Results - Part 2 Local Elections 2017

It is 2pm. Welcome back to viewers on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel

for our special live coverage of the local election results in England

and Wales and Scotland. 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. The Conservatives have had a very

good set of results so far. Results coming in within the past

hour, they've gained control of the Derbyshire, overall control of

Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk. Making gains in Nottinghamshire and parts

of Scotland as well. We'll have more details on that. Labour having a

turbulent time in England, Scotland and Wales, parts thereof. Strong

challenge from the SNP. In Wales they've lost Bridgend and Merthyr

Tydfil, keeping hold of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. In England

they've lost more than 100 councillors, many to the Tories.

They've won the male role contest in the Liverpool city region. -- lost

the mayoral contest. And it has been a terrible 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 In Scotland - the SNP have managed

to deprive Labour of an overall majority in Glasgow but we are not

yet sure if they have won overall control of Scotland's biggest

city for themselves. We're still waiting for most

of the results in Scotland. We'll keep a close eye on Birmingham

this afternoon. Not least for the Metro mayor race in the West

Midlands, set to be a very tight contest between Labour and the

Tories. We'll bring you the result in the West Midlands as soon as we

have it. There's another Metro mayor race, we'll see if Andy Burnham can

win the contest, another significant contest to keep tabs on today. So,

we're in the election studio, Peter Kellner resident analyst is with me

once again. I'm joined in the studio at this point by Karen Bradley for

the Conservatives, John Nicholson for the Scottish National Party and

down the line from Manchester, Andrew Quinn, Labour's campaign

chair. Thanks for joining us. We'll be with you in a few minutes to have

a chat about what's going on and ask you what you think of the trends so

far. Before all of that, let's have a look at where we are on the

scorecard, the all-important scorecard, to let you know where we

are. For all of you joining the coverage, a morning of following the

results. Lots of results to come, especially in Scotland. So far the

Conservatives, having made significant gains, 365 up in terms

of the number of seats. Labour having lost 258 councillors so

far... The Lib Dems down 36. The Scottish

National Party at this point having made one game in terms of seats. But

of course more contests to declare. The Greens have made four gains,

they are on 19 seats at the moment. We'll talk more about all of those

performances later. I'd like to show you the results before we have a

quick update on the news from Derbyshire. Let's have a look at

Derbyshire. This is a very, very important contest that has happened.

This is where Labour had its big majority of 22 after 2013. Look

what's happened, Tories on 37. A game from Labour. 24 to Labour. Look

at the difference from 2013, 19 seats up in Derbyshire. It was a

Labour stronghold, Labour having lost 19 seats. A punishing result

for Labour, a majority of ten in Derbyshire for the Conservatives.

It's kind of telling us what's been going on in lots of parts of

England. It's a complex picture and we're going to be looking in terms

of the trends in Scotland and Wales, too. That's where we are at the

moment. I'll be back in a second to talk about it all. It's a good

moment to catch up with the election stories, see the memorable images so

far, and the day's of the news. Let's say good afternoon to Jane.

The Conservatives have made big gains in the local elections,

recording their best results since 2008.

Many of the votes cast yesterday across England, Scotland and Wales

are still being counted, but Labour has fared

badly in many areas, including losing control

Ukip has seen its vote collapse, only winning a single seat so far.

The Liberal Democrats have had a mixed result,

and haven't found the breakthrough they had been hoping for.

Our first report is from our political

It's the Conservatives with the biggest cheers.

They gained overall control in nine councils including Derbyshire,

Cambridge and Lincolnshire. 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. In Cumbria, the Tories have replaced

Labour as the largest party. But senior Conservatives are playing

down expectations ahead The turnout in local elections

of course, is much lower So it's wrong to predict what's

going to happen on June the 8th. We still have a general

election to campaign The Tories are celebrating in Essex

too, where this time round, In Lincolnshire, where Ukip's leader

Paul Nuttall will fight for a Westminster seat next month,

the party was wiped out. And with such big losses,

Ukip's future is in question. I've been in Ukip

now for four years. The amount of times I've heard

the phrase, "Ukip's finished, If I had a pound for every one,

I'd probably be quite a rich woman. It's not over until it's over

and despite these pretty poor election results so far,

it's not over. The party's lost

more than 250 seats. And in Glasgow, where Labour has

been in power for more than 30 years, it's now

lost overall control. These are counties which are

the Tory strongholds. It was going to be a tough

night for Labour anyway and we are in the middle

of a general election campaign, People are voting largely

on local issues, not What is coming across is where

people were predicting we would be wiped out in places like Wales,

we've done very well. The Lib Dems admit so far,

it's been a mixed set We held our ground in the face

of a massive shift, an enormous shift of Ukip voters

to the Conservatives and you know, given that happened,

we've done well to stay The Green party says

with the Tories dominating, Well I am worried about how well

the Conservatives have done in terms of both the Green Party,

but more broadly for the future I think that has to be a wake-up

call for parties on the left and the centre-left to think

about how we work together under For some, the results today have

been too close to call. The Tories denied an overall majority in

Northumberland after the Lib Dem candidate literally drew the longest

straw. For now, it's back to the counting. There is still plenty of

that to be done. Mr Rotherham, who represented Liverpool Walton, won

with 60% of the vote, he'll lead the region's combined authority in a

newly created role. One of the story to bring you, Jean-Claude Juncker

has said the English language is losing importance in Europe.

I hesitated between English and French. I made my choice. I will

express myself in French. APPLAUSE Because... Slowly but surely English

is losing importance in Europe. LAUGHTER

Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at a conference in Italy. That is all the

news for now, more through the afternoon. Now, let's go back to the

local election results and Hugh Edwards.

We'll be back with Jane later for the news. We are focusing on quite a

few big battle grounds this afternoon. There will be lots of

results coming in we can try to unpick. One of the biggest ones,

certainly, in terms of the power of the person being elected, in terms

of the budget of the person being elected, in terms of the real clash

of political cultures, is in the West Midlands, the contest for the

Metro mayor, the city region mayor, a battle between Labour and the

Conservatives. It's taking place under the preference system of

voting, so there could be quite a few stages. Let's talk to Patrick

Burns in Birmingham. Where are we on this Metro mayor election? Clearly

heading towards a photo finish between the Labour candidate Sean

Simon and conservative Andy Street. What we had so far is seven separate

counts. This is the largest, Birmingham. There is one in each of

the major metropolitan council areas in this part of the country. They

are bringing these votes together on the first round to see if they need

to go through to the second preference votes under the

supplementary vote system. A rather complicated thing to explain.

Essentially what we now know is Andy Street for the Conservatives, Sean

Simon goes through to the second round. On the counter so far, Sean

Simon has his nose ahead, if we're heading towards that photo finish.

If you factor in the votes potentially from the other

candidates now eliminated, second preference votes, there are enough

there to tilt the final result one Way Or Another. I'm sorry I couldn't

make it any more simple for you, it's a rather complex procedure. We

recommend is probably another three hours or so left in this. Both sides

say Labour say the battle is in play, the Conservatives say it is

too close to call. It confirms the impression I've had during the

course of this day, talking to people in the two principal parties

camps, neither side is displaying a great deal of confidence, they are

hoping for the best at this stage. It's a real knife edge photo finish

as we expected it would be. That's exciting, let's hope it comes within

the next three hours so we can report it and we're still on her. On

the candidates will be eliminated, tell us more about them and where

you think those votes could be expected

to go the first thing that stands out is that Ukip, as elsewhere in

the country, have performed very badly. Where we'll Ukip support go?

The logical thing to say is maybe you would expect Ukip switches to

head towards the Conservatives. The Greens have polled tolerably well

but the Liberal Democrats began there is an anti-Brexit factor.

Birmingham itself was evenly balanced between the two. Only 2000

votes Leave and Remain out of a total of. These are very narrow

margins. The vote... She finishes a third... When we're most of her

second preference votes go? There is obvious speculation both ways, one

Way Or Another, I don't want to add to the accumulation of fake news or

alternative facts, but I think it's true to say both the main candidates

have reason to consider their charge is alive. We'll be back to you if

there is a development. That is one of the contest in play. We have a

result in this group of six new mayors. They result in Liverpool.

We'll join the victor, Labour's Steve Rotherham. Many

congratulations to you. Thanks, Huw. I'm wondering what it is in terms of

Liverpool, I'll ask you about the national picture in a second. Can we

try to unpick the result in Liverpool. What was the campaign

fought on there? Well, it was fought on a manifesto that I put forward to

the 1.5 million people in our city region who overwhelmingly have

supported a Labour vision of the future of our city region, which,

when I say overwhelming, 60% overall. 70% in the city of

Liverpool alone. Are you disappointed with the turnout?

You'll be thrilled with the victory but the turnout was 26%, is it lower

than you thought? It was about what we predicted in all honesty, that's

because it's a new area, we haven't had a combined authority like other

areas, like Manchester have had for 25 or 30 years. So it's a new thing.

The first police and crime commission was about 12% so we've

done considerably better than that. It's about in line with what we

think is the turnout in the rest of the country. What is your message to

those Labour colleagues including Stephen Kinnock who we spoke to

earlier, saying results across Scotland England and Wales are a

disaster for labour and raise questions about the leadership, what

is your response to that? It's no surprise Stephen saying that, I know

him very well. I play in the Parliamentary football team with

Stephen and he's expressed his concerns before. What matters is

that in areas like ours we were able to put our message over. We have a

very strong mandate and our manifesto will be permitted in the

first hundred days. It's the best platform we can have to demonstrate

that Labour in power can be trusted. Fighting this campaign during a

general election campaign. To what extent where you also having to

contend with issues to do with the future of the UK in Europe and the

rest of it? There are certainly Brexit on the doorstep, but there

are all sorts of issues where that was confused. Local issues, local

council issues with what was happening with the Metro Mayor

because we've never had one before, so people didn't really understand

what the Metro Mayor was. We've got somebody called the Liverpool city

region including parts of Cheshire, there was confusion over that. It'll

settle down in three years, the people will have another opportunity

to decide who their Metro Mayor should be in 2020. I expect it will

get a decent mandate again in 2020. Steve Rotherham were to talk to you,

congratulations once again on your win in Liverpool. The new city

region mayor in Liverpool. Steve Rotherham. 43 needed for a majority

in Lancashire, the Conservatives have that. More results to come,

this is a partial result. 43 to the Tories, 12 to Labour, two to the Lib

Dems, what has happened since 2013? Let's have a look. The Conservatives

have put on ten seats in Lancashire, so we have 59 wards declared out of

84. Labour have lost nine. We have the Lib Dems 1-1, Ukip plus one, the

independents minus one. It's a sense for you of another big battle ground

going on. I'm going to bring in Andrew, the Labour campaign chair.

He is in Manchester today. Your thoughts, given we've been

talking to your colleague Steve Rotherham, on the board Labour

performance. Diane Abbott today has said lots of it is disappointing,

but she says everything is to play for on June the 8th. What is your

take? Of course it's disappointing when we lose that Labour colleagues

and good Labour candidates don't get elected. Some of the predictions,

particularly in places like Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, haven't come

out the way the pollsters suggested they might. We've had a good win in

the Liverpool city region and predict a very good win here in

greater Manchester. West Midlands is all to play for. It's a very mixed

picture but it doesn't underestimate the challenge facing the Labour

Party. And in parts of the country we've had results that aren't as

good as we would hope. What accounts for that, do you think? I think

there is a number of issues. Firstly, when you look at where we

are in the national opinion polls, Labour has managed to hold its vote

share reasonably well from 2013. What has happened is the Ukip vote

has collapsed and it has come in the main, gone to the Conservatives,

which has handed them a tranche of seats they lost four years ago. That

has been part of the problem. We must also do a lot better. We have a

general election on the 8th of June. We have five weeks to determine the

future for the next five years for this country. I believe we now need

to get on the ground, knock on doors, talking to people. Reminding

them Labour values are fundamentally devalues the British people support.

You didn't mention leadership as a factor, why is that? The leadership

issue was resolved last year when Labour Party members decided Jeremy

Corbyn would remain the leader of the Labour Party. We're in a general

election and for us it's about setting out that vision of a better,

fairer Britain, a Britain that works for the many, not the few. We've got

five weeks to hit the ground speaking to people, find out what

their hopes and worries are, as well as their dreams and aspirations. I

think when we start speaking to people, when we get that

transformational manifesto published, we can start to explain

the difference that a Labour Party in government for the next five

years will make to the communities we seek to represent in every part

of the United Kingdom. Labour campaign chair Andrew Gwynne, thank

you. We're in a position in BBC election Centre to give you a

projected national share of the vote. Let me tell you not what this

is but what it isn't. It's not some kind of forecast about Wolverhampton

on June the 8th, nothing like that. This is really a figure we've put

together, John Curtis and his team have put together, basically saying

what would have happened if all the country had voted in these local

elections yesterday. That is the sense of it for you. Let's have a

look at the projected national share. This is it. Giving the

Conservatives 38% on the projected national share. It gives Labour 27%,

the Lib Dems 18%, it gives Ukip 5% and the others 12%. If we look at

the change from the PNS we offered in 2015, it's showing the Tories up

by 3%, Labour down by 2%, Lib Dems up by 7%, Ukip down by 8%, don't

forget in 2015, we're not talking about 2013, the last local

elections, this is PNS from 2015. No change for the others. It's a very

important figure we've just offered you. I'll bring in John Curtis, the

resident expert. I want you to explain in clear terms what this

figure refers to. This is our estimate for how the country as a

whole would have voted if the movement since the English county

council election results were last fought over in 2013, if the movement

since then had been reflected across the country as a whole. It means the

calculation has been done on the same basis. As for the annual round

of English local elections. As you've already said, first of all,

this is definitely not a forecast of what will happen on June eight, it's

not even a statement of what would have happened if the general

election had been yesterday. It is an attempt to provide you with a

simple summary measure of the overall performance of the parties

in the English county council elections put together in such a way

we can compare party performances in this year's local elections with

2015, 2013, indeed pretty much any other year. With all the health

warnings you tacked onto it, what does it tell us about the relative

strengths of the party? I've got John Nicholson here, probably

looking to see where the SNP is on that, you can tell us that in the

second. Let's talk about relative strength as we go towards June the

8th. What do you make of it? I guess the thing many people will notice is

where the Conservative lead over Labour is substantial, while this is

the best performance since 2008 for the Conservatives and the worst

Labour performance since it was turfed out of office in 2010, the

lead in this projected national share is rather less than the 17

point lead that on average has been in the most recent opinion polls.

And the swing since 2015 local elections is around half the swing

the national opinion polls have been showing. As we've been trying to say

throughout today, it was always clear the Conservatives were well

ahead in these local elections, but it still leaves this question of

whether they are doing well enough that if it were to be translated

into the general election they would get the landslide they are looking

for. In 2015 it took seven point lead in the parliamentary election

just to get that majority of 12 Theresa May didn't want. It's one

obvious technical point. The Liberal Democrats are doing much better in

this projected national share. It's par for the course. Liberal

Democrats nearly always do better in local elections than general

elections, it tends to be the case even on the same day. That

arithmetically begins to depress the Conservative lead to a degree. It's

not going to account for all of it. For Liberal Democrats themselves,

it's relatively good news. The best performance in local elections since

they went into coalition with conservatives in 2010. Still well

below the 25% figure is the party was getting regularly in the

2005-2010 Parliament. It is partial recovery for the Democrats. For

Ukip, we only started estimating in 2013 when they did so well in the

elections. This is their worst performance so far. Overall the

broad picture is what the opinion polls were telling us, Ukip

squeezed, that progress by the Liberal Democrats, but not dramatic.

Labour heading for a bad result. It's whether the Conservatives are

doing well enough to get that big majority Theresa May would like.

I'll put some of those points to Karen Bradley in a moment. What do

you say to John Nicholson and the SNP? From the data I seen, it takes

a while to put it together, because of the boundary changes north of the

border. It looks to me as though the SNP might get 40% of the total vote

in Scotland, but I'm not sure they are going to get much more than

that. In Aberdeen for example, where we have the whole result, the SNP

vote wasn't up that much. They failed to win North Ayrshire, that

one would have expected them to win if they were doing the kind of

performance they got in 2015-2016. I think in truth this is towards the

disappointing. From what I've seen so far, limited, much more to come

in terms of the expectations we had of the SNP. Karen, your response to

the PNS. John suggesting it is a strong performance but not as strong

as some have been predicting. You set yourself this isn't a forecast,

and local elections are based on local issues. I pay tribute to all

those Conservative candidates who have worked so hard over the last

few years and months to get elected. Well done to them. There is no way

anyone can take that and say, this is a foregone conclusion for June

the 8th, absolutely not. It's a different election fought on

different issues. That clear choice between who the British public want

to be leader, strong and stable leadership with Theresa May, or

coalition of chaos with Jeremy Corbyn. Dear, dear, two cliches one

after another, Karen, you are the Secretary of State for culture,

you're meant to be interested in language, you have to come up with

better line than that, really. This is a really important choice, it's

vital we make that point. Those lines were written for you, strong

and stable leadership and coalition of chaos. It's like being with

Stepford wives, the way politicians from the Conservative Party keep

churning out the lines. People are frustrated by this patronising tone

in the election. We've got to improve... What about the SNP

performance? I was very intrigued with what John said, John said the

SNP vote wasn't up that much in Aberdeen. The SNP has been in

government for 11 years, and the vote is up in Aberdeen. That's meant

to be the area where the Tories think they are having a great

revival. I've seen the figures, the final figures are SNP 19

Conservatives 11, Labour nine, Lib Dems four. That in Aberdeen.

It is a curious criticism that the SNP isn't up that much, but I hope

the Conservatives. Pretending there will be a hung parliament. You

mentioned Aberdeen. Let's look at Aberdeen, as we know is a hung

council. 19 to the SNP, 11 to the Tories, nine to the Labour Party,

four seats to the Lib Dems. This is what has happened since 2008. Labour

losing nine seats. But is the picture in Aberdeen. Your pieces

there is what? They are clearly making progress, the Tories? Ruth

Davidson gets up in the morning and she says, let's not talk about

independence. She talks about independence all day and then says,

I wish the SNP. Talking about independence. Maybe it is working if

you look at that result? What she has done is peel away the right wing

of the Labour Party. If you look at the votes in Scotland, there is a

shift between labour to the Conservatives. The SNP vote is

roughly static but the Labour Party is losing ground to the Tories.

There seems to be a straight shift from one to the other. How do you

explain that, Labour straight to the Tories? I think Bruce has done a

great job in Scotland from a very low base. Tributes to be paid to

her. The point that this is not going to be a hung parliament, the

results are clear. We have seen in Liverpool, 60% of the vote has gone

to Labour. There is a real possibility of a Labour government.

No there isn't. We will make it clear that is the choice that will

be made by people on the 8th of June. We cannot take people for

fools, we know what will happen in this election. I don't. I do. You

cannot take anything for granted. That is the lying politicians use,

but we know there will be a Conservative Government and you will

win with a whopping great majority. So the question for voters across

the country is, do you want the Tories to have a serious opposition?

Conservative MPs make this point privately, it is good to have strong

opposition. I think a lot of Tory voters must think, they are going to

win, but maybe there should be a strong opposition also. I broadly

agree that when you have whopping great majorities, in Scotland in the

last general election, there were 56 SNP MPs out of 59. Buy your own

arguments, wouldn't it be healthier for Scottish politics if there were

slightly fewer SNP MPs and more Unionist MPs? You are comparing

apples with pears. SNP MPs at Westminster are not attempting to

form a government. They are not opposition bloc. The speaker from

the opposition bloc said we are persisted because we support first

past the post. We have a result, Tees Valley, the results for the

mayor. 21% turnout. So the Conservatives on 40000 and close

behind, Sue Jeffery on 39,000 for Labour. If we look at the figures,

39%, each. It is a Conservative win in Tees Valley on 48,000 after

everything is recalculated and 46,000 for Labour. So, what are we

saying at this point? Let's go to College Green and talk to Steve

Richards and another journalist. Steve, your take on what is going

on? Sometimes politics needs decoding, it doesn't really at the

moment. What we see is what is happening, it is interesting to hear

Karen Bradley talk up the prospects of a Labour victory. Meanwhile we

have Labour candidate saying, you can vote for me, don't worry because

we will not win. When you are in that situation, the general

narrative is pretty clear, the Conservatives are heading for a

significant victory next month. These local election results on the

whole, with John Curtis' brilliant qualifications do confirm that

pattern. Julia, what are your thoughts? It is absurd to have a

situation where the Conservatives are playing down what is a

successful date and the Labour Party are trying to talk up what is a

disastrous situation. The SNP talking up a Tory victory. The

question is, how much we can read in to the general election in a few

weeks. An awful lot of us, me included, want to vote on whether my

bins are being collected or whether a local councillor is someone you

know or not. Very different from general collections. As you have

seen with some of the turnout, so few of the people who vote in a

general election have turned out to vote. It is dangerous to read

anything into what it might mean for the general election, other than a

Tory majority. Significant contest, the new mayor of the West Midlands,

which is a very powerful position and that is closed between the

Conservatives and Labour. These results must not be discounted in

terms of what they say? No, if Labour were to lose the contest for

the mayor, that would be a big blow to their morale as they then look

forward to the general election where morale is pretty dodgy anyway.

As Julia said, it is important to remember with the mayoral contest,

the local dimensional. What ever happens now and in June when Theresa

May is now expected to win big, is that we will have these pockets of

power elsewhere, in Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool. There is a

Scottish parliament. It is one of the big differences to the 1980s

when Margaret Thatcher won big. When she did, she ruled the whole of the

UK, there was virtually no local departments, and a Scottish

parliament. But if the Tories were to win this one, there would be a

celebration at conservative HQ here because it will tell them what will

happen in the general election. One of the big power bases, by the looks

of it, will not be the Liberal Democrats. They are the one big

party going for the Remain vote. It looks like a lot of leave voters

have gone to the Tories and others have voted on the bin collection

rather than voting for the Remain party. The party of the 11% rather

than the 48% by the end of today. Steve and Julia, enjoy the rest of

the results. Ranks for joining us. A little later than planned, we will

get the news, not just the election news but the news as well let's join

Jane Hill. 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

lost all but one seat. The kernel Edds have taken 11

councils and gained more than 400 seats and be our head with Billy

1500 councillors was but earlier the party was downplaying the

significance of these victories. Many votes remain uncounted.

I think the early results are encouraging, but

We have seen less than a quarter of the vote actually

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

It is wrong to predict what will happen on June 8th.

We still have a general election to campaign

for and to win after last night, but encouraging signs.

Labour is on course to lose control of Glasgow,

the party has been in control in the city since 1980.

The party has lost five councils over role and more than 270 council

seats but the party did hold onto Cardiff. Diane Abbott warned people

not to read too much into these results.

But I think we have to be careful from extrapolating from local

The turnout is much lower and in many cases, people vote

But, I'm not pretending that these aren't disappointing results.

The results have been disappointing for Ukip.

So far the party has only managed to win one

of the the seats it has contested, losing 92 previously

Including all four seats it held on Bevan County Council.

Ukip says it still has sitting councillors in the country,

although those positions were not up for election this time.

The results have been mixed for the Liberal Democrats.

A short time ago the Party had lost 39 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.

Former Labour MP Steve Rotherham has become Liverpool's

Mr Rotherham, a former bricklayer who represented Liverpool Walton,

He said people had voted in favour of a bold manifesto and a fresh

start. Tim Bowles weren't in the West of England for the

Conservatives. Played Comrie in Wales and the Green party have made

gains. The Greens are up two seen so far while Plaid Cymru has 33 more

councillors. It's not just election season here,

in France it's the last day of a contentious campaign to chose

a new President. The two candidates,

the centrist and favourite Emmanuel Macron, and the right wing

Marine Le Pen, are out on the campaign trail

for the last time today, before voters go to

the polls on Sunday. Christian Fraser is

in Paris for us now. What is your sense of it? It has

been a long other times bitter campaign. I am not sure it has done

much to heal the divisions in France and we have seen more hostility

today. Marine Le Pen was at the cathedral which is where they used

to crown the old Kings of France. But such is the hostility from the

crowds that whether, after she had been around the cathedral, she had

to go out through a Robing Room at the back and to a waiting car.

Earlier we saw a huge banner that was unfurled under the arches of the

Eiffel Tower, it had been put up by Greenpeace which had hash tag resist

on it. So the hostility to Marine Le Pen is there. Although a Emmanuel

Macron has a big lead, 62-38, the talk is, they don't want anyone to

take the vote for granted and they don't want complacency. The biggest

threat to him is the abstention rate, which could be quite high.

Thank you, Christian. We have been hearing from Michel Barnier at a

conference about EU's citizens rights in Florence. He warned there

are concerns about the right to free movement which has been given to

European citizens. We should not allow populace to take

the political debate hostage. But we should not ignore what are often

deeply felt opinions and reactions. People are concerned about the free

movement of EU workers, not only in the UK, but also in many other

member states. That's a summary of the news,

now back to Local Elections Welcome back. We are covering the

results of the local elections in England, Scotland and Wales and we

will be focusing on lots of these results still coming in. Some of

them in big contest such as the West Midlands for the new city and

regional mad. But the results coming in. Norfolk has come in. This is a

conservative gain. A familiar story in lots of parts of England from no

overall control, 55 seats to the Conservatives in Norfolk. 17 to

Labour, 11 the Lib Dems. It is a familiar picture in terms of the

collapse of Ukip. Let's look at the difference because we have 15 games

for the Conservatives and 15 losses for Ukip. The East of England

telling us quite a familiar story by now. Those are the Norfolk figures,

I want to go straight to Andrew Sinclair, our correspondent in Great

Yarmouth, that is where he was earlier. Andrew, where are you? I am

now at County Hall in Norfolk. With the Wii would come here for the

final declaration. This place was technically in no overall control,

this Conservatives were just about able to run it for the last year now

they have a majority of 26 and across Norfolk, the Conservatives

brought in some very impressive majorities, as the counting went

ahead. The other headlines in Norfolk, yes, Ukip have been wiped

out, as they have been across East Anglia but also the Green party have

been wiped out. They were wiped out because of a small Labour surge

which we saw in Norwich in the Labour heartland of Norfolk really.

This is quite important, because this part of Norwich, the seat was

held up the last election by Clive Lewis from Labour. The former

Business Secretary, seen by some as being a future leadership contender.

He was going to face a big fight in the forthcoming general election. He

still does face a fight, but I think he will sleep a little bit more

happily the night, knowing Labour have done so well in Norwich. The

other bits of news from Norfolk, is we see a bit of a Liberal Democrat

surge on the North Norfolk coast. They have taken seats from Ukip and

also took one seat from the Conservatives. That will go down

with Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, who is

facing a big challenge from the Conservatives on the North Norfolk

coast, because he only has a majority of 4000. At the end of the

day, the main story, from the whole of East Anglia is, this Ukip

wipe-out. It is significant for this part of the world because this is

where Ukip started to see its first signs of support, it won its first

ever town council in Ramsey in 2010. Since then, it went on to pick up a

load of smaller council seats, District Council level and then in

2013, at the last County Council elections, Ukip sprung onto the

stage by winning a lot of seats here in Norfolk. So many that at one

stage it was the second largest party in the council. It won a lot

of seeds in Cambridgeshire and six. The story here, is Ukip has

absolutely no seats at a County Council level. That is Norfolk, just

putting the figure is up for. Can you talk us through that and it is

the Ukip loss and the search for the Conservatives? Yes, that is

interesting in Cambridgeshire. Cambridge was put into no overall

control. It is normally a solid conservative council, but it went

into no overall control, like Norfolk, because Ukip did well. For

a while, they brought in changes to something called the cabinet system,

which was a change in the way local business was done. They did make

quite an impact in Cambridge, but they have lost the seats. A lot of

the seats were up in the Cambridge offends, area is seen as traditional

Ukip territory. Remember, it was the surge of these seats for Ukip in

places like Cambridge, Norfolk and six which made the Conservatives,

under David Cameron realise, they had to stay true to their pledge to

grant a referendum. But Ukip support has dissipated. Before we left Great

Yarmouth, we went into the street to talk to people to say, what do you

think has happened to the Ukip vote? Every person we spoke to in Great

Yarmouth said the same thing, we think Ukip's job is done. And that

echoes Ukip's one former MP, Douglas Carswell, who when he

left Ukip two weeks ago, said the same thing- job done. Andrew, thank

you very much from Norfolk with the latest picture in the East of

England. Peter, talk us through your thoughts of this Ukip collapse on

the fact it has fed very strongly into a very big conservative surge

in some of these counties. We are being told by some conservatives, it

is not all about that, there are other reasons for Conservatives

doing well, but we cannot discount this as a very, very big factor? It

is a huge factor. I am looking at the seeds Ukip were defending. We

have the voting numbers in. In those seats where Ukip 14 years ago, they

are now forth. They got fewer votes in their own seats. The Conservative

vote has gone up massively in those areas. I think part of the

significance is this, one of the reasons why the Conservatives did.

Get a bigger majority in 2015 was, a lot of people who would have

otherwise voted Conservative, voted Ukip because of the European issue.

Those Conservatives have gone back to being Conservative voters. If

nothing else changes in the general election, that will deliver a bigger

majority to Theresa May. Overall, compared with four years ago, if

anything there is an overall swing from right to left, if you add up

Tory and Ukip on one side and the Liberal Democrats, labour and the

Greens on the other. The Tories have huge gains, Ukip have a number of

losses, Labour down, Liberal Democrats down. Under our voting

system, this coming together of the right of centre votes behind the

Conservatives, where it was more split two years ago, that is

terrific news for Theresa May. What ever happens to the Labour vote,

people on the left is what they think about Jeremy Corbyn. Barry,

we'll be with you in a second. I know Ruth Davidson is also waiting

to talk to us, why don't I bring us up today so far on the Scottish

result so Ruth Davidson can address some of those. 21 losses in terms of

seats for the SNP. The Conservatives, having gained 91 seat

so far in Scotland, and the independents down 11. Labour on 122,

the Lib Dems on 37. Let's look at Dundee. The SNP losing its control

in Dundee, they are on 14 seats, Labour are and nine, and just short

of that control, look at the change from the last time in 2012. In

Dundee, it the SNP have lost two seats which accounts for the loss of

overall control. That is the picture in Dundee, do I

have any other Scottish results to show? I have Aberdeenshire. This is

a hung council. The Tories on 23, SNP on 21. Lib Dems on 14,

independence on ten. This is another case of the Conservatives are making

progress. If we look at the change from 2012, they have put on nine

seats and the SNP have gone down eight seats in Aberdeenshire. The

Lib Dems up two, independents down two and labour are down one seat. I

will bring Ruth Davidson in. Thanks for joining us, Ruth. Headline

thoughts on where you are today? I think today is shaping up to be a

good day for the Scottish Conservatives. It consolidates some

of the gains we made last year at the Scottish parliament and became

the second party in Scotland. People across Scotland are looking for the

Scottish fight back against the SNP where they have tried to create a

sense of momentum. Wherever you are, from the Borders to the Highlands,

the only party strong enough to lead the fight back is the Scottish

Conservatives. We have John Nicholson, and I wonder what he

might have to say about that. It is always good to see Ruth, I am

looking at her local government leaflet in front of me. She always

says, get on with the job and stop obsessing about the constitution.

This leaflet doesn't mention bins, transport or education. What it says

is, we need to send Nicola Sturgeon a message. What Ruth does, she gets

up every morning and she talks about independence all day long. The

narrative is, I wish those nationalists would stop talking

about independence. Somebody looking on, on the basis of these results,

it she is right. All credit to Ruth, she has achieved her aim and she has

peeled away the right of the Labour Party and successfully managed...

Lets let Ruth answer that. There is a simple way of John and his

colleagues to want me to stop talking about independence and that

is the Nicola Sturgeon to do what she said you do, respect the

decision from the last referendum. Because of electoral rules, we don't

mention the individual candidate or individual seats, every one of our

candidates put forward their election address that had the key

points of their area, had priorities for the local council. It is making

sure we do both things, we fight on a national level and local level. I

think it is sour grapes on John, a man under pressure in his own seat

and has a minority that he has to defend. At least I am fighting my

own seat again, Ruth because you had to cross the country to fight for a

different seat. Let's not project too much ahead. Peta wants to talk

about the voting system which will help viewers understand the

situation in Scotland and the dynamics are often different? In the

English elections it is traditional first past the post system. In

Scottish local elections it is the single transferable vote. If you are

wondering how some of these councils are coming up nowhere overall

control, because of proportional voting you tend to get nowhere

overall control. Unless one party is miles ahead of the others, they

might get the majority. But it does raise the question, at local

government level, Scotland only works when parties get together and

cooperate. Either as a joint Administration, or issue by issue.

What we are seeing between John and Ruth, the tone will have to change

when the Conservatives in local councils and the SNP in local

councils find they have to get together to get things done. We have

ruled out any coalition with the Conservatives and we have been

clear, that will not be happening. Ruth, on the basis of the results we

have already, not just in Scotland, but across England and in Wales, how

confident are you as a Conservative, we have Karen Bradley here as well,

looking forward to Julia Tooth? We have got to continue to work hard,

we take nothing for granted. It is different elections north and south

of the border. I will stick with Scotland, Peter is right we have a

system in Scotland where it is transferable vote our local

elections. We have to look at indicators and it is who got the

largest preference share of the votes. If you look across the

borders, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, Angus Robertson's seat, John

Nicholson's boss in Westminster, easy it is the Scottish

Conservatives. We need to use this as a platform to take this fight to

the SNP and lead the fight back against the SNP. Ruth Davidson,

thanks for joining us today. We will carry on the debate in a moment and

bring Karen Bradley in on Conservative prospects and Barry, we

will be in and talking to you as well.

In the meantime, what I would like to do is maybe take a quick break

and have a look at the weather prospects. Will

we are ending the week with similar weather as to what we had at the

start. Things haven't changed that much and that means another sunny

day across parts of Northern Ireland. The best of the sunshine is

across northern areas where we are closest to this area of high

pressure. We have had an easterly wind making it feel chilly across

the East and extra cloud in the south. That is how it looked earlier

on in Devon. There are some breaks in the cloud in southern areas. Not

continuously grey skies, there will be a fair amount of blue sky, a

mixture of patchy cloud and sunny spells in the East Midlands and

Wales. Best of the sunshine in Northern Inman, Scotland. Further

west, temperatures up to 19 possibly 20 degrees in places. As we go

through this evening, cloud will thicken up across England and Wales

I produced the odd spot of drizzle. More persistent rain trying to push

into the far south-west, but it will be the far south-west, Cornwall,

South West Devon, Channel Islands. It may be cold across Scotland, and

Northern Ireland for a touch of frost. This high pressure will try

to bring a change, introduce rain into the South. But not having a lot

of luck. It will be Cornwall, parts of west and south Devon and the

Channel Islands that see the rain tomorrow. More cloud across England

and Wales but Northern Ireland and Scotland, is where we will have the

best of the sunshine. The far north-east will hold onto low cloud,

particularly a wrong coast. It should be a warmer day for the likes

of Glasgow and Edinburgh. To Northern Ireland and northern

England, sunny spells. East Anglia, Wales and towards the south coast,

more in the way of cloud. Writer glimpses and parts of West Devon,

Cornwall and the Channel Islands, rain splashing through at times.

Even that isn't going to last too long. That will clear away during

Saturday evening. On Sunday evening, it looks like more of the same. But

a subtle change in the wind direction, more of a North or

north-easterly wind. That will feed clouding across northern and eastern

Scotland, down the east of England and places exposed to the wind, it

will feel chilly. Cooler weather on Sunday across north-west Scotland.

What about next week? No changes there, it is going to stay largely

dry. Very good afternoon. It is three

o'clock, welcome to view was on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel. This

is our special live coverage of the local elections in England, Wales

and Scotland. We're making good progress getting some results

through. Thousands of council has been elected overnight, this morning

and this afternoon. They are responsible above all for delivering

very important public services in your areas. All of this happening

during a general election campaign, it's affected some of the dynamics.

It will be getting reaction from the parties as to what is going on. This

is where they stand, Conservatives having a very good set of results so

far. This afternoon, they've taken

Derbyshire council from Labour and they've also won overall control

in Cambridgeshire, Lancashire, They've also made gains

in Scotland and Wales as well. And the Tory candidate

for the Tees Valley mayoralty, in North East England,

has narrowly beaten his Labour they've lost control

of Glasgow City Council, which they've held

for nearly 40 years. And they've now lost over 100

councillors in England and in Wales. But they have won three mayoral

contests - in Liverpool, A pretty terrible night and day for

Ukip, they've now lost over 100 seats, most of them in England. The

party has been wiped out on consuls like Cambridge, Northamptonshire and

Essex. Most of that going to the Conservatives.

In Scotland - the SNP have managed to deprive

Labour of an overall majority in Glasgow but we are not yet sure

if they have won overall control of Scotland's biggest

But elsewhere in Scotland - the SNP have lost some seats.

are on Birmingham this afternoon for the West Midlands mayoral race.

It's set to be a tight contest between Labour and the Tories -

we'll bring you the result as soon as we have it.

It has been created under the devolution strategy of the

government. Big budget jobs, big spending jobs, where the new mayor

will be in charge of housing and transport in some areas, too.

Conservative Andy Street is a fraction ahead on the first round.

We'll bring the result as soon as we have it.

to see if Labour's Andy Burnham can win the regional

Lots to come. It's 3pm. We started at 9am. The Scottish counting

started at nine and lots of results coming through. We expect more this

afternoon. We're keeping an eye out for those big mayoral contest in the

West Midlands and greater Manchester. Peter Kellner is still

with me, Karen Bradley from John Nicholson for the SNP, and we have

Gary Gardner. You're there, aren't you? We're going to talk to you. --

Barry Gardiner. Lots of people will say, why hasn't he spoken to Barry.

We'll come to you in a second. We'll go to the news of Jane Hill. Then

we'll be back to talk to Barry Gardiner.

The Conservatives have made significant gains

in the local elections - with Labour performing poorly

The Tories have gained 7 councils - including most recently winning

Norfolk from no overall control and taking Derbyshire County

Labour have lost 6 councils - including Glasgow City Council

Our Political Correspondent Eleanor Garnier has more.

It's the Conservatives with the biggest cheers.

They gained overall control in nine councils including Derbyshire,

The party's won control of Warwickshire, Gloucs,

The Conservative Party candidate is elected as mayor for the Tees Valley

authority. A huge win in one of Labour's former heartlands saw the

Conservative candidate elected mayor. Senior Conservatives are

playing down expectations ahead of the general election.

The turnout in local elections of course, is much lower

So it's wrong to predict what's going to happen on June the 8th.

We still have a general election to campaign

The Tories are celebrating in Essex too, where this time round,

In Lincolnshire, where Ukip's leader Paul Nuttall will fight

for a Westminster seat next month, the party was wiped out.

And with such big losses, Ukip's future is in question.

I've been in Ukip now for four years.

The amount of times I've heard the phrase, "Ukip's finished,

If I had a pound for every one, I'd probably be quite a rich woman.

It's not over until it's over and despite these pretty poor

election results so far, it's not over.

Steve Rotherham has won the role of mayor of Liverpool city region.

Elsewhere it has been a torrid time for the party, losing more than 280

seats so far. In Glasgow where Labour has been in power for more

than 30 years, it has lost overall control.

These are counties which are the Tory strongholds.

It was going to be a tough night for Labour anyway

and we are in the middle of a general election campaign,

People are voting largely on local issues, not

What is coming across is where people were predicting we would be

wiped out in places like Wales, we've done very well.

The Lib Dems admit so far, it's been a mixed set

We held our ground in the face of a massive shift, an enormous

shift of Ukip voters to the Conservatives and you know,

given that happened, we've done well to stay

The Green party says with the Tories dominating,

Well I am worried about how well the Conservatives have done in terms

of both the Green Party, but more broadly for the future

I think that has to be a wake-up call for parties on the left

and the centre-left to think about how we work together under

For some, the results today have been too close to call.

The Tories denied an overall majority in

Northumberland after the Lib Dem candidate literally drew the longest

There is still plenty of that to be done.

We must leave it there because there is a significant result expected.

Let's go back to Huw. Welcome back to the election Centre,

we expect a result any time in Manchester. This is the result of

one of the Metro Mayor contests. We were talking about the West Midlands

where there is a big contest between the Conservatives and Labour.

Another big contest in Manchester where Andy Burnham is one of those

contesting this new post, newly invented post. We expect a

declaration soon. Barry Gardiner is with me in the studio with Peter

Comer, John Nicholson and Karen Bradley. The significance of these

new jobs? There are power bases around the country. What we've seen,

if you look to North America, you look at the influence state

governors or layers of big cities have, it's a real counterbalance to

the weight of the Centre. I think they are important, a new way of

getting more democracy into that system, getting government more

localised, getting local people to have their say that much better. I

think there will also be power bases. The key thing is what

resources they are going to get from the centre. What we've seen with

this Conservative government is they've given greater responsibility

to local government, but given less resource to match the

responsibility. That is very difficult then because they say,

look, it's not a matter for us in the centre, it's a matter for local

government. It's the decisions taken down there. Republicans are saying,

if given us the responsibility but not the money to deal with the

problems you've given us. Yet this devolution package looking at the

city regions has come with quite a big budget attached. These mayoral

jobs were conditions attached to that devolved budget in many ways.

They will have quite a lot of money to look after, in some cases more

than ?1 billion, when you look at the West Midlands and greater

Manchester. There are vague resources. The extent to which they

can cooperate with local government, let's say Andy Burnham the Labour

candidate wins in greater Manchester, what are the prospects

for cooperating with centre government? All politicians have to

work in the national interest, work in the interest of the people they

serve. We may not like the result of the electorate often delivers for

us, but nonetheless, it is our job to make the system work for the

people who elected us. That is what our mayor, as Andy I expect will be,

is elected as mayor of Manchester. I'm sure that's precisely what he'll

do. He's a very experienced politician, of course, he's been

Shadow Secretary of State, he's been in the cabinets before. Is somebody

who knows the workings of Westminster, and I think we'll do a

superb job for his city and region. I'm being told there is a

declaration imminent in Manchester, so we'll stay with it. I'll bring in

Karen Bradley if I may. This devolution strategy was very much

something George Osborne for example was in charge of, something he

pushed strongly. Is there the same commitment under Theresa May to this

strategy of devolving to the big city regions? Theresa May has been

clear she wants a country that works for everyone, not just the

privileged few, that means the whole country. We've seen the success the

Mayor of London has been. We need to counterbalance it with the regions

and cities, I represent a seat in North Savage, I want to see strong

government in the region, so we can get the kind of infrastructure and

facilities we need. And we have the economic growth needed across the

country. Discussing resources and budgets, when I ask you about

commitment, really it is a resource question. This Theresa May likely,

Philip Hammond in future, if re-elected, are they likely to be as

committed in terms of the resources to these jobs? Without resources

it's difficult to see how these Metro mayors can do the job quickly.

There has been a commitment to making sure the funding goes across

the whole country. You need a strong economy to do that. The only way you

will have a strong economy is if you have strong and stable leadership.

If I can bring Peter Kellner in, we have these images of Manchester, the

expected result in the Metro Mayor contest in Manchester and greater

Manchester, where it's due in the next few minutes. There are people

congregating, ready to come forward to the stage. Peter Kellner, A

thought about the significance of the restructuring. This is a very

big departure in terms of the power base in some of these big regions.

It is, yet it has to be said, the voters don't seem to be quite as

excited as the politicians, the highest turnout in the mayoral

contest is 34%, they've been down as low as 22. I think it'll take time,

perhaps five or ten years, when mayors become personalities, things

happen, they get rivals that get momentum, maybe turnouts will go up.

But at the moment I have to say something like three out of four

voters have stayed at home rather than take part. I'm going to gamble

a little because I'm thinking, do I have a couple of minutes before the

greater Manchester result is true? I'm going to gamble, and going to

say, hold these pictures. If you're listening in Manchester, we don't

want a declaration in the next couple of minutes, we want you to

stay for a second because I have results from Scotland. Let's have a

look at Fife, it's come through, a hung council. 29 to the SNP, 24 to

Labour, 15 to the Tories, seven to the Lib Dems. What has changed since

2012? The SNP have made four games, Labour downturn, the Tories 12

games. It ties in with the conversations we were having earlier

about the patterns of support, where conservatives are gaining in some

parts of Scotland, Lib Dems have lost three, the independents have

lost three as well. If we look at the Scottish Borders, this is one of

the areas the Conservatives would be hoping to do well. It's a hung

council, shot by three of overall control. Conservatives putting on

five, no change for the SNP. The Lib Dems losing ground in the Scottish

Borders. That is the hung council in the Scottish Borders. A quick

comment? One of the quiet stories, quietly disastrous stories, of the

day is how the Lib Dems are performing across Scotland. I know

they are doing quite well south of the border, especially in certain

areas that voted against Brexit. But in Scotland where I think they are

on 7% in the national opinion polls they have encountered the figures,

every time I see one of your bar graphs seem to have been down a few

seats, held on, certainly not doing well. The idea of the Liberal

Democrat fight back in Scotland doesn't seem to be catching fire. A

quick recap of the figures in Scotland, the SNP down 17 at the

moment but still by far the biggest number of seats. The Conservatives

are firmly established in second place. One of the problems for the

Lib Dems is its only two years after the last election to memories of the

coalition and the bedroom tax, putting up VAT 20%, all the things

we remember about the Lib Dems are still fresh in people's memories.

Plus we've got Tim Farron coming up with this disastrous line that he's

a bit of a Eurosceptic. It reinforces the impression they can't

be trusted. I'm sure we'll have a Lib Dem in the studio later. Lib

Dems are down in England, Wales and Scotland. Scotland very marginal,

they've got 44 councillors, downfall. It may move around a bit.

The Lib Dems must be pretty disappointed. They talked up the

prospect in the south-west of England which I never understood,

because since the south-west of England voted heavily for Brexit,

why would people replace a Brexit Tory with an anti-Brexit Lib Dem?

One county that will have done well is Oxfordshire, where they had been

gaining and it was a Remain county. We haven't had voting... In London

where Vince Cable is standing in Twickenham, there is hardly a Ukip

vote to squeeze, so Conservatives might be quite vulnerable in some

parts of England, where we didn't have votes yesterday. Yesterday's

English elections were preponderantly in areas that voted

Leave. Twit that is the latest tally in Scotland. We've had some social

media messaging from Jeremy Corbyn. Barry will be pleased to see this.

Jeremy Corbyn says congratulations to Welsh Labour a specifically Welsh

from Jeremy Corbyn. For defying the pundits, he says, winning outright

in Cardiff and Swansea and Newport...

That is the latest message from Jeremy Corbyn. I suppose there will

be people in Welsh politics who will come back to you on that and say,

bragging about hanging on to some of these areas which should and always

have been Labour is not a big thing to brag about. I don't think it's

bragging, I think what he is doing is congratulating the candidates

have worked very hard. You will know some of those areas were very, very

heavily targeted by the Conservatives. The overall picture

in Wales is one we can take heart from, given that it was a key target

area. The more interesting picture across the whole of the United

Kingdom is the way in which these local elections are really the

elections of two referenda. What we've seen both in terms of the

referendum in Scotland, the hangover from that, the division in Scotland

between the parties is now very much between the Nationalists and

unionists. What the Tories have tried to do, clearly with some

success, is to paint themselves as the only Unionist option against the

Nationalists. And within the rest of the country, of course, it's the

Leave and Remain axis working. Interesting, as John was noting, the

Liberals haven't picked up the 48%, they are becoming the party of the

11 or 12%. It's a very difficult picture for Labour, of course, to

actually address this question, because so many of our

constituencies, where constituencies were preponderantly people voting to

leave, though our party and those members who vote Labour

preponderantly those who voted to remain. I think what you're seeing

is the Labour Party trying to put a message across which I believe is

the right one, which says we mustn't go for this hard deregulated Brexit

off the coast of Europe. And equally we have to respect the referendum

result by saying we will leave the EU. It's a difficult message, but

it's the message we have because we believe it's the weight we unite

both the 48 and 52%. What is happening in this election is, we're

seeing both those referendums, where the polarisation has taken place

between unionists and nationalists, between believers and Remainers, it

is then worked to massage the figures in the way we are seeing.

Let's have a look at Manchester. Do we have guidance on what is going on

in Manchester? OK, they keep telling us it's another few minutes. I don't

want to stay on that too long. Let's go to Glasgow. I think Anita is in

Glasgow. She has more on the results and what has been going on. Anita?

Yes, 55 out of 85 seats declared here in Glasgow, let me give you a

tally. The SNP have 24 of those seats, Labour 19, Conservatives six,

the Scottish Green party six. Let's analyse what we have so far with our

Scotland correspondent Stephen Godden. First of all, can the SNP,

based on these figures, still win overall control, have overall

majority of Glasgow City Council? Put simply, it's theoretically

possible but unlikely, it's fair to say that. This is the fun time of

the election count where we have to do the arithmetic. 43 is the magic

number in Glasgow. We need 43 seats to have overall majority. The SNP

have 23 candidates still in the election at the moment. They would

need to return 19 of those. Still a lot of work to do. It's typed. It

is. We still have that symbolic moment from this morning. It wasn't

unexpected. Labour losing their majority, losing control of the City

Council, hugely symbolic for what was traditional heartland for them.

The Scottish Conservatives, talking to one MSP earlier, she said they

hoped they would need more than a table for four in the Glasgow City

Council canteen. They have six so far with more games to come

possibly. It's striking where they have made those games. Shettleston,

one of the most deprived areas in Scotland, you wouldn't expect

Conservatives to make gains in an area like Shettleston. It fits into

the national picture, Tories making gains in places they wouldn't

expect. Gains in Dundee have made the difference between the SNP

losing overall control of their majority of Dundee City Council. The

reason they put that down to is they campaigned heavily on this note to

second independence referendum. This was about to deliver is council

services. Thank you very much. You can pick your headline here in

Glasgow. There are lots of them. Let's discuss all these developments

with three journalists. We have Richard Walker, consulting editor

and co-founder of the pro-independence, the National.

Kevin McKenna, columnist for the Herald and Observer and Paul

Sinclair, former adviser to Gordon Brown. Hamza Yusuf of the SNP told

me it was a huge disappointment for the party not to win overall control

and have overall majority in Glasgow at the last local elections. They

may end up the biggest party this time but still not have overall

control. It's bound to be another disappointment isn't it? We have to

keep things in perspective. It's disappointing we haven't got enough

members to form a majority in Glasgow, to form an administration,

but we'll be able to form one with the Green party, I'm sure. It is a

cause for celebration. It's still true Glasgow has rejected the Labour

Party. The story of this election is the demolition of the Labour Party

in Scotland, transfer of support to the Conservatives. The SNP would

want to frame any gains as a vote for another independence referendum.

If it doesn't get the majority here, it would suffer loss of control in

other Scottish councils. Does that damage that agenda? They would say

not. If, as expected, they win a majority of seats, they are the

biggest party through Scotland. If, as they are expected to do, they win

a majority of seats in the general election on June eight, that will be

four national elections either side of the border, which the SNP have

won overwhelmingly. And in each of them they carried the message of

saying yes to a second referendum. If there had been material and

significant changes in the make-up of the UK, which of course we've

seen by Theresa May's approach to a hard Brexit. How significant are the

losses for Labour year, which has held overall control of this council

for 40 years. You've got to look at the fact it was remarkable, they are

meant to get an overall majority in 2012. What's important, everything

in Scotland is seen through the constitutional prison. Let's look at

the trajectory of the vote. This city voted for independence in 2014.

55% of people voted SNP in 2015, 53 last year in the Scottish elections,

now it looks like the SNP won't get above 45%. They may be winning, but

in a downward trajectory. Somebody in the Labour Party I know what it

feels like and it doesn't end well. It's very difficult for them, once

you start losing momentum it's very difficult to reverse it. I think if

the vote, particularly in the general election, goes below 45% of

the SNP, if there are more conservative games, and it looks

like there will be, at the very hard for Nicola Sturgeon to justify

another referendum. I asked if these could be the least local local

elections we've had on that constitutional question of whether

voters were pro independence or prounion. How important has it been

in the Conservative 's success in Glasgow? That's a key question, I

was speaking to a senior Labour candidate a few minutes ago who told

me she felt heart sorry for the local candidates in these elections

of all parties because until Theresa May called the snap election they

were campaigning on local issues and services. The referendum dominated

everything. It's certainly dominating more now. These are small

communities who have a deep sense of identification with their

candidates, then they suddenly had to switch and know they would be

overwhelmed by the European and Scottish constitution. In a line,

are the result is going to have an impact on the general election? This

isn't a referendum on independence or a general election. We can see

what we might expect in the general election.

Keep very much and thanks to your guests. There were several

interesting things there, not least this whole issue of campaigning.

Indeed the point you raised earlier about the reasons for the success of

the Conservative campaign in Scotland, and to what extent with

Davidson has managed to nail attention on the prospect of a

second independence referendum. On a constitutional issue early on you

were clearly irritated by the leaflet you were brandishing. I just

made the serious point it may have worked. Irritating is maybe too

strong, it is what it is, I think it is a bit disingenuous to run a local

government campaign entirely about the constitution while saying how

outraged you are about other people talking about the constitution. With

couldn't answer that which is why she started talking about Tory

election spending and said it was charged to a different budget. That

wasn't the point, the point was it didn't mention beans, roads or

education. It has been a theme of the Tory election campaign. Is it

not unavoidable, the sense this has been such a massive issue, not just

in the referendum 2014, but ever since, since the call came for a

second referendum and Parliamentary debate, that such high profile it

would be difficult to avoid. Bayfront local campaigning and

national campaigning, your right to say it was Nicola Sturgeon who

raised the prospect of a second referendum, not with Davidson. I

think it's absolutely right with Davidson should raise that point and

make that point to voters. Local candidates have been fighting on

local issues, as they have up and down the whole country across

England Scotland and Wales. I want better bins, and I care about

independence. It's absolutely intellectual evacuates as a campaign

it might be successful, but it hardly reaches the sunlit uplands of

political debate, does it? They are not mutually

In my own house I've had one leaflet from the Tories in the course of the

local government election campaign, and it was exclusively about

independence, it did not mention local services.

Barry, given the challenge Labour is having and has had in Scotland, on

this debate which is meant to be about local issues, to what extent

has the massive shadow of the constitutional question really make

that campaign for you more challenging? It clearly has. I

regard this as an absolute clarion call to people in the Labour Party,

that if they want a fairer society, if I want to see better education

than the SNP have been able to provide and to end the austerity,

both of the Conservatives and indeed of the SNP, but wider in this

country. If you look at the way in which services have been cut, if you

look at the way in which social care has lost ?4.6 billion, you cannot

sit there as a member of the Labour Party and think, I think the right

things, I believe in the right policies, you have got to get out in

the next four weeks on the doorsteps and campaign for them. It is the

only way we will be able to deliver the fairer more equal society we

want. You look at what happened today with the government being

forced by the High Court to publish its air pollution strategy. We see

exactly why we need a government that is going to be able to change

this and redress the balance in favour of working people. Let's go

straight to Manchester. Andy Burnham and the candidates for the Metro

Mayor. We are expecting the declaration to come any minute. All

the candidates lined up, an important post, one of six that have

been created and we will be looking to the one in the West Midlands

where there is a close contest between the Conservatives and the

Labour Party. But Andy Burnham is smiling. Yes, Labour had a 20 point

lead in Manchester. I Margaret Asquith, returning officer appointed

for the district of Bolton at the Greater Manchester combined

authority mayoral election, held on the 4th of May 2017, hereby certify

and declare that the total number of verified ballot papers was 58,165.

The total number of first preference votes given the East candidates was

Sean Anstey, the Conservative Party candidate, 16000 and 68. Mohamed

Salah 's Lynn, independent, 865. Jane Elizabeth Brophy, Liberal

Democrats, 2248. Andy Burnham, labour and co-operative party,

34,000... CHEERING and APPLAUSE

Marcus Jonathan Farmer, independent, 242. Stephen Morris, English

Democrats is putting England first, 1158. The UK Independence Party

1378. Will Patterson, the Green party, 868. The total number of

first preference votes, 57,477 and the total number of ballot papers

rejected but 688. So a declaration. As I understand it, those are the

figures for Bolton. Now some of the other figure 's. Returning officer

appointed for the district of Berhe at the Greater Manchester combined

authority 's mayoral election held on the 4th of May 2017, heh by

certify and declare that the total numbers of verified ballot papers

was, 45,000 387. The total numbers of first... We are getting the

results in four Bury, we have had Bolton. There are ten districts in

Greater Manchester. We will be back for the one right at the end where

they add them all up and tell us who has won. At the moment, Andy Burnham

is looking cheerful. It looks to me as if he has probably improved

Labour's share around Manchester from two years ago. We will see when

the other figures are in, but this is a strong performance. Whereas, in

the West Midlands, where it is very tight, it looks as if this is a less

good performance by Labour for the general election. What would account

for that, is this a matter of Andy Burnham being a prominent candidate,

what else would lend itself to that narrative. He is very popular. Both

as a Cabinet minister, attractive personality. And also, around the

Hillsborough tragedy, he didn't do it as a partisan politician. He came

out as a politician in a really impressive light. That is right. He

embedded himself into the spirit of the north-west, right in the heart

of the community in that way. His work on that public enquiry was

quite superlative. But this was an area in the north-west where the

Tories have been expecting to make gains. What this shows is that for

all the resources they have put into this, for all the expectation that

they've had to make gains in this part of the country and for all the

talk they had about northern Powerhouse, that is not going

according to plan for them. It doesn't mean that whilst I am

delighted for Andy Burnham, I look at these results overall in England.

Here we are only defending what are basically the rural constituencies

and we only had three councils in the whole of England to defend. But

nonetheless, the clear message is that we have gone down in our share

of the councils and the seats we have been able to hold onto. , Andy

Berman was an opponent of Jeremy Corbyn the first time he stood for

the party leadership. He is known not to be a CORBA nights, known as a

Labour moderate. He seems to have outperformed labour in most of the

rest of England, do you think there is a connection between his very

good personal performance and the fact he is a standout and non-Corbin

politician? Let me say, Andy Burnham served in Jeremy's Shadow Cabinet.

He came back in after the initial resignations, as all others did and

decided we would get on with the job of opposing the government because

it is the government implementing the cuts to local government, cuts

to social care services, cuts to funding in schools... So you don't

think there is any connection... He is an immensely popular politician,

but what you have to say is this is a concentrated, urban area. The rest

of the results we're looking at in these local elections are much more

rural constituencies. I don't think there is a straight read across, now

don't. That means Labour should be doing better in the West Midlands,

rather than it being a close contest with Sean Simon losing. If what you

say is right about concentrated urban areas... It goes across the

gain your own thesis because Sean Simon was not somebody associated

with Jeremy Corbyn. He was somebody with very strong local connections,

a well loved local MP. He had 20,000 more votes in Birmingham van Andy

Street did where Sean had served as an MP. He is somebody, like Andy,

who had the local connection. I don't think there is the read across

you want to make about personalities. I deprecate in way

our whole political culture is becoming increasingly presidential.

I don't want to be America. I want to be be United Kingdom where we

talk about policies, we understand the policies of government stands

on, that it has in its manifesto, things that matter. Whether it is

local government or housing, if you look at Labour councils, labour

councils builds on average, 1000 more houses each year than their

Conservative counterparts. These are the figures that matter to

people'slives. These are the ways in which young people can get on the

housing ladder, who are finding themselves trapped in 0-hours

contracts, cannot even get a deposit for a mortgage, not even the deposit

for rent sometimes. This is the difference Labour councils can make

and it is the difference a Labour government can make. Let's go back

and listen to what is going on in Manchester. I think they are making

steady progress through some of these ten declarations before we get

to the end. Independent, 490. Jane Elizabeth Brophy, Liberal Democrats,

2187. Andy Burnham, 24,000... CHEERING and APPLAUSE

. Going Andy Burnham's way. I think we have reached Oldham or Rochdale

in the Greater Manchester declaration, so not many to go.

Let's stay on that for a second, because I am wondering if we can

bring in Karen quickly just to answer the point about this being a

platform for a Labour politician might Andy Burnham to show what

Labour might do if it were in power. And in that sense, it is creating a

power base for one of your opponents, which you might think

down the cause, might be less than helpful? We have been clear we want

to see strong devolution and to see strong, local and regional

government. I think what this election the show, throughout the

course of the afternoon there has been an assumption on the 8th of

June this will be a walk in the park for the Conservatives. Clearly,

there are votes for Labour and there are people who will vote for Labour

and they will vote for parties other than the Conservatives. It comes

back to the clear choice people will have on the 8th of June as to

whether they want the strong and stable leadership of Theresa May or

they want coalition chaos. John has said he would not go into coalition

with the Conservatives, so he obviously is prepared to go into

coalition with Jeremy Corbyn propping him up. You are right, we

have debated the rape clause, which is absurd, we are seeing what the

Tories are doing with disability cuts. So on a range of issues, both

you and I get on great, the policy is your government is putting

through our obnoxious in many areas. Absolutely, we would not help

implement them with the Tories. The point is, your Prime Minister called

this election, not for the national interest, but purely party political

advantage. And we all know it. She thought she had a window in the

polls, she had previously known very well when Article 50 was going to be

triggered and when the negotiations would start and when they will

finish. At that point she said, she would not call a general election

until 2020. Now, she has decided to do it at this window because she

knows the negotiations are not going to go in the way the British people

think is well. Afterwards she doesn't want to be boxed into a

general election. That is why she wanted an overwhelming majority. She

may find that actually, if you look at the figures, the figures that

have been put up by the national share of the vote, it is coming in

at 38% for the Conservatives. It is coming in at 27% for Labour and

about 18% for the Liberal Democrats. That is why you should be very

worried. Because actually, the Liberal Democrats have nine MPs in

Parliament, we have 229 and if we have that surge, you will have

called a general election for your own benefit and it will not work.

She called the election at the only time an election can be held between

now and the end of the negotiations of Article 50. This is the only

window there is. She said she would not do it. She repeatedly said she

would not do that. I don't talk over you. She said she had the mandate

that is needed to get the best result for Britain and the right

deal with Europe. Seven times she said she wouldn't. She has decided

in the national interest to do that. That is not true. Nothing is taken

for granted, no politician goes into a general election on the assumption

the polls will be working for them, you do it because it is in the

national interest and it is the right thing to do. This narrative

would work if you had been in lots of troubles in the Commons over

Brexit. Can I Askew how many votes on Brexit... We know the answer to

that. It is clear, and the House of Lords, they will hamper anything. It

is the job of politicians in a democracy to hold the government to

account. It is chilling to hear the Prime Minister angrily denouncing

the role of the opposition. You haven't lost one vote in the House

of Commons over Brexit. Your Prime Minister promised on seven separate

occasions that she would not hold an election. She has clearly lost faith

with the British public over what she has done. You have gone to the

electorate because you know you can whip Labour now and when Brexit

starts to go badly wrong in about 18 months' time, there will be no

opposition because there will be ranks of Conservative MPs, possibly

as much as 100 all tripping through the lobbies. It is bad for

democracy. I take issue that any others have lost faith with the

British public. We are implementing what the British public asked her to

do. I am talking about calling the election. I am going to pause it

there because we are representing the Conservatives, the SNP and

Labour of course, we want to get the Liberal Democrats perspective. We

were talking earlier on to Tom and Jenny, but Tim Farron, the party

leader is in Saint all buns today. This is what has been going on

there. You guys deserve the applause. Well done.

Congratulations. Great news, all of you. Thank you so much all of you

for being here. I am not here by accident, St Albans is a wonderful

place to visit, but particularly on the day the Liberal Democrats top

the poll here in the constituency. It bodes incredibly well for Daisy

in five weeks but she could be our new member of Parliament. This is

one of many constituencies around the country where the Liberal

Democrats top the polls, double our seats, as things would appear at the

moment on the general election on the 8th of June. Increasing our vote

share by 7%, are best in any election nationally for seven years.

Double the increased the Tories have experienced in terms of a shower

around the country with the Labour Party utterly imploding and

devastated like no other opposition party in recent memory. But there is

another lesson to learn from last night about as apart from the

Liberal Democrats' revival and success around the country, we still

see Britain headed for a Conservative landslide. Now, imagine

this, imagine the reason may on the 9th of June with a majority larger

than Margaret that should's. Imagine what that means for your family,

what it means for you, what it means for your job security, what it means

for your hospital, schools with a colossal Conservative majority like

that. I don't need to imagine it, I grew up in a community under a

government like that. I grew up in a community in the 1980s with a

government with that kind of majority taking us for granted. I

grew up in a community where half of my mates' parents and me included,

spent time out of work because we had a government that at Tate

Britain for granted. They can take you for granted, your family for

granted. I want to leave the country that says that is not acceptable. I

am determined over the next five weeks, we will put an end to that

Coronation Theresa May now expects. If you wanted prevent the

Conservatives taking you, your family, your schools and hospital

for granted, it is only a liberal Democrat who will stand up for you.

I want my children to grow up in a country where people are decent to

one another and can expect the state to be decent to them. I am

determined I will leave that kind of country here in St Albans and in

campus places around the country, we have shown it is only the Liberal

Democrats who can offer you the hope that Britain will not be led by a

1-party state on the 9th of June. Do not let Theresa May take you for

granted. Imagine a better Britain. Thank you. Tim Farron in St Albans.

He chose St Albans because the one for wards in the city of St Albans

and the Liberal Democrats won all four of them. It was 70% Remain.

Most of the contests yesterday where in leave England rather than remain

England. There are a handful of liberal target seat where people

voted remain. These results over the country will be disappointing for

the Liberal Democrats. But that result in St Albans gives them hope

that it may be half a dozen target seats where there went election just

sedate where there was a big Remain vote last year and maybe the Liberal

Democrats are back in play. Can I pick up on what Tim Farron was

saying? I think that is right, what we may see a few extra liberal seats

in those Remain areas because they appealed directly only to the 48%

Remain. They ignored the second part of their title, Democrat in ignoring

the referendum, but that is another matter. We are just watching Nicola

Sturgeon arriving at SNP headquarters. Those are the images.

Tim Farron was pointing out we don't want to wake up on June nine in a

1-party state. Even if he gets five or six and increases his share of

members in the House of Commons by 50, 60%, he will have 14, 15

members. We have 229 in the Labour Party. The only party in the House

of Commons who will be able to stop what Tim Farron was talking about

which is an monolithic government trampling over people in this

country, is the Labour Party and that is why we need to get out on

the doorstep and get the message across. This is Nicola Sturgeon, the

First Minister, congratulating her campaigners. We will come back to

talk about the results in Scotland, including Edinburgh in a moment.

Let's go to Manchester because they are now in the final stages of this

declaration in the Metro Mayor, that is Andy Burnham. Putting England

first, 11,000 115. UK Independence Party, 10500 and 83. Will Patterson,

the Green party, 13400 and 24. The total number of first preference

votes was 566,000 735. The total number of ballot papers rejected at

first count or 6808. Therefore I declare that Andy Burnham is duly

elected as the mayor of the Manchester combined authority. Those

are the figures. A turnout of 29%. Taking more than 350,000 votes.

Conservatives in second place. Let's listen to what Andy Burnham has got

to say. Thank you everybody. This is an

historic day for Greater Manchester. I want to thank all those who have

worked so hard to make it happen, particularly so Howard Bernstein and

Tony Lloyd. I want to thank the staff of our ten councils who have

been working to count the votes. The combined authority and Greater

Manchester Police, who have run the selection so smoothly. I must thank

my incredible campaign team chaired by Andrew Quin MP and of course,

Kevin Lee. Thanks so much to you all. I want to also thank my fellow

candidates, particularly from the main parties under Green Party for

making this a friendly and positive campaign which has set the right

tone for a new era in Greater Manchester. But most of all I want