have done very

well. In Lincolnshire, the Ukip leader

Paul Nuttall will fight for Westminster seat next month, but his

party was wiped out overnight on the local authority.

It is a great shame because local government is very different from

national government. I have been a local councillor, a whole different

set of responsibilities. The Tories might not be the best at running

them. Our councils in Lincolnshire have been very hard-working, but

that does not necessarily translate. The Lib Dems admit it has been a

mixed set of results so far. We have held ground in the face of a

massive shift, an enormous shift of Ukip voters to the Conservatives,

and given that has happened, we have done well to stay where we are. The

Green Party says with the Conservatives dominating, other

parties need to collaborate. There is a strong message that

people want the more progressive parties to work together rather than

against each other. Under this type of system it is clear that when we

stand against one another we lose ground and the Conservatives gained

ground. Back to the counting for now, plenty

of that still to be done. The final day of campaigning has

begun in the French presidential Polls show that the centrist

Emmanuel Macron maintains a clear lead over his Front National

opponent Marine Le Pen. Meanwhile Mr Macron has filed

a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account

in the Caribbean. He has strongly denied

the allegations. President Trump has been celebrating

at the White House after the US Representatives passed a bill

billing -- bringing his pledge to come in his words, finish off

ObamaCare, which offered health assurance to millions of less

well-off Americans, further forward. That's a summary of the news -

now back to Local Elections Welcome back. This is our live

coverage of the local elections today in England, Wales and

Scotland. Plenty of results to come but some firm pattern is emerging.

We will talk about those in a moment. I want to go back to the

remarkable story in Northumberland, this is where the Tories failed to

gain overall control, they were just picked up the post because this

happens, look. Jawing lots, drawing straws. The Lib Dem Leslie Rigby,

the Conservative Daniel Xhaka, two recounts in South Blyth in

Northumberland. They were tied so they had to draw straws. That is the

way to win! They drew straws and the Lib Dem won, thus denying, and

Brandon is seething, the Conservatives and overall majority

in the county. Just one little element of the drama happening. It

was nice to see those images, just to see how that was decided. That is

an element of local democracy in action, it goes to show how strongly

people feel. Although lots of people are talking about these elections in

terms of what they tell us about the general elections, these are local

authorities handling billions of pounds of money and delivering

essential public services. First and foremost they are important

exercises in local democracy. The drift from central government has

been to begin think more powers, and less money, to local government. So

these elections are more important than they have been recently. The

big mayoral results are going away from Whitehall, they have the bigger

importance. Northumberland, which I suspect most people will remember

because of the straw pulling, there was an 11% swing from Labour to

Tories in Northumberland, that is, according to our data, the biggest

swing in any key ward councils. It is clearly a very good result for

the Tories, the worst results for them was when they failed to take

Cardiff, Labour holding better than expected in Wales, but nonetheless

it is a very important result. Peter, nice too happy with us.

Suzanne was talking about rebranding and saying the party still had a

future. Let's not go there yet, let's talk about performance. When

you see dozens of losses, as you have in some of these countries

where you did so well in 2013, which was a very big year for you, what

are you telling your supporters? The same we are saying to everyone and

have said before the election started, 2013 was exceptional for

Ukip, it really sparked as leading national politics, and we have led

national politics in this country ever since. In this round of the

elections, it was always going to be incredibly difficult and we have

never shied away from that. The difference between Ukip and the

other political parties is whilst they sacrifice their principles and

policies and morals to win seats and to focus on political power at all

costs, we are here to change the country. Even if that is that our

own expense. We won't be standing some Westminster candidates in some

weeks in the next few does represent seats in the next few weeks because

we are putting the country ahead of the party. Ukip is leading the

national agenda, we forced a Prime Minister to hold a referendum on EU

membership that he did not want, he had to resign. That is the influence

of Ukip, we did that with no MPs in Parliament. So is the message of

these results that voters think your purpose is over? The message is that

Theresa May is wearing the Emperor 's is, she's pretending to be Ukip.

She is doing rather well. The Tory spin doctors have played a blinder,

on the doorsteps we are hearing people saying we still want to vote

Ukip, we still believe in them, the 12th Prime Minister says you have to

bowled Conservative to protect real Brexit, our voters will Bullet for

her. The spin doctors have done a fantastic job. The reality could not

be further from the truth. As Home Office Minister Theresa May said she

would cut immigration to tens of thousands instead of hundreds of

thousands and failed to deliver, she will fail to deliver on Brexit as

well. What makes you think that? She campaigned for Remain, she does not

believe in our cause and I guarantee she will start backtracking. Let's

watch what she does rather than taking my word for it, but Ukip has

a huge feature both now and holding the Government to account, in this

general election I predict that people like the candidate in

Thurrock will be elected and start holding the feet of the Government

to the fire, it is essential we get Ukip MPs to protect a real Brexit.

Brandon, just a thought on Ukip's take on the Brexit process under

Theresa May? Where his argument falls down is that Theresa May

triggered Article 50 and said what -- and did what she said she would.

There is a simple choice, extrapolating for two June the 8th,

we will be choosing a party that will put into Downing Street a Prime

Minister who will be leading the negotiations for leaving the EU. It

is either Jeremy Corbyn Theresa May. That is the choice we have to make.

What we have seen in Northumberland is the importance that every vote

matters, that is why we will continue to work, as Theresa May has

done every day open last few weeks, to make the case about why we have

the best position and Theresa May is the best person to deliver the best

deal for the UK. Let's get a Lib Dem boys, can we go straight to city

Hall in Cardiff? Baroness Jenny Rand is and is there thank you for

joining us. Your thoughts on the Lib Dem performance today? It has always

been our intention to use these elections to start to rebuild the

party. They were never going to be simple or straightforward elections,

we live in turbulent times. One of the great things we have been able

to do in these elections is to use many of our thousands and thousands

of new members, and we have tens of thousands of them, in order to make

them party activists, actively engaged in campaigning for our core

messages, for the future, for the June election. Not easy elections,

not the results we would ideally have wanted in some areas, but we

have won seats from the other parties in some places and we are

really pleased about that. Looking at the figures for Cardiff, if I

may, they will, quite soon, and I wonder if you can talk us through

the Lib Dem performance? You took 11 seats in Cardiff. By my calculation

you lost five seats from 2012, when these elections were last conducted.

What accounts for that given that some of your Lib Dem colleagues told

me that parts of Cardiff were looking quite promising?

What we found on the doorstep was that once the general election had

been announced, the conversation we were having with people totally

changed. They stopped talking about how the council here in Cardiff was

run, they were not talking about bins and potholes and so on, they

were talking instead about Theresa May, whether they were in favour of

her or not, they were talking about Theresa May and the whole country.

And therefore what happened was that the party politics has hardened.

There is of course a surge in the Conservative vote but the Labour

vote also hardened here as people who are very certainly not

Conservatives went to them or tribal allegiance to the Labour Party. It

became difficult as a local election campaign to cut through on that, but

I think when we get to the general election we will find that we are

able to have a very clear message on Brexit and we are have to roll the

only UK National party that can give us that one clear message saying, we

are in favour of the EU, we are in favour of staying in the single

market, and we are in favour of giving people their voice on their

future. So far you are down 11 seats in Wales, obviously it is early

days, we will see what happens through the rest of the day in lots

of these English counties as well, but are you expecting in Wales at

least to be down or to be in positive territory? To be honest, I

don't know any longer what to expect on anything in politics! At least

you are honest, Jenny! LAUGHTER.

Every day brings a new shock! And I think quite a few people would agree

with me. But I do think that we will probably be down slightly. But it is

important to remember these seats were last fought in 2012. We have

been through a torrid times since then, not just in 2015 and the

general election, but in 2016 in the assembly election. I am proud of the

campaign we have run, a positive campaign across Wales and we do have

successes, we have won seats of the Conservatives, of Labour, and off

Plaid Cymru, and I think it is important that we look at where we

won those successes and build on that for the future. But we are not

in a really bad place, we are simply in the foothills of exercise. Good

to talk to you, Jenny Randerson, thank you very much, outside City

Hall in Cardiff for the Lib Dems. Thoughts, Laura?

Interesting to hear there, something we have heard quite a few MPs who

are now standing against say, actually, they feel there has been

more momentum in these local elections because suddenly there was

a general election which has made people turn to politics. A few

people have said to me in the last couple of weeks in a way they

wouldn't normally in local elections, they are pretty obscure,

turnout is low, but the general election may have changed the

backdrop, that is what Jenny has suggested have happened to the

Liberal Democrats in Wales. A couple of tips from my sources, we talked

earlier, looking to Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire much later in the

day, areas where Labour really wants to hold on because important

marginal areas for the general election, just suggestions at this

stage that Nottinghamshire may well be heading towards Tory hands, but

Derbyshire, in contrast, may well be, I am told, that Labour manages

to hold on. Lots of hours to go before we get those results but just

a couple of straws in the wind. Are you getting any intelligence on

those, Emily? My phone has packed up, so I am in freefall! I feel for

you, I really do! But it doesn't mean I don't have anything to say!

With Nottinghamshire going one way, Derbyshire and other... Potentially.

It underlines what I have been saying, we have been campaigning out

there, and realistically while there is Bristol, and large amount of

suburbia and countryside that would not be natural Labour hunting

territory, for us to end up just 5000 votes behind in the west of

England Matt is a fantastic result for Leslie and the local team, and

if you translate that across Labour marginals in Bristol and the

outskirts, that is a very good result for Labour, so it shows that

it is mixed. We will see whether our colleague in Bristol agrees with

that, straight to Bristol and join Paul bolt up who is there for us.

Picking up from what Emily is saying, talking about the West of

England mayoral contest, which was won by the Conservatives, what do

you read into that and the relative performances of the party is there?

First and foremost the Conservatives pleased to come through, I think

they felt they were favourites for it but they were never certain.

Having said that, when to May called the general election, it put a

spring into their step, gave them a bit of a boost, I think they got

more of their core vote out. As for Labour, many pundits had not

expected them to come second but if you look back to three consecutive

general elections, 97, 2001, 2005, in the areas that are part of the

West of England Mayorality, Labour came second in three general

elections in that area, so not quite the Tory heartland some people are

portraying it as. They did better than expected but didn't win, but

they will be looking carefully at how the votes stacked up. The Lib

Dems had high hopes round here, it was the one mayoral contest they

thought they had a decent chance in, third place, not too far behind, but

did not make the final two, so disappointment for their candidate.

Let's Hang on to the Lib Dem thought, I

will ask you to talk more about Somerset and Gloucestershire because

these are areas where in the past Lib Dems have had Parliamentary

representation as well, so talk us through those and see what the

trends are there. Absolutely, Somerset was a Lib Dem

heartland Full Sutton long time, the place where Paddy Ashdown built up

the party, they were expecting to go forwards, it was a council run by

the Conservatives but with a narrow majority. The Lib Dems even

yesterday talking about perhaps taking overall control. They did not

just fail to take overall control, it went backwards, they lost seats

in Somerset, are very poor result. There are always exceptions to the

rule, the county council's Conservative leader was unseated by

the Lib Dems, that was the one plus point, but overall a pretty poor

picture in Somerset and in what it says about their general election

prospects, it does not look good at all. If you go up the M5 into

Gloucestershire, slightly different emphasis. Again, Conservative Brent

Council, they did not have an overall majority going in but were

far and away the largest party in the last couple of years, they

increased their hold on the council. But in Gloucestershire's case, the

Lib Dems stayed pretty much where they were but it was Labour who lost

seats, from nine down to four. Bearing in mind during the early

years of the Blair Government, Labour and the Lib Dems together

were running Gloucestershire County Council. Labour have fallen an awful

long way in places like Gloucester, urban areas where they used to have

a Parliamentary seat, they now have just one county councillor

representing the city. They were losing seats to the Conservatives

yesterday. About Gloucestershire and Somerset, as we have seen elsewhere

in the country, Ukip had a pretty bad night. They knocked the

political establishment in the West Country four years ago picking up

seats on the councils but they lost all of them last night.

Good to talk to you, latest thoughts from the West of England,

Gloucestershire and Somerset, very interesting trends that we will pick

up on again, underlining some of the patterns we have seen elsewhere as

well. Lots of results still to come from

Scotland because they did not start counting in Scotland until 9am this

morning so there are dozens of councils up and of course we are

looking specifically Glasgow because that is where Labour has really been

dominant for decades and the SNP are very hopeful of getting control of

Glasgow. Annita McVeigh is there for us.

Good morning, yes, it promises to be a fascinating story in Glasgow,

right across Scotland. A number of big questions to consider, how will

be SNP do, have we seen peak National is perhaps? Will the

Conservatives do as well and Labour do as poorly as some polls have

suggested, here in Glasgow for example it is thought Labour might

lose control of the Council for the first time in 40 years. All of those

questions wrapped up if you like in the twin forces of Brexit and

independence, so these be the least local local elections that we have

seen here? With me to discuss that, I have members from the SNP and

Scottish Labour. Welcome to you both. A big disappointment for the

SNP in the last locals not to gain control of Glasgow Council. Can you

do it this time? I remember the count in 2012 well, it was a huge

disappointment, I have to say from yesterday's turnout and how it felt

in the polling stations we are cautiously optimistic. Whether we

lead the administration as the largest party, or a majority, would

be the icing on the cake, it would be huge for the party in our 18

years of existence, having never come close to taking the

administration of Glasgow, but it is too early to tell yet. You have to

get every man, woman in Scottish Labour past the finishing point yet

you have not fielded candidates in all of the possible seats, two new

wards, six new seats created. Why haven't you done that? Is it a

strategic error? We are standing candidates across the local

authority in Glasgow, the reality is everyone accepts we are the underdog

in Glasgow, if you look at the elections it is not right to compare

like-for-like from the 2012 result, it is more reasonable to compare

what happened at the general election in 2015 when the SNP got

60% and last year when they got 53% of the vote, in this election the

SNP have said they want a majority in Glasgow, I'm not sure how that

will fall, we will see as the day goes on but I am proud of the

campaign and candidate in Glasgow, we are in the fight here. Why is

Scottish Labour the underdog, in your words? Is it because of Brexit,

because of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership more widely? We have to

accept politics changed in Scotland in 2014 when we saw the SNP surge

after the referendum is independent -- independence referendum. It is an

uncomfortable place for the Labour Party to be, we talk about

solidarity, equality, fairness, hope for our politics but our politics at

the moment is consumed with anger and division, that is a challenge

for the Labour Party but in Glasgow we have put forward a positive

message and a plan to move Glasgow Boreham Wood, we believe we have

transformed Glasgow in the last few years. This building shows the

amazing transformation Labour has made because Labour decisions in the

city, that is the policy plan, not talking endlessly about another

divisive referendum. On the doorsteps I'm sure people have been

concerned about local issues but have they been equally concerned

about Brexit and independence? The permutations would make your head

spin, Brexit, independence, local issues as well as many other issues

thrown in the mix. But our voters and supporters, I can only speak for

SNP supporters, they really want to change in Glasgow, this has been a

Labour run council for decades and decades, they are sick and tired of

the decisions made at Council level so they want change. Change was our

key message and let's see if have responded to that. Politicians all

put a spin on their own results, it would be a huge result for the SNP

in Glasgow if we were the lead party in the Administration. If you don't

emerge as the largest party here and get an overall majority, you may

emerge as the largest party but not get the majority to take overall

control, I beg your pardon, to take control of the Council, who would

you go into coalition with? We would look to the administration, as we

have said, we have had a good relationship with the Green Party, a

lot of our politics is the same, left of centre, focusing on

environmental issues, but similarly with many green counters in terms of

the referendum as well, but I am focused here, we want to get the

majority, we want to be over the line. If not, there are other

permutations, we could lead as a minority administration without

going into coalition. What we have said is we would not enter any

coalition with the Conservatives. If Labour does poorly in these

elections, what is next for the party here in Scotland and

nationally? We have to continue to fight for our values, Labour values

are more important now than ever before but we have seen that anger

and division and have to turn our focus to the general election on the

8th of June and said this country faces a clear choice, if you want to

carry on divisive politics, Tory versus SNP, but if you want to move

on from that and change the lives of people, when, women, children across

the United Kingdom, we need to get rid of the Tory Government and get a

Labour Government. Voting SNP does not do that. Thank you both so much

for your time today. So of course lots of questions about what the

eventual results here today will mean for the general election on the

8th of June and let me tell you as far as Glasgow is concerned, 43 is

the magic number, if the SNP can get 43 men and women elected towards

here then they will have overall control of Glasgow Council, removing

that controlled from Labour, which has held control for 40 years. And

for Labour, just a single one of the men and women standing for Scottish

Labour does not get elected today Ben debuts that overall control. A

fascinating story to unfold here. Many thanks to you and your guests

in Glasgow. Laura, the focus is clearly on Glasgow because it is

such a big, symbolic contest. But wait you think to whether

Conservatives had Parliamentary representation in the past in

Scotland, there are other interesting tests? More tellingly

for the general election, and there is not a direct read across, the

more telling barometers for the general election will be whether the

Tories can start nibbling back more seats in the Borders, Perthshire,

parts of Scotland where, years ago, they used to have a relatively

decent level of representation which fell away quite dramatically, but

now Theresa May and Ruth Davidson, the relatively popular Scottish Tory

leader, they are very hopeful of starting to take seats back. Theresa

May has already been on the stump in Scotland. Tory leaders in relatively

recent history would not have dream. Spending much time there. Emily, I

am very concerned about your iPhone. Is it working? I don't know. Leg

raid has an apple on it. It only has about 5% battery. The very good news

is you will not be getting the spin messages from Labour HQ so you will

have $2 what you think. If it was switched on is working, you would

know Doncaster has produce good news.

This was one of the mayoral contests in a single authority, not a big,

multi-authority. Russ Jones has been re-elected for Labour. -- Ros Jones

has been re-elected. The turnout was quite low, 29%. That is something we

might want to talk about later to do with the profile of these jobs and

to what extent they have made an impact on local voters, in many

cases they are powerful positions. If I can bring up the difference on

the last contest. Quite a significant increase for the

Tories but not enough to win the seat.

We have a swing in Doncaster, 0.8% from the Labour to the

Conservatives. There was an independent there before. Ros Jones

has been re-elected, the Conservatives in second place.

A quick word on Doncaster, Emily? Boom.

I saw an interesting quote from Russ Jones earlier, I hope I'm not being

unfair, this is all to do with the fact that we as Labour and Doncaster

have done a good job, locally -- I saw an interesting quote from Ros

Jones. Was clear about a local campaign. Is that fair? This is what

local elections are meant to be about, we have strong local

candidates putting out strong local messages, of course that is what

local council elections will be about. It is confused when a general

election is called the local election, it is difficult to know if

people are voting nationally or locally. As we heard from the Lib

Dem for Wales, the Labour votes in Wales has solidified. Her

interpretation is that in the last couple of weeks and people have been

thinking, you know, if there is going to be a conservative or Labour

government, we're not going anywhere other than Labour. But listen, we

have to work really hard, we have a few weeks left before the general

election and we had to make sure that people understand there is a

choice, it does not have to be this way, it does not have to be a

Conservative Government, Labour is the alternative, but we will not be

in government if we do not get the vote out and get people to votes

Labour. On the basis of the results elsewhere in England and parts of

Wales, where does that leave you in terms of confidence looking ahead in

the next few weeks? It is all to fight for. We have a very large

membership, we have to make sure people are roads to people and

explaining -- people are out talking to people and we need to think

carefully about the policies and how we can make Britain better, that is

what politics ought to be about. I must break now to join Joanna

Gosling again for the latest news. The Conservatives have made big

gains in the council elections in England and Wales,

recording their best Many of the votes cast

yesterday across England, Scotland and Wales are still to be

counted, but Labour have suffered losses and Ukip have failed

to win a single seat. The Conservatives have been

celebrating a series of victories Initial results show the Tories

taking control of five local councils and winning more council

seats than any other party. The Tories also celebrated victory

in the West of England, where the Conservative Tim Bowles

was elected to the newly created However, senior members

of the Conservative Party are downplaying the significance

of that victory, saying many votes I think the early results

are encouraging, but they are early We have seen less than a quarter

of the vote actually counted The turnout in local elections,

of course, is much, much It is wrong to predict

what will happen We still have a general

election to campaign for and to win after last night,

but encouraging signs. Elsewhere Labour have

lost three councils, Despite the losses in Wales,

Labour did hold Cardiff Council. The party was also victorious

in Doncaster, where its candidate Ros Jones, the Labour mayor

was re-elected, securing Labour has defended

its performance so far. The Party's Shadow Chancellor,

John McDonnell, told people to wait for results elsewhere to come

in before judging the If you look at where we have really

campaigned hard in terms of Wales in particular, Jeremy Corbyn was down

in Cardiff, there has been a lot of work on the ground with a membership

knocking on doors, we have defied all predictions on the losses. Where

we have lost in south Wales, what is interesting, it has not been to the

Tories in terms of what has happened in Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent,

they have returned to independents, which they were before 2012. It is

difficult to extrapolate from local government results anyway.

It's been a disappointing night for Ukip.

The party failed to win any of the seats it contested -

losing 39 previously held council seats.

-- losing 42 previously helps... Held council seats.

Ukip says it still has sitting councillors in the country,

although those positions were not up for election this time.

It's been a night of mixed results for the Liberal Democrats.

A short time ago the Party had lost 28 council seats.

The Lib Dems also failed to retake Somerset Council

from the Conservatives, although the Tory leader John Osman

was ousted by Lib Dem former MP Tessa Munt.

Despite the overall picture of the Conservatives performing well, some

electro battles have been very close indeed. The winner of the seat in

Northumberland county council was decided by drawing straws after two

candidates received the same number of votes. Here is the moment that

the Lib Dem candidate selected a longer stroll to claim the seat.

That meant the Conservatives were denied overall control of the

council. The final day of campaigning has

begun in the French presidential election before voting takes

place on Sunday. Polls show that the centrist,

Emmanuel Macron, maintains a clear lead over the far right candidate

Marine Le Pen. Our correspondent Karin Giannone

is in Paris with the latest. Welcome to a busy Friday in Central

Paris. It is anything but normal because we are into the final hours

of the 20 17th residential election campaign. Come midnight French time,

the candidates must fall silent and campaigning will be over before the

vote on Sunday. It has been an incredible campaign so far,

extraordinary and particularly bad tempered. The final debate on

Wednesday was one of the most heated that a French presidential election

has ever seen. It is not an Marine Le Pen any favours, Emmanuel Macron

has increased his lead in the polls to 62% against her 38%. Let's give

you a flavour of what the papers make into Friday, the final day.

The financial newspaper talks about Macron and Le Pen, a battle against

extremism and says that Emmanuel Macron is the favourite going into

the second round. They call it an extraordinary, unprecedented

election campaign. Le Figaro calls Marine Le Pen's

campaign is shipwrecked, they talk about Macron being the arch

favourite. Marine Le Pen always says the mainstream media are against her

and this would be typical of their stunts. They call her the big loser

of the televised debate. Le Monde, another daily, Marine Le

Pen, it talks about the strategy of the live. Inside Le Monde they have

19 fact that the same Marine Le Pen said in the presidential debate --

19 fact that they say Marine Le Pen said. They say she was lying in all

maintain cases. Let's show you a left-wing

newspaper, that is Jean-Marie Le Pen, Marine Le Pen's father and the

founder of the National front. They say she has not changed, forcing

what Marine Le Pen has always wanted to move on from a future image

without her father's shadow, they say it is effectively the same Le

Pen. It is not a dead cert for a Emmanuel Macron, 20% of voters are

undecided so there is plenty to pay for. -- play for.

The Government is set to publish draft plans to tackle air pollution

following a legal battle with environmental campaigners.

The measures are expected to include a scheme to encourage

drivers of older diesels to scrap their cars.

And also the removal of speed bumps to cut pollution caused by cars

braking and accelerating. A British man has died

while skydiving in Thailand. It happened in the Thai

resort town of Pattaya. 69-year-old James McConnell -

an experienced skydiver - leapt from a plane and landed

in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip

at the Thai Sky Adventures airbase. This picture is from a previous

jump. His son has posted a message

on social media saying That's a summary of the news -

now back to Local Elections Welcome back to live coverage of the

local election results in England, Wales and Scotland. We have spoken

about some of the results already and I want to bring you another, one

of the big English counties. Let's look at Essex, this is a county the

Conservatives have held, relatively comfortably.

A huge majority of 37. You may be wondering why in Essex we do not

have Ukip on the graph. The reason is they have actually lost all their

seats there and they are not in the first six. That is the history of

what is going on, we will ask Peter about that in a second, in Essex, of

all places, where they did so well in 2013. 14 games to the

Conservatives. Sticking with that, I want to go to