23/05/2014 BBC London News

with boot and ball may be settled by the smallest margins. That is all

from us. Now Good evening. UKIP may be today's

big winners nationally, but in London, it's the Labour Party that

has flourished. They're now in control of more councils than they

have been in the last 40 years. This is what the political map of

London councils looked like before last night. And this is the picture

tonight, with Labour gaining 168 seats and a total of five boroughs

across the capital. That's Croydon, and Hammersmith and Fulham from the

Conservatives, as well as Harrow, Merton and Redbridge. There was some

small consolation for the Conservatives, who gained Kingston

from the Liberal Democrats. Here's our political editor, Tim Donovan.

It was Labour's biggest scalp, the Conservatives' most grievous blow,

losing control of Hammersmith, the model borrower, even after all those

year`on`year cuts in council tax. Those who do not know `` normally

vote for us have voted for us. We said we will do them proud. Croydon

was the closest contest before an exhausted leader had to watch the

council slip away to Labour. It will show people you cannot play with

fire without getting burned. When they see what happens when you get a

Labour council back again, who messed it up, they will look at the

election next year and want to re`elect a Conservative government.

He launched the campaign in Redbridge and there was a good

reason he was back there today. I want to congratulate everybody in

Redbridge, doing this incredible job, winning majority control of the

Council for the first time in history for Labour. With Labour

winning Merton and Harrow, it has not controlled so many council since

1971, which left the Tories looking for consolation prizes. That was

forthcoming in Kingston, which was one reason to get the balloons out

and help to burst the Lib Dem bubble. Those seats have gone Labour

when Labour should have been romping home is not surprisingly. It is

important to recognise Labour have not made progress they would expect

in London and across the country and nowhere in Kingston upon Thames. The

Tory mayor in London couldn't help the Tory situation here.

Labour does not seem to have made the games you would expect in this

electoral cycle. The Liberal Democrats lost a lot of councillors

and were left with Sutton. We knew we would have a hard time next year

will it be that people will continue to punish us all remember that jobs

have gone up, unemployment has gone down and the economy is in a healthy

state. More tears in Watford. At least these were of joy. Dorothy

Thornhill was elected mayor for the fourth time. People know when they

vote for air, it is who is in charge of the town hall? Their leader

retained his seat. Barnet Conservatives had to wait anxiously

to see if they held on or given into another Labour surge. Tim will join

us in a moment. So why has UKIP performed well in Essex, where

they've forced town halls in Thurrock, Basildon, Castle Point and

Southend into no overall control. But failed to make much headway in

London. Nick Beake has been talking to voters.

Whitechapel market Tower Hamlets. A diverse borough in a multicultural

metropolis. Not exactly rich pickings Nigel Farage here. Did you

vote for UKIP? No. I would not dream of voting for them. There have been

comments going around, hate comments. Almost a fifth of the

workforce in London was born abroad, a city which fails to embrace UKIP

in the way other British towns and cities did. Today a senior UKIP

figure said the party had not done as well in London because it was a

cultured, educated and young place. There were elements of the

metropolitan elite living here, she said, who did not feel the problems

of other people in the country. I find state 's like that from UKIP

are very common. It is insulting `` statements. It says they are looking

for excuses. But head east and you find support grows for UKIP, a

little. The Labour candidate held on as mayor in new, but UKIP came

third. We do not get the support in these areas. I did not quite

understand about them so I did not vote for them. Their views are quite

strong. You either side with them or you do not side with them. It is not

middle ground. Labour. Why not UKIP? Racism. When you get to zone

six, favouring is the whitest and furthest east rather. Support for

UKIP seems to be creeping up to that of their Essex neighbours. Are you a

first`time UKIP voter? Yes, normally conservative. I am not racist. I

have colours neighbours and they are fantastic. I am not racist but it is

getting overbearing, everything you go to, the Housing, I have

grandchildren growing up, what chance will they have? Some of the

views here might seem dated to more diverse parts of London. This is a

city which bucked the national trend, though. Almost all London

councils have declared. There are still key results to come in. What

did UKIP end up with? This city does buck the trend, ending up with 12.

Favouring came back not long ago and that was no overall control ``

Havering. They have three in Bexley and two in Bromley, so it is

confined to at a London. They made little headway in inner London.

Barnet, we are waiting for two wards, I think will stop it is very

close. Slightly confusing because there is another ward, held by

Labour, which has been outside the election because one of the

candidates died earlier in the week. That will be done later. And Tower

Hamlets, the battle for mayor, it looks like it will go late. We are

told it is very close. They are still counting the first, and we are

not clear if it will go into the second round. First preference is

still being counted. Between those two we will get a view of the extent

the Labour. It has been a good day and night the Labour. And if they

were to pick up Tower Hamlets and do this in Barnet, which would be like

Hammersmith and Fulham, amazing, it would be a record performance, 22

authorities in terms of those that they run.

You can see more on the results of the website. That is all. I will

hand you over for a view of the weather. The bank holiday will kick

off on a showery note. It will improve. Tomorrow, scattered

showers. Some of those will be heavy and possibly thundery. Through the

early hours of Saturday, showers heading in from the south and

thunder to start the weekend stop there will be a breeze. Not a great

start to the day. We are left with sunny intervals and also scattered

showers and the risk of thunder and lightning. By Sunday, things are

looking optimistic. Still a small chance of a shower. That is how the

next few days are looking. I'll pass you over to Peter Gibson and

National forecast. you over to Peter Gibson and

National forecast. The bank holiday weekend weather is

not looking user-friendly although most places should get one decent

day out of the three and some places will get two. We have low pressure,

and there will be showers around over the next couple of days

particularly. Sunshine breaking through now and again. It will pick

up temperatures. Tonight we have rain. We have had thunderstorms in

northern England. They are moving into Northern Ireland. A lot of