23/05/2014 Look East - East

Hello I'm Stewart White. First from us. Now

Hello I'm Stewart White. First tonight. UKIP are the big winners in

the local elections in the East. Winning dozens of seats. The

Conservatives lost overall control of three councils in Essex. Labour

lost their majority at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk. Nikki Fox has

been looking at what the results mean. For councils in this region.

The UKIP leader talked about a political earthquake. And the

tremors were felt strongly in our region. Out of ten councils

contested in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. This is how many seats each

party now holds across the three counties. The Conservatives still

have the highest number.158. Labour has the second highest. While the

Liberal democrats won 51 seats. UKIP now has the fourth highest number of

seats. And this is why the other parties are worried. UKIP have gone

from having just one seat to 40. A gain of 39 seats. They've taken them

mostly off the Conservatives.but the other parties have also lost out.

UKIP still hasn't done enough to control any one council. But what

their increase in popularity does mean is that three conservative

councils in Essex and the Labour council in Great Yarmouth are now in

no overall control. In Basildon and Great Yarmouth the gains were

particularly high with a ten fold increase in seats. Andrew Sinclair

has been assessing the impact of what's happened.

The UKIP leader in Basildon this afternoon congratulating his new

councillors. What we have to do is win clusters of seats, if you can

show people in a constituency that you can win at a council level you

can win at a parliamentary level. Basildon was supposed to be a place

to see Labour gains last night but they could only watch seat after

seat get taken. It is not just a flash in the pan, these are real

people standing for real issues. They're listening to people. People

want change and I think the message UKIP has been sending out nationally

as well as locally is what people want. The Tories have run this

counsel for the last 11 years could not believe it either. There is no

doubt UKIP have tapped into what the public are feeling particularly with

immigration and the point that they are very frustrated with Europe and

want a referendum. Fried is more open a bit more flamboyant. I don't

agree what is going on in this country. I think we are being oval

one. Overrun. And then came Great Yarmouth. Until today, you could did

not have a single seat, this afternoon they gained ten, five from

the Tories and five from Labour. W we knew this was on the cards and

that they were campaigning well so it is not surprised. Why people

voting for them and offer you? `` not for you. People voting for a

national issue and that is why. It is a protest vote, this is a party

that is made up of a ragtag of people, some of whom of whom have

very unsavoury past. UKIP now has a major presence on a number of the

region's councils. What has been interesting is UKIP have taken

Conservative seat as well as labour. This has halted the Labour

advance in places like Basildon, Great Yarmouth. This would be a

worry for the Labour leadership at the general election in under a year

away. The Conservatives still have the

biggest number of seats in this region. But for some sitting MPs.

With small majorities. People like Ben Gummer in Ipswich. The rise of

UKIP will be a worry. Return Well I'm not sure you can take much

from council elections in the way you might suggest. But what I did

draw from that, is that Labour should have been doing a lot better.

They did not, they did not take their target seats. The Conservative

vote has hold held up and UKIP has sent a strong message to all of us.

That sounds very upbeat, but actually it was a bad night wasn't

it? We lost the seat which we won at the high watermark of when the

Conservatives were in opposition. These things happen. The grim faces

were on the candidates of the Labour Party. I was delighted we held two

marginal seats which was their targets. It shows when you have

strong candidates with strong policies, which are known locally,

people will vote for them. People do want answers to the question of

immigration, you say the Tories are listening and do have answers but

obviously people don't think you do have the answers? Obviously people

are very frustrated, we need to turn over a huge supertanker, you know

this is immigration that has been going on since the early 2000.

People feel understandably that this change their communities and it has

been too quick. You hear it on the Fox you heard it on the Vox box

earlier. Sorry to interrupt you but you have had four for years. These

things take time. All I can say to you is Stewart, who is offering a

referendum who is likely to win the next election? It is only the

Conservative Party. At the next election people have a clear choice,

do they want to see our plan for the economic recovery continue, for safe

and secure and financially viable future for families in Ipswich and

elsewhere or do they want Ed Miliband, the man who helped crash

the car in the first place back in office? At that point I think

people's minds will be focused on the real choice ahead of them. Ben

Gummer. Elsewhere. Labour held onto Norwich. Ipswich and Harlow. The

Conservatives held on to Rochford. In Colchester and Brentwood there is

still in no overall control. Let's start in Norwich. With Alex Dunlop.

Until today, Labour had control of Norwich City Council. The Green

Party, the main opposition. CROWD CHEERING

And tonight, no change. Every party held their seat. Labour still have

an overall majority of three, however UKIP made a strong showing.

Clearly, it is a shot against our back, we need to be aware that they

are there but it is the Tories who have suffered the most. The Green

Party were delighted to hold onto the three wards they contested. The

Lib Dems also retained a seat. But the Conservatives are yet to get a

single seat on Norwich City Council. Let's go to Kevin Birch, who spent

the day in Ipswich. A third of the 48 seats on the

council were on the line plus one more through a bi`election. Labour

has a firm hold of power and the council leader David Elsmere was

looking for more scalps. Holy Wells, the very first declaration was won

but the Conservatives held firm. CROWD CHEERING

But Labour would make two gains at the expense of the Tories on the

night. People were predicting dire results, actually we have a couple

of gains. People are pretty happy with what we are doing here in

Ipswich and they have voted for us as a result. In Colchester, just one

ward changed hands. A Labour gain from the Lib Dems. But the Lib Dems

remain the largest party on what is a hung council. There was a strong

challenge from UKIP, the party came within 80 votes of gaining a

councillor. The good news is, UKIP did not win any seats in Colchester

and indeed their leader came fifth in the ward in which he stood.

Colchester withstood the Farage barrage, unlike the much of the rest

of Essex. BBC Look East. Just to make it clear. The votes for

the European parliament will be counted on Sunday. And we'll have

more analysis in Look East on Bank Holiday Monday. With extended

bulletins across the day. In football. Neil Adams says he's

immensely proud to be named as the new manager of Norwich City. He has

signed a three year contract. After taking charge for the last five

games of the season. He was unable to stop the club being relegated.

But says he's determined to get them back to the Premier League. I've

been given this job to go back into the Premier League and it's

something I look forward to with relish. I'm a supporter of the club

and I know how the fans are hurting. It is the same way I am hurting to

which is why it is important we give it the best possible season. That's

it from me have a great weekend. it the best possible season. That's

it from me Good evening mainly dry across the region. As we go through

the night will be increasing cloud. It'll turn cloudy with rain in the

southern parts. Cloudy and wet in Essex especially. Temperature wise,

around 10 Celsius and lights out easily breeze to night. The rain

will move north with tomorrow with this area of low pressure keeping us

and settled through the day. Rain moving from south to north through

the morning and then sunny spells and scattered showers developing in

the afternoon. Especially in western parts, some of those showers will be

heavy with thunder and hail in the afternoon. Temperatures reaching up

to 14`15dC and that'll be with a moderate to light south easterly

breeze. Quite chilly towards the coast. In the evening they showers

will carry on northwards and it'll start drying out. Peter will have

your National forecast here is the outlook. Scattered showers on

you over to Peter Gibson and National forecast.