good morning from westminster, and welcome to our live coverage of the local election results in england, wales and scotland. at stake is control of dozens of local authorities, providing essential local services to millions of people. it's a very important exercise in local democracy, but it's also a useful insight into the state of public opinion ahead of next month's general election. we'll have coverage of results as they happen, but we already have plenty of news from the counting overnight. it's been a very good night for the conservatives in england and wales. they've taken control of the councils in gloucestershire, lincolnshire, warwickshire and monmouthshire. they've also won the west of england mayoral contest. and it looks at this early stage that they're heading for their best set of local elections for a decade or more. it's been a bad night for labour. they are losing ground in england as

we speak. and in wales they've lost overall control of bridgend and merthyr tydfil, two councils in their south wales heartland. although they have held on to the capital city, cardiff. also newport and swansea. and it has been a bad night for ukip — overnight they lost every seat they were defending. and the party has been wiped out on councils like lincolnshire, hampshire and essex. their vote share is down dramatically, most of it going straight to the conservatives. coming up, we'll be live in glasgow. the snp are trying to take the city council from labour. the scottish counting has onlyjust started, so those results are all to come. labour have had decades of controlling glasgow city council. we'll be covering the results from scotland as they come in. to say the least, there is plenty to talk about! here in the studio we're joined by our political editor laura kuenssberg.

the home office minister brandon lewis for the conservatives. the shadow foreign secretary labour's emily thornberry. and ukip‘s suzanne evans. a very good morning to you all. take a breath, we will be with you in a moment. but first let's bring you right up to date with where we stand right now. asi as i said, lots of results have already come in. we have loads to come. i would like to see the scorecard of councillors, which will change during the day but, so far, this is the picture. the conservatives have made 155 gains in terms of council seats, labour 125 losses so far. independents are about 25. __ up -- up by —— up by 25. nothing for the snp because, as i have said, no scottish results in yet. they will come in during the

late morning and into the afternoon. early days, plenty to come. we will have reaction from my guests in a moment. before that we will catch up with the full story of the election so with the full story of the election so farand with the full story of the election so far and the rest of the day's news, let's say good morning to joanna gosling. let's bring you up to date with the results. the conservatives have made big gains in the council elections in england and wales, recording their best results since 2008. the tories have gained control of five counties and labour have lost three. the conservatives say the results are encouraging, labour said

it was tough but not the wipe—out predicted by many. our political corresponding chris mason has the story so far. it's been a night of nocturnal arithmetic. democracy in the small hours, the will of the electorate tipped out onto a table. rosettes worn proudly but plenty of nervous faces too. tim charles bowles is duly elected as the west of england combined authority mayor. here in the west of england the conservative candidate made history by becoming the regional mayor. this is what winning and retaining power looked like for the conservatives in essex. they've won control of warwickshire, gloucestershire, lincolnshire and the isle of wight. here in cumbria the tories have replaced labour as the largest party. i think that the national scene has a lot to do with it. i think theresa may came across on the doorstep really, really well, really positive. we've had no negativity towards

the conservative party at all. i think it bodes extremely well for the general election in five weeks‘ time. clearly labour nationally is a long way behind in the opinion polls and inevitably the election will reflect that. my own view is that the result in the general election won't be as bad as the polls would currently indicate. i think we will be able to close the gap between now and the 8th ofjune. but there was some positive news for labour when the counting finished in doncaster. they held onto the mayor's job here. it's in lincolnshire that this man, ukip‘s leader paul nuttall, will fight for a westminster seat next month. but overnight his party was wiped out from the local authority. i don't think people have stopped voting ukip, i concede we have lost seats today but we have always said we expect this to be a very tough

election for ukip, we have said it for several years. the liberal democrats acknowledge it has been a mixed set of results for them. that is fair, we have held ground, unlike labour, which has collapsed, and ukip, which has virtually disappeared. in areas where we hope to win back mps in the general election, like cheltenham, eastleigh and wells, we have done exceptionally well. the green party says that with the conservatives dominant, other parties need to collaborate. there is a strong message that people want the more progressive parties to work together rather than against each other, it is clear that when we stand against one another we lose ground and the conservatives gain. back to the coating for now, still plenty of that to be done. —— back to the counting. the final day of campaigning has begun in the french presidential election before voting on sunday. polls show that the centrist emmanuel macron maintains a clear lead over his front national

opponent marine le pen. meanwhile mr macron has filed a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account in the caribbean. he has strongly denied the allegations. the government is set to publish draft plans to tackle air pollution following a legal battle with environmental campaigners. the measures are expected to contain a scrappage scheme for older diesel cars and the removal of speed bumps to cut pollution caused by cars braking and accelerating. that's a summary of the news — now back to local election 2017 with huw edwards. welcome back to our election special, we are here all day because there was plenty to talk about, results overnight but lots to come across scotland, england and wales.

to what extent can we look at these results and then maybe have a clearer picture about what might or might not happen in five weeks at the general election? it is a cautious process. our political editor laura kuenssberg is with us. your thoughts so far? it is a barometer rather than something directly tra nslates barometer rather than something directly translates to the general election, but two things stand out. the bottom line is for an opposition party to look anything like realistically heading towards number ten they should be gobbling up seats in local elections that this kind of stage. labour, in these early is falling back. part of the reason is the second thing which is extremely striking, a total collapse, so far, in the ukip votes, losing all the seats in some councils, falling back all over the place. it seems that so far what the tories hoped for and what they hope will happen in spades in the general election is that many ukip voters, there will be more all

isa ukip voters, there will be more all is a straight switch that brexit, the vote last year has more or less removed ukip's reason for being. thought about the kind of things we will be looking out for in the coming hours? we will be on air this morning and this afternoon, what will be the main signals you are looking for? when we get to mid—afternoon and see the results coming back from councils like nottinghamshire, derbyshire, those results with marginal seats, where traditionally general elections are decided. nottinghamshire was held by labour, if the tories took significant seats and maybe grab the council from the labour party, that is the kind of signal that would suggest we would see that repeated in the general election and therefore that labour might be in big trouble in the marginals. the west midlands mayoral contest, for the first time a big politicaljob has been created in birmingham, that has been created in birmingham, that has been created in birmingham, that has been a very fierce fight between labour and the tory party. that

matters not just because labour and the tory party. that matters notjust because it is a big, new important job, matters notjust because it is a big, new importantjob, but because voters live in marginal seats in the midlands that, again, play into the eventual general election results. lots of things will happen through the day, it will be fascinating to see of the tories make significant inroads in scottish councils, do the snp hold—up? but the big picture, the bottom line is opposition parties with a realistic chance of gaining power ought to be taking seats, not counting losses. let's get a quick thought from my three guests. emily, do you quibble with laura's take on labour so far? it isa with laura's take on labour so far? it is a mixed picture, we have had some good results. winning the doncaster merrell on the first count was good. there are seats like new court where the prime minister herself campaigns, where is the tory surge in wales we were hearing about so

surge in wales we were hearing about so much? there has been a lot of spinning in advance of this, we were told labour would do extremely badly, it has been a picture so far. your take? the results are encouraging, there are lots more results to come and we are looking at trying to extrapolate that the june the 8th, there is a long way to go, a much bigger turnout ofjune yates and a lot of work to do to make sure we get the votes we want to put theresa may back into downing street. and early thought from you, suzanne? we have been dealing with headline saying that ukip is finished for many years. emily mentioned the doncaster merrell elections, we polled over 12% ukip vote is still quite strong. our reason for being is on the way, we are on reason for being is on the way, we are on the way out of the eu. after the brexit process, there is a huge opportunity for us to rebrand, look at policies that are very hard—hitting outside of the eu portfolio, i think it is a great

challenge for ukip to surge ahead in future months. thank you very much, we will be back with you in a moment. emily was talking about wales and the fact there was talk about a big conservative surge in wales, but we need to look at all of the parties there. let's look at them and the welsh context. what has happened so far is that labour has sustained 73 losses so far. the independents in wales traditionally do very well in lots of the ryu areas. —— rural areas. not all the welsh results are in. i will show you one specific result, bridgend, where carwyn jones operates as a politician, he is the first minister and this is his backyard, if you like. labour has

lost overall control of bridgend. if you look at the difference you will see the conservative surge in bridgend. the prime minister was campaigning quite recently. my colleague tomos morgan is in cardiff. tellers where labour isn't what you think of the other parties' performances. the garbutt started off very difficultly, they lost bridgend early on, they lost the leader in merthyr tydfil, but then it's picked up. they held onto cardiff, the largest council in wales. it has strengthened what can

bea wales. it has strengthened what can be a difficult night. they were under attack from the west of cardiff from plaid cymru, from the north of cardiff from the tourism from the central from the lib dems. plaid cymru realise they had not done as well as expected early in the camps, that has maybe been reflected in how it has been turned out in the rest of wales, they have made some gains but not as significant as they would have liked. the tories made a slight gain in the north, not as significant as they would have liked. the tories have taken monmouthshire and made gains in the vale of glamorgan, they 110w gains in the vale of glamorgan, they now have the most amount of seats in glamorgan, taken over from now have the most amount of seats in glamorgan, taken overfrom labour, although there is no overall control. you mentioned that independents play a big part in wales. in wrexham, they held onto having the most number of seats in wrexham after ten labour councillors in 2015 switched allegiance to being independent. holding on in wrexham. bridgend is the most interesting

story in that the conservatives going from one seat to 11, that'll be the target for theresa may and the main target when the general election comes. a mixed night for labour, disappointment for the lib dems losing seats, reasonable happiness from plaid cymru. i think they expected a few more but there is rhondda later to come in the counter. ukip doing nothing here, emulating how they did across england. thank you, tomos morgan. some interesting patterns to pick up on as we go through the morning. i wa nt to on as we go through the morning. i want to look at the performances in the english counties. why don't we pick lincolnshire? that is a good example of relative strength, ukip tidwell there in 2013 and the conservatives have now gained control from no overall control. 58

seats in lincolnshire for the tories, labour on six, independents on five, lib dems on one. what does that tell us if we look at 2013, looking at the difference between today and 2013. 23 games for the conservatives, 13 losses for ukip. this was a county which was part of the great ukip surge of 2013. i should make the point that 2013 was an exceptionally strong year for ukip, it is when they burst onto the scene, so it is a high watermark that we are comparing with. 13 losses there food ukip in lincolnshire. i would like to talk to tim iredale in lincoln. talk us through the results and what you read into them. the conservatives were always confident of gaining control of lincolnshire but they have done so with what amounts to a local landslide, securing 58 out of 70

seats available. you mention the last cou nty seats available. you mention the last county council election here in 2013. then, the tories were forced into a minority administration, largely because of the success of ukip. four years ago ukip 116 largely because of the success of ukip. four years ago ukip116 seats here, a mixture of defections and some leaving the party, said they came into these elections with nine councillors. ukip have been wiped out here in lincolnshire, they have no county council seats in this county. to put it into perspective, this, lincolnshire, is the most eurosceptic county in the country. in last year's eu referendum it for some of the highest percentage of votes in favour of leaving the european union. it will be where paul nuttall stands in the general election, in the constituency of boston and skegness down the road from here. iam boston and skegness down the road from here. i am sure he will be very disappointed man this morning, he may not admit it but to use the buzz

phrase, a mixed picture, i don't think you can say that, they have been wiped out in lincolnshire. just a thought before i let you go, how we can translate local issues and project forward five weeks, because it has to be cautious process , because it has to be cautious process, but to what extent would you characterise this election as a very, very local one, or is it one you think was informed in many cases by national issues? ukip are going out onto the doorstep today, they were not really talking about the big local issues, they we re about the big local issues, they were claiming that a vote for the conservatives would see the government backsliding, to use their favourite phrase, hard brexit, so they were going completely gung ho for the brexit vote is here in lincolnshire. the same with the conservatives, all belief that i have seen have had theresa made ‘s picture on. it feels like a warm up

act for the main event in just under five weeks' time, the joke going around lincolnshire county council today with the conservatives is that the tories have eaten the kupers for brea kfast. the tories have eaten the kupers for breakfast. —— the kippers. if it is about rebranding, what do you put this performance down to?m isa you put this performance down to?m is a national agenda, that is the issue. it is a great shame because local government is very different to national government. i have been a local councillor myself, a different set of responsibilities and local level and the tories might not be the best at running, our councillors in lincolnshire have been very hard working but we all know that does not necessarily translate into votes when you have a situation like this nationally. it is interesting, we heard there that every single local election leaflet

had theresa may's face on it. i have to say i think the way the conservatives have gone into this general election, ripping up the fixed term parliaments act, what was the point of that? theresa may may have looked down the camera lens on several occasions and said, i am not going to call a snap election, the speed at which they have got these things out, that is not true, they have been planning this for months and have had a head start on the other parties. i am not going to play foul, we all know the tories will take every opportunity they can to win elections, that is in a sense what politics is all about. but it isa what politics is all about. but it is a great shame. we are going to see potentially a tory landslide on june the 8th, we are going to possibly see the beginnings of a 1—party state. that is not going to be good for the people of this country, ultimately. i know you both wa nt to a nswer country, ultimately. i know you both want to answer that, emily and brandon, but i want to bringjim professorjohn curtice, who is joining us now, our resident guru.

nice too with us. can we have some headline thoughts? we heard suzanne there with the ukip angle on this but can we have yourjudgment on how the parties have done so far? the truth is there isn't much joy for ukip, thoughi truth is there isn't much joy for ukip, though i think perhaps we should say it is not a case of ukip disappearing entirely, there are plenty of wards where they can still get five, six, 7% of the vote. the trouble is in a lot of these wards four years ago there were getting 20, 25, 30% of the vote. they have gone back to being one of britain's's small parties, rather than being the challenge to english party politics that we had seen, the biggest in post—war britain. there are some signs of recovery, the vote seems to be up three points, the truth however it is still not a performance of the scale that we got used to with the liberal democrats before they joined used to with the liberal democrats before theyjoined the coalition with the conservatives, getting 20% of the vote in local elections even

in difficult years. but still some progress, some encouragement, but still far too early to talk about a significant liberal democrats revival from the no theatre which they fell during the coalition. but they fell during the coalition. but the big story is conservative and labour. a pretty bad night for labour. a pretty bad night for labour. just a couple of glimmers of hope, hanging onto cardiff, which we we re hope, hanging onto cardiff, which we were not necessarily expecting, hanging on to newport as well, which isa hanging on to newport as well, which is a good result. and riding the conservatives much closer in the west of england merrill election than we might have anticipated. it is those results and one or two others that mean, yes, the conservatives have done well, no doubt they have done. is the spring

really to the conservatives of the scale we might expect in the opinion polls or is it a bit shorter? why does that matter? mrs may wants to get a bigger overall majority, and she needs a big double—digit lead and at the moment i'm not sure what we might be saying later on about how big her lead is. very early results from staffordshire this morning are good for the conservatives so maybe the numbers will pick up in their favour. let's have a look at the figures we were sharing again, these are changes since 2013 in keyboards. keyboard share changes, 13% up for the tories, 14% down for ukip, lib dems up tories, 14% down for ukip, lib dems up 296, tories, 14% down for ukip, lib dems up 2%, labourdown tories, 14% down for ukip, lib dems up 2%, labour down three, greens up one. back in 2013, ukip tidwell, the equivalent of 22, 20 3% in general elections, that is why they can fall so far. as a result, neither the conservatives nor labour did very well in 2013 so the big increase of the conservative vote is from a low baseline and a much lower baseline

than they got in the general election. conversely, however, labour doing badly in 2013 and their vote even lower tells the tale of how, whatever doubts we have about how, whatever doubts we have about how good the conservatives are, the labour party not showing much sign of posing a significant challenge to the conservatives and the opinion polls showing the party is a long, long way from being able, apparently, to being a contender —— credible contender for power in this election, broadly confirmed by the evidence of those figures you have shown. i don't want to get bogged down into much detail but we are showing share changes since 2013, if viewers are wondering why we are not comparing with 2015, what would you say to them? in england, at least, the elections that were held yesterday were four seats that were last fought in 2013 so what we are trying to do is explain, the

conservatives getting more seeds, labour getting fewer, we are showing how the pattern of voting compared with local elections in 2013 looks. of course, as you have gathered, during the course of the day we will also be giving you insight into perhaps what does this mean, for the general election, but initially we are being faithful to the fact these are being faithful to the fact these are local elections, lots of others have taken place in the last 20 or 30 years, we are getting an idea how good or bad these results are for the parties. a few markers, maybe the parties. a few markers, maybe the best results for the conservatives but ten years, maybe 25, so definitely a good set of local election performances by the standard of local elections, and for labour is probably their worst since they lost power at westminster in 2010. don't go too far, john, we will be back! professorjohn curtice there, with us professorjohn curtice there, with us throughout the day crunching the numbers. a quick comment from brandon and emily at this point,

picking up from whatjohn said. i thought about the extent to which you are confidently saying, brandon, that yesterday, today makes you rather more bullish about what might happen on june the rather more bullish about what might happen onjune the 8th?” rather more bullish about what might happen on june the 8th? i refer back to what i said when we first started speaking a few minutes ago, these are encouraging but different to a general election, is very different turnout and i disagree with something suzanne said, our councillors and candidates have been campaigning for local elections for many, campaigning for local elections for any campaigning for local elections for many, many months on local issues, it is only the last couple of weeks we have been into the start of a general election so i credit the voters to know that yesterday they we re voters to know that yesterday they were voting for local government and it is normal in local elections to have the leader of your party on your leaflet, it always has been for the conservative party. emily? i would like to say something about the way the conservatives are hunting down ukip voters, it says something about the way theresa may has been behaving lately. when she

came back from visiting the queen and stood on the steps of 10 downing street and came out with the most extraordinarily paranoid statement about europeans conspiring against our country and needing to stand up and fight, i think it was either a cynical ploy for ukip votes and believing it is to the conservative's advantage to become old tory eurosce ptic conservative's advantage to become old tory eurosceptic in that way. what it might mean for this country if the tories were elected on the back of such votes, it either means that she is doing it on purpose in order to try to get those votes, or potentially we have a prime minister who is as paranoid as she is, so we have a choice, she is either paranoid or extremely cynical. probably the better interpretation is that she is extremely cynical but it is worrying, the way in which our country might be governed when it comes to dealing with brexit in the future. would today's results so far suggests she is rather more in touch with public opinion than you are?|j

think it is very easy when people are worried to whip up that worry and say, we can stand firm and fight against europeans. but i think that is not the way to go into negotiations and it is not the way for a responsible politician to behave, because once you have said those things, you cannot take them back and she is on record saying the most extraordinary things and if she wants to be re—elected, which we hope she won't be, but if she is to be re—elected, what does that mean? we are trying to re—establish a relationship with the europeans and the only way to get a strong brexit is to get one that works for britain and it has to be agreed by the europeans. has that stance damage labour? we will see, we have five weeks. it is important that we go out and argue what i have just said, that a strong brexit is a deal that works and does not mean alienating our european allies. we have to treat them as friends and we must not be treading down, occupying ukip territory because, with respect, i

don't think it is our country any good and for the conservatives to shift into ukip territory in that way to get votes is very worrying. laura? the problem for the labour party, many parts of the country that they had seen as traditional labour territory, they were also appealing areas for ukip, so there will be seats that had been held by labour, 71 of them, where the size of the labour majority was smaller than the number of ukip votes, so ukip have not just been number of ukip votes, so ukip have notjust been about taking voters from the tories but also in the last few years been taking votes from the labour party. what i would say, as we discussed on wednesday night, after theresa may's statement in downing street, tory sources behind the scenes were saying, of course pa rt the scenes were saying, of course part of the reasoning behind the statement, not all of it because there was genuine irritation in government of what was coming out from brussels, but part of the calculation was they are aware they we re calculation was they are aware they were 4 million voters for ukip at

the last election and they want them. the point is that you can talk to people and say to them what is in the interest of the country and how that works. of course, labour wants the best possible deal for britain asa the best possible deal for britain as a whole, it isjust a question of how you do it, the language you use and what you are saying. we can stand up for britain better, we would say, than the conservative ha rd would say, than the conservative hard brexit trying to climb into the ukip vote. what theresa may said the other night was absolutely clear. bureaucrats from brussels have lea ked bureaucrats from brussels have leaked things from their side, not ours. she wants the right deal for the united kingdom. i think it was a very clear statement to people across the country, whether they voted remain or leave, it is in all of our interests to get a deal that is good for the united kingdom and she will stand in for great britain. that is what i want is a prime minister. she has said we will stay in the europe ian court of human

rights, we are abandoning targets for net migration. if she is to get the brexit that people voted for, we have to keep pushing for that, i don't see much sign at the moment. i have spoken to other labour mps, emily, it is notjust the ukip vote moving to the conservatives, but the tories, for the same reason. labour has completely abandoned people in its heartlands. the issues ukip has talked about are resonating. let's pause, a very quick word from laura before the news. the referendum boat through all the pieces in the air, this is part of the settling down and it is shaping up to be quite a different map. i promise we will pick up on some of those points when we are back. it is 9:30am. now the rest of the day's news with joanna gosling. huw, thank you. good morning. the conservatives have made big gains in the council elections in england and wales, recording their best results since 2008. many of the votes cast yesterday across england, scotland and wales are still to be counted, but labour have suffered

losses and ukip have so far failed to win a single seat. the conservatives have been celebrating a series of victories across the country. initial results show the tories taking control of five local councils and winning more council seats than any other party. the tories also celebrated victory in the west of england. the conservative tim bowles was also elected to the newly created position of west of england mayor was also victorious. however, senior members of the conservative party appeared to downplay the victory, suggesting that there were still many votes left to be counted. i think the early results are encouraging, but they are early results. we have seen less than a quarter of the vote actually counted and reported. the turnout in local elections, of course, is much, much lower than in a general election. it is wrong to predict what will happen

onjune is wrong to predict what will happen on june yates. we is wrong to predict what will happen onjune yates. we still have a general election to campaign for and to win after last night, but encouraging signs. elsewhere labour have lost three councils, two of which in wales. despite the losses in wales, labour did hold onto the council in cardiff. the party was also victorious in doncaster, where its candidate rosjones, the labour mayor was re—elected after getting just over 50% of votes. labour has defended its performance so far. the party's shadow chancellor, john mcdonnell, told people to wait for results elsewhere to come in beforejudging the party's performance. it's been a disappointing night for ukip. the party failed to win any of the seats it contested — losing 39 previously held council seats. ukip points out that it still has sitting councillors in the country, although those positions were not up for election this time. the lib dems have seen mixed results. a short time ago the party had lost 28 council seats. the party also failed to retake somerset council from the conservatives, although leaderjohn osman was ousted by lib dem former mp tessa munt. the final day of campaigning has

begun in the french presidential election before voting takes place on sunday. polls show that the centrist emmanuel macron maintains a clear lead over his front national opponent marine le pen. our correspondent karin giannone is in paris. what reaction has there been as we enter the final day of campaigning? welcome to a busy friday in the centre of paris, it is anything but normal because we are into the final hours of the 2017 presidential election campaign. come midnight french time, the candidates must fall silent and campaigning will be over before the vote on sunday. it has been an incredible campaign so far, extraordinary particularly bad tempered. the final debate on wednesday was one of the most heated that a french presidential election

has ever seen. it has not done marine le pen any favours, emmanuel macron has increased his lead to 62% against her 38%. let me give you a flavour of what the papers are making up the campaign going into the final day. the financial newspaper talks about macron le pen, a battle against extremism, it says that a emmanuel macron is the favourite going into the second round. they call it an extraordinary, unprecedented election campaign. le figaro calls marine le pen's campaign a shipwreck. they talk about macron b&b arch favourite. marine le pen a lwa ys b&b arch favourite. marine le pen always says that the mainstream media are against, this would be typical of their stands, they call her the big loser of the televised debate. le monde, marine le pen talks about the strategy of the lie. inside le monde they have 19 facts

that they say marine le pen said in the presidential debates, they have dissected them, fact check them, they say she was lying in all 19 cases. let's show you this left—wing paper, that is jean—marie cases. let's show you this left—wing paper, that isjean—marie le pen, marine le pen's father and the friends of the national front in france, they say she has not changed, reinforcing what marine le pen has always wanted to move on, into a future image. they say it is still effectively the same le pen. it is not a dead cert macron, 20% of french voters are undecided so there is plenty to play for. thank you. the government is set to publish draft plans to tackle air pollution following a legal battle with environmental campaigners. the measures are expected to include a scheme to encourage drivers of older diesels to scrap their cars. and also the removal of speed bumps to cut pollution caused by braking and acceleration. a british man has died

while skydiving in thailand. it happened in the thai resort town of pattaya. the 69—year—old man — an experienced skydiver — leapt from a plane and landed in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip at the thai sky adventures airbase. his name was james mcconnell. his son has posted a message on social media saying fly free, my hero. that's a summary of the news — now back to local election 2017 with huw edwards. welcome back to our day of live coverage of the local election results in scotland, england and wales. in the studio we have our political editor laura kuenssberg, emily thornberry of labour, brandon lewis of the conservatives and suzanne evans of ukip. thank you for still being with us. if you have justjoined us i would like to remind you of what is going on. we are lots of results in, but lots

to come. this is england and wales, no results from scotland yet. that is the picture across england and wales, let's look more specifically at wales in a second. cani can ijust can i just stress, can ijust stress, again, very early days. we will talk to labour's stephen kinnock in cardiff. good morning, stephen. we were talking earlier about a rather mixed

picture, labour in england suffering some pretty heavy losses. in wales, holding onto cardiff, newport and swa nsea, holding onto cardiff, newport and swansea, very big results, clearly, but how would you characterise the overall picture? i would agree with your word, mixed. i think there is a contrast between england and wales. in wales it is great to see we have held onto swa nsea, great to see we have held onto swansea, cardiff and newport, in england, i don't think we can sugar—coat the pill, it is pretty disastrous. it is simply not good enough for a party that has been an opposition for seven years, heading towards a general election in five weeks, to not be picking up sensible results are not making progress. the explanation is that it wales they have had strong labour leadership, a fantastic first minister in carwyn and labour cancels delivering public

services that people want to see. i think there is a pretty clear distinction and what we need to do is recognise there is a mountain to climb over the next five weeks, and it is time we started climbing it. you have been very critical in the past the leadership of the party in terms ofjeremy corbyn, i wonder to what extent you are pinning the performance in england on that leadership, or rather more local issues? which is it? we can'tjust put a spin on this, the fact of the matter is thatjeremy‘s leadership comes up on matter is thatjeremy‘s leadership comes up on the doorstep on a very regular basis. we had to make this election about more than leadership, we had to make it about the future of the country, the referendum has shown what a divided country we are and we have a deeply divisive tory leadership, a deeply divisive campaign from theresa may, she is

losing friends and alienating people every time she engages with the european union. we have to make this bigger and make it clear to people that it bigger and make it clear to people thatitis bigger and make it clear to people that it is about the future of our democracy. theresa may wants a landslide victory and to create a one—party states, we are saying at a local level in every constituency, don't give the tories a blank cheque, don't let them turn our country into a european version of the cayman islands. we have to have a strong labour representation in parliament to hold the tories in check. stephen, please stay with us. i have your colleague emily thornberry. when you save —— when stephen says pretty disastrous and not good enough, that is different to your tome, what would you say to him? it is early days and stephen andl him? it is early days and stephen and i agree it is important to unite, to make sure we take this fight to the tories with a general election coming up, fight this on

issues, on the way in which a different government could make life different government could make life different for people. in the end, issues count. it does not matter how theresa styles her hair, we're not a presidential system. we have representatives at a local level and the government is a collection of individuals, but most importantly be implemented policies and, as stephen has said, the biggest challenge will be brexit. we share a profound concern about what kind of brexit we're heading for if this tory government gets back with a huge majority, particularly if they will be running the election on such a sceptical to europe basis. ifi sceptical to europe basis. if i can take you back to the original quote, he thought that the performance is pretty disastrous so far, can you agree with those words? i think it is too early to say, across the country it is mixed, i would say. not good enough in terms

of looking ahead five weeks hence? we have to work hard to make sure we stick together, we are united, that we remember that the common enemy is the tory party and tory government and we need to make sure our 600,000 members are right on the doorstep arguing about and arguing in a united way and showing we have much more that unites than divides us. stephen, are you convinced that the leadership is picking up the message you would like it to get? i think we have to learn from the success i think we have to learn from the su ccess we i think we have to learn from the success we have had, certainly, in the cities in swansea, cardiff and newport, which i think is a reflection of the very impressive leadership that carwyn has shown us in wales. we have the next five weeks to prove we are picking up those messages and to prove that we are an alternative party of government, that we have the

leadership in place that can present a real picture and a real alternative to this tory government. that will be a factor on the doorsteps. we have to absolutely focus on what we are achieving locally, what we have done for the steel industry and at a local level in terms of regenerating our communities and rebuilding the public services in the face of a deeply damaging austerity from the tories. the other good news from today and yesterday ‘s selves is the com plete today and yesterday ‘s selves is the complete falling apart and implosion of ukip. very good news. we have seen the back of ukip, i think that is the end of them as a party, a serious force in british politics. we have to turn our guns on the tories and start doing the same to them. paddy ashdown treated a short time ago the huge progressive voice in the uk is being crucified by the lack of courage and leadership to

get our act together, in other words suggesting he would like a progressive alliance. can you briefly give us your response? i think the british people care about four things, work, family, community and country, and the labour party is a deeply patriotically, the party that took the united kingdom into nato, we we re the united kingdom into nato, we were the driving force behind it. we area were the driving force behind it. we are a party that unite communities and stands up for families and makes your working day a better day, and thatis your working day a better day, and that is the message, the mainstream message that we have had, and have had since our party was created in 1901. we have got to get back to that mainstream, clear, centrist, patron got a vision for our party and our country and if we can do that there is absolutely no reason why we cannot be an alternative to the party of government and cannot

get a good result on the 8th of june. your key message was that you have to get back to that region, the message that you are not on that message that you are not on that message right now? we are seeing from people on the doorstep that they are worried about the polarisation of politics, they feel there is a shift to the hard left and a shift to the hard right and my vision for the labour party is not one where we are anywhere near the ha rd left, we one where we are anywhere near the hard left, we are a party that is a centrist, patriotically party, stands up for working people, that believes in rebuilding public services and realises that we have got principles but if you want to put those principles into practice you have to win power, and if you are going to win power you have to be in touch with the people of this country. that is what we have to get back to. labour's stephen kinnock, thank you very much. that was interesting, laura. i would like to ask emily, stephen kinnock clearly thinks that the labour party has gone too far to the

left and jeremy corbyn is a problem on the doorstep? there is nothing in terms of policy that stephen was talking about that i would disagree with, so i think sometimes we set up straw men for ourselves, when it comes to policies, when it comes to the way in which we can make britain better, stephen and i agree. his analysis is clearly that you have gone too far away from the mainstream. he used the phrase, the ha rd left, mainstream. he used the phrase, the hard left, worried about labour being the party of the hard left. is he wrong? he did say that... is he wrong about that? it is sometimes a conservative attack that is put out... it is from one of your own mps! the point is that although some people may say that, the question is, what policies is it, what is it that labour stands for that is a ha rd left that labour stands for that is a hard left policy? if you look at what we stand for, we are certainly a party at the left, a progressive party, we want the world to move on, our country to move on for the

better, and we are a party of hope. but the problem that we have, we all know this, i am not telling you any secrets, is we have not been particularly united in the recent past. one thing that comes up again and again on the doorstep is people said they will not vote for a party that is not united. stephen kinnock says that on the doorstep people say they are worried about jeremy corbyn, in his word he says it comes up time and time again. is he wrong about that, do you think he is an asset? i am not saying jeremy does not come upon the doorstep sometimes but what also comes up is the importance of having a clear, united message. and stephen and i agree on that, that is what we need to concentrate on. let's pause for a second because there is a very exciting situation in northumberland. let's have a look at northumberland, is this the final result? just come in, this was really on a knife edge and it is

still a hung council but when we look at this result we see the conservatives on 33 and labour on 24. let's have a look at the difference with last time, because what has happened if there has been a bit ofa what has happened if there has been a bit of a conservative surge in northumberland, picking up 12 seats, labour have dropped eight, the lib dems have dropped dead, independents up dems have dropped dead, independents upfour, so dems have dropped dead, independents up four, so not enough for the conservatives to take control. they had hopes in northumberland of taking control of the council, they have not done so, they are on 44% of the vote, labour 27%, have not done so, they are on 44% of the vote, labour27%, if have not done so, they are on 44% of the vote, labour 27%, if we look at the vote, labour 27%, if we look at the percentage share of the vote, independents 12 and lib dems on 12. what is the difference with 2013? to underline, the tories putting on 13% but not enough to take them over the finishing line for overall control, labour dropping back 9%, lib dems dropping back nine, ukip dropping three in northumberland. what i would like to do now, because we are looking at some of these key

battle grounds, clearly we want to look as well at some of these mayoral contests which is happening. we have not mentioned them yet, they are some of the big political posts that have been invented as part of the devolution strategy of the conservative government. the west of england was one of them, we had the west of england result earlier today, let's have a look at it. this was the first preference, to take you through the voting process, this allows people to express preferences on the first preference vote we had tim bowles for the conservatives in first place, labour in second place, lib dems' stephen williams in third place. went through, nobody had the required number of votes necessary to go through straightaway on the first round, as you can see there, 27, 22 and first round, as you can see there, 27,22 and 20. we went to a first round, as you can see there, 27, 22 and 20. we went to a second round, let's have a look at that. there is the result in the west of england, the lib dems, by the way, had hoped with stephen williams, former lib dem mp, to do rather well

here but what happened is the conservatives narrowly won, beating labour's lesley mansell. so tim bowles is the first of the big metro mayors that we can report on, that is the result in the west of england. there will be several more to come. now, straight to the midlands, there isa now, straight to the midlands, there is a massive contest happening, in terms of the mayors and important cou nty terms of the mayors and important county results as well. patrick burns is there for us. tell us what happened overnight? well, we had two of our shire counties counting overnight, most started as no overall control and both now firmly under conservative controlled. gloucestershire and warwickshire. startling result in warwickshire, actually, they needed to gainjust two warwickshire, actually, they needed to gain just two extra seats for overall control, they actually gained 12 and the labour contingent in warwickshire was halved from 20 to ten. interest over whether the

liberal democrats might enjoy something of a brexit or should i say anti—brexit bounce, they actually lost one of their seats so not much progress for them. obviously delighted conservative council, initially leading a minority administration, and the counsellor says it is a brilliant light, wonderful night, the map of warwickshire turned blue from top to bottom from left to right. by contrast, thinking of course as you mentioned earlier, warwickshire has some of those key general election marginal seats, places like nuneaton, which was a totally marginal seat in 2015. well, the labour general election candidate in nuneaton was actually one of the casualties on the council, he actually lost his seat last night, philjohnson, and he put the blame for that very firmly at the door of jeremy corbyn's leadership. also losing their seats were the leader of the former labour group and

indeed the chairman of the local party, so there is no particular gloss to be put on this, it has been a very, very emphatic, bad night for labour in key electoral area, warwickshire, with all of those marginal seats, crunching the numbers with the general election in mind. indeed, patrick, and while you are with us, tell us, of course we are looking ahead, later today, with us, tell us, of course we are looking ahead, latertoday, probably around tea—time, to the result of the west midlands mayoral contest, that has been a pretty tough fight so tell us what you are looking at at this point? it isa at this point? it is a real knife edge, potentially a real thriller. all the suggestions are that it is a very, very close run thing between and labour candidate, sion simon, former government minister under gordon brown, now labour member of the european parliament for the west midlands, and andy street, former boss of the john lewis midlands, and andy street, former boss of thejohn lewis department store chain, he stood down from that

role in order to become the conservative candidate here. it has been a very close run thing, this contest, and as you say counting is just really in the very early stages. we don't expect anybody to have an overall majority, 50% plus, on the first count, it is almost certainly going to go to second preferences and that obviously does add a certain number of vagaries to the whole process, but i can tell you it is a real knife edge, there is no real confidence i think on either side, nobody has had the temerity to think they have it in the bag, and it is very big job, this it is a major set of political spending powers devolved from westminster, whitehall, to head an area through the black country, birmingham, coventry. i rememberthe architects of this originally were david cameron and george osborne and they said, for the maximum level of devolution to be had in to

authorities like that, you need a focal point at the top for accountability, the elected mayor. a controversial figure, accountability, the elected mayor. a controversialfigure, and accountability, the elected mayor. a controversial figure, and there accountability, the elected mayor. a controversialfigure, and there is a sentiment not just among controversialfigure, and there is a sentiment notjust among local councillors but out in the electorate that this is an unwelcome job. in the name of localism the government has actually insisted on this mayoral role and we are all set for a thrilling contest with the final result, as you say, maybe late afternoon, tea—time, between 4pm and 6pm is my guess. we will see you later, patrick, but thank you for bringing us up to date in birmingham. indeed, some big and important contests there. i must tell you this, we were talking about northumberland, saying the tories have not quite managed to take overall control. after two recounts in south blyth, one of the wards in the council there, the lib dems and conservatives tied at 356 votes each so what happened ? conservatives tied at 356 votes each so what happened? the candidates through straws which led to a lib

dem victory and that is what then denied the conservatives their overall majority in the county! brandon, iam overall majority in the county! brandon, i am sure you will have some thoughts on that!|j brandon, i am sure you will have some thoughts on that! i have experienced, i have to say, in my own county in great yarmouth when i was a council leader in essex i have seen people on the drawing of cards, i have seen straws drawn before, it isa i have seen straws drawn before, it is a good example of why every vote count that any election, rather than leaving it to cards, every vote counts. laura? emily and suzanne both look like they have their own painful memories of something going so close and going the wrong way for their own party! but about northumberland, labour came within an inch of winning outright control in 2013 and yet again we have seen the tories piling on votes, another early sign that things are very tricky for labour in parts of england particularly. inafew particularly. in a few minutes we will get some lib dem reaction to what is going on, we will be talking to baroness jenny randerson from cardiff, she

has been waiting to talk to us, but before we talk tojenny we will get a full update on the weather first of all, and we will go straight to the bbc weather centre and joined the bbc weather centre and joined the labour review is there today. the dry spell seems like it is going to go on across most of the country today. short of rainfall in recent weeks and the news is that this will keep to the french side of the channel for the most part. for the rest of the day, not a great deal of change from what we have seen of late, the early low cloud lurking offshore for the most part, offshore breeze keeping cool around exposed coast of scotland. the best of the warm the yet again towards the west, 17,18, warm the yet again towards the west, 17, 18, possibly warm the yet again towards the west, 17,18, possibly 19. warm the yet again towards the west, 17,18, possibly19. similar prospects across northern ireland, eastern shores that bit cooler. the

eastern coast of england, a bit more cloud across east anglia and the south—east, generally across the southern counties, as has been the way of late. but less of a chance of a shower on the breeze and a greater chance of sunshine. into the evening, we bring the weather front close by to the isles of scilly, the far west cornwall, down to the channel islands and again with clear skies somewhere in the countryside in scotland could see temperatures a few degrees below zero. but it means a bright start, not a great deal of change across the northern half of britain but with the french close by to the south there is a chance of rain just to the south there is a chance of rainjust getting into part to the south there is a chance of rain just getting into part of cornwall, devon, towards the channel isles, the isles of scilly, and there may just be isles, the isles of scilly, and there mayjust be enough cloud ahead of it for there to be the odd spot of it for there to be the odd spot of rain in mid wales, the midlands, onto lincolnshire, but by the afternoon many of these areas will be dry and the best of the sun shines through the day, the highest temperatures through western scotland, maybe the western side of wales, western side of northern

ireland as well. but the onshore breeze still affecting eastern coasts. the frontal system moves away as the lone trundles off into northern europe, notice we are cranking some of those isobars towards a northerly so a change of wind direction but not a warm one by any means, said the eastern shores again, nine, ten, 11, 12, still drive for the most part across the british isles, the best of the sunshine and warmth likely found towards the west and early into next week, staying, for the most part, predominantly dry. take care, goodbye. good morning and welcome to viewers on bbc two and the bbc news channel for our special live coverage of the local elections in england, 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. it's been a very good night for the conservatives in england and wales. they've taken control of the councils in gloucestershire, lincolnshire, warwickshire and monmouthshire. they've also won the west of england mayoral contest. and it looks — at this early stage that they're heading for their best set of local elections for a decade or more. a disappointing night the labour, some people say it's disastrous, if you are listening to stephen kinnock. they're going backwards in england. and in wales they've lost overall control of bridgend and merthyr tydfil, two councils in their south wales heartland.

although they have held on to the capital city, cardiff. alongside the other key strongholds, swa nsea alongside the other key strongholds, swansea and newport. and it has been a pretty bad night for ukip. overnight they lost every seat they were defending. and the party has been wiped out on councils like lincolnshire, hampshire and essex. their vote share is down dramatically, most of it going straight to the conservatives. coming up, we'll be live in glasgow. the snp are trying to take the city council from labour. that is after decades of labour rule. lots of other scottish results coming in, that should be later this morning and this afternoon. in a moment we'll have more from our politicial guests — labour's emily thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, the conservative brandon lewis. and we're nowjoined by councillor peter reeve from ukip.

and we'll get some more analysis of what these results all mean from our political editor, laura kuennsberg. we will be talking to professorjohn curtice as well. but first let's bring you right up to date with the results so far. we will have another surge of results later this morning and into the afternoon. that is the scorecard of national councillors. we will pick up on some of that and talk to some of our guests. we will have more results coming in and we will go head to some of the big results, including

some of the big results, including some of the big results, including some of the big mayoral contests, for example manchester and the west midlands. and with all that in mind, let's join joanna gosling with a full round up of what's been happening where in these elections. and of course there is other news going on as well. huw, thank you. the conservatives have made big gains in the local elections with labour and ukip suffering loses. many votes are still to be counted, but so far the tories have gained control of five counties and labour have lost three. the conservatives have said the results were encouraging, labour said it had been tough but not the wipeout predicted by many. with the story so far, here's our political correspondent, eleanor garnier. rosettes worn proudly, better overnight nervous faces, too. already it is clear that the biggest wins so farare already it is clear that the biggest wins so far are for the conservatives. charles bowles as julia elected as the west of england manor. the tory candidate made history by becoming the regional

mayor. this is what winning and retailing power looked and sounded like for the party in essex, they have won control of warwickshire, gloucestershire, lincolnshire and the isle of wight. in cumbria the tories have replaced labour is the largest party, but senior conservatives are playing down expectations. the turnout in local elections, of course, is much, much lower than a general election. it is wrong to protect what will happen onjune general election. it is wrong to protect what will happen on june the 8th, we have a general election to campaignforand to 8th, we have a general election to campaign for and to win after last night, but encouraging signs. there was some positive news for labour. in doncaster they held onto the elected mayor's job, labour. in doncaster they held onto the elected mayor'sjob, but labour. in doncaster they held onto the elected mayor's job, but the party has lost scores of seats in swing areas. these counties are the tories' strongholds. it was going to be a tough night for labour, and we're in the middle of the general election campaign. mixed motives, people

voting largely on local issues, not national ones. but what is coming across is that where people predicted we would be wiped out, in places like wales, we have done very well. in lincolnshire, the ukip leader paul nuttall will fight for westminster seat next month, but his party was wiped out overnight on the local authority. it isa local authority. it is a great shame because local government is very different from national government. i have been a local councillor, a whole different set of responsibilities. the tories might not be the best at running them. our councils in lincolnshire have been very hard—working, but that does not necessarily translate. the lib dems admit it has been a mixed set of results so far. we have held ground in the face of a massive shift, an enormous shift of ukip voters to the conservatives, and given that has happened, we have done well to stay where we are. the

green party says with the conservatives dominating, other parties need to collaborate. there is a strong message that people want the more progressive parties to work together rather than against each other. under this type of system it is clear that when we stand against one another we lose ground and the conservatives gained ground. back to the counting for now, plenty of that still to be done. the final day of campaigning has begun in the french presidential election before voting on sunday. polls show that the centrist emmanuel macron maintains a clear lead over his front national opponent marine le pen. meanwhile mr macron has filed a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account in the caribbean. he has strongly denied the allegations. president trump has been celebrating at the white house after the us representatives passed a bill billing —— bringing his pledge to

come in his words, finish off obamacare, which offered health assurance to millions of less well—off americans, further forward. that's a summary of the news — now back to local elections 2017 with huw edwards. welcome back. this is our live coverage of the local elections today in england, wales and scotland. plenty of results to come but some firm pattern is emerging. we will talk about those in a moment. i want to go back to the remarkable story in northumberland, this is where the tories failed to gain overall control, they were just picked up the post because this happens, look. jawing lots, drawing straws. the lib dem leslie rigby,

the conservative daniel xha ka, straws. the lib dem leslie rigby, the conservative daniel xhaka, two recou nts the conservative daniel xhaka, two recounts in south blyth in northumberland. they were tied so they had to draw straws. that is the way to win! they drew straws and the lib dem won, thus denying, and brandon is seething, the conservatives and overall majority in the county. just one little element of the drama happening. it was nice to see those images, just to see how that was decided. that is an element of local democracy in action, it goes to show how strongly people feel. although lots of people are talking about these elections in terms of what they tell us about the general elections, these are local authorities handling billions of pounds of money and delivering essential public services. first and foremost they are important

exercises in local democracy. the drift from central government has been to begin think more powers, and less money, to local government. so these elections are more important than they have been recently. the big mayoral results are going away from whitehall, they have the bigger importance. northumberland, which i suspect most people will remember because of the straw pulling, there was an 11% swing from labour to tories in northumberland, that is, according to our data, the biggest swing in any key ward councils. it is clearly a very good result for the tories, the worst results for them was when they failed to take cardiff, labour holding better than expected in wales, but nonetheless it isa expected in wales, but nonetheless it is a very important result. peter, nice too happy with us. suzanne was talking about rebranding and saying the party still had a future. let's not go there yet,

let's talk about performance. when you see dozens of losses, as you have in some of these countries where you did so well in 2013, which was a very big year for you, what are you telling your supporters? the same we are saying to everyone and have said before the election started, 2013 was exceptional for ukip, it really sparked as leading national politics, and we have led national politics, and we have led national politics, and we have led national politics in this country ever since. in this round of the elections, it was always going to be incredibly difficult and we have never shied away from that. the difference between ukip and the other political parties is whilst they sacrifice their principles and policies and morals to win seats and to focus on political power at all costs, we a re to focus on political power at all costs, we are here to change the country. even if that is that our own expense. we won't be standing some westminster candidates in some weeks in the next few does represent

seats in the next few weeks because we are putting the country ahead of the party. ukip is leading the national agenda, we forced a prime minister to hold a referendum on eu membership that he did not want, he had to resign. that is the influence of ukip, we did that with no mps in parliament. so is the message of these results that voters think your purposeis these results that voters think your purpose is over? the message is that theresa may is wearing the emperor ‘s is, she's pretending to be theresa may is wearing the emperor ‘sis, she's pretending to be ukip. she is doing rather well. the tory spin doctors have played a blinder, on the doorsteps we are hearing people saying we still want to vote ukip, we still believe in them, the 12th prime minister says you have to bowled conservative to protect real brexit, our voters will bullet for her. the spin doctors have done a fantasticjob. her. the spin doctors have done a fantastic job. the reality her. the spin doctors have done a fantasticjob. the reality could not be further from the truth. as home office minister theresa may said she

would cut immigration to tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands and failed to deliver, she will fail to deliver on brexit as well. what makes you think that? she campaigned for remain, she does not believe in our cause and i guarantee she will start backtracking. let's watch what she does rather than taking my word for it, but ukip has a huge feature both now and holding the government to account, in this general election i predict that people like the candidate in thurrock will be elected and start holding the feet of the government to the fire, it is essential we get ukip mps to protect a real brexit. brandon, just a thought on ukip's ta ke brandon, just a thought on ukip's take on the brexit process under theresa may? where his argument falls down is that theresa may triggered article 50 and said what —— and did what she said she would. there is a simple choice, extrapolating for two june the 8th, we will be choosing a party that

will put into downing street a prime minister who will be leading the negotiations for leaving the eu. it is eitherjeremy corbyn theresa may. that is the choice we have to make. what we have seen in northumberland is the importance that every vote matters, that is why we will continue to work, as theresa may has done every day open last few weeks, to make the case about why we have the best position and theresa may is the best position and theresa may is the best position and theresa may is the best person to deliver the best dealfor the uk. the best person to deliver the best deal for the uk. let's the best person to deliver the best dealfor the uk. let's get a lib dem boys, can we go straight to city hall in cardiff? baronessjenny rand is and is there thank you for joining us. your thoughts on the lib dem performance today? it has always been our intention to use these elections to start to rebuild the party. they were never going to be simple or straightforward elections, we live in turbulent times. one of the great things we have been able to do in these elections is to use

many of our thousands and thousands of new members, and we have tens of thousands of them, in order to make them party activists, actively engaged in campaigning for our core messages, for the future, for the june election. not easy elections, not the results we would ideally have wanted in some areas, but we have wanted in some areas, but we have won seats from the other parties in some places and we are really pleased about that. looking at the figures for cardiff, if i may, they will, quite soon, and i wonder if you can talk us through the lib dem performance? you took 11 seats in cardiff. by my calculation you lost five seats from 2012, when these elections were last conducted. what accounts for that given that

some of your lib dem colleagues told me that parts of cardiff were looking quite promising? what we found on the doorstep was that once the general election had been announced, the conversation we we re been announced, the conversation we were having with people totally changed. they stopped talking about how the council here in cardiff was run, they were not talking about bins and potholes and so on, they we re bins and potholes and so on, they were talking instead about theresa may, whether they were in favour of heror not, may, whether they were in favour of her or not, they were talking about theresa may and the whole country. and therefore what happened was that the party politics has hardened. there is of course a surge in the conservative vote but the labour vote also hardened here as people who are very certainly not conservatives went to them or tribal allegiance to the labour party. it

became difficult as a local election campaign to cut through on that, but i think when we get to the general election we will find that we are able to have a very clear message on brexit and we are have to roll the only uk national party that can give us only uk national party that can give us that one clear message saying, we are in favour of the eu, we are in favour of staying in the single market, and we are in favour of giving people their voice on their future. so far you are down 11 seats in wales, obviously it is early days, we will see what happens through the rest of the day in lots of these english counties as well, but are you expecting in wales at least to be down or to be in positive territory? to be honest, i don't know any longer what to expect on anything in politics! at least you are honest, jenny! laughter.

every day brings a new shock! and i think quite a few people would agree with me. but i do think that we will probably be down slightly. but it is important to remember these seats we re important to remember these seats were last fought in 2012. we have been through a torrid times since then, notjust been through a torrid times since then, not just in been through a torrid times since then, notjust in 2015 been through a torrid times since then, not just in 2015 and been through a torrid times since then, notjust in 2015 and the general election, but in 2016 in the assembly election. i am proud of the campaign we have run, a positive campaign we have run, a positive campaign across wales and we do have successes, we have won seats of the conservatives, of labour, and off plaid cymru, and i think it is important that we look at where we won those successes and build on that for the future. but we are not ina that for the future. but we are not in a really bad place, we are simply in the foothills of exercise. good

to talk to you, jenny randerson, thank you very much, outside city hall in cardiff for the lib dems. thoughts, laura? interesting to hear there, something we have heard quite a few mps who are now standing against say, actually, they feel there has been more momentum in these local elections because suddenly there was a general election which has made people turn to politics. a few people turn to politics. a few people have said to me in the last couple of weeks in a way they wouldn't normally in local elections, they are pretty obscure, turnout is low, but the general election may have changed the backdrop, that is whatjenny has suggested have happened to the liberal democrats in wales. a couple of tips from my sources, we talked earlier, looking to nottinghamshire and derbyshire much later in the day, areas where labour really wants to hold on because important marginal areas for the general election, just suggestions at this stage that nottinghamshire may well be heading towards tory hands, but

derbyshire, in contrast, may well be, iam derbyshire, in contrast, may well be, i am told, that labour manages to hold on. lots of hours to go before we get those results butjust a couple of straws in the wind. are you getting any intelligence on those, emily? my phone has packed up, so! those, emily? my phone has packed up, so i am infreefall! those, emily? my phone has packed up, so i am in freefall! ifeelfor you, i really do! but it doesn't meani you, i really do! but it doesn't mean i don't have anything to say! with nottinghamshire going one way, derbyshire and other... potentially. it underlines what i have been saying, we have been campaigning out there, and realistically while there is bristol, and large amount of suburbia and countryside that would not be natural labour hunting territory, for us to end upjust 5000 territory, for us to end upjust 50 0 0 votes territory, for us to end upjust 5000 votes behind in the west of england matt is a fantastic result for leslie and the local team, and if you translate that across labour marginals in bristol and the outskirts, that is a very good

result for labour, so it shows that it is mixed. we will see whether our colleague in bristol agrees with that, straight to bristol and join paul bolt up who is there for us. picking up from what emily is saying, talking about the west of england mayoral contest, which was won by the conservatives, what do you read into that and the relative performances of the party is there? first and foremost the conservatives pleased to come through, i think they felt they were favourites for it but they were never certain. having said that, when to may called the general election, it put a spring into their step, gave them a bit of a boost, i think they got more of their core vote out. as for labour, many pundits had not expected them to come second but if you look back to three consecutive general elections, 97, 2001, 2005, in the areas that are part of the west of england mayorality, labour

came second in three general elections in that area, so not quite the tory heartland some people are portraying it as. they did better than expected but didn't win, but they will be looking carefully at how the votes stacked up. the lib dems had high hopes round here, it was the one mayoral contest they thought they had a decent chance in, third place, not too far behind, but did not make the final two, so disappointment for their candidate. let's hang on to the lib dem thought, i will ask you to talk more about somerset and gloucestershire because these are areas where in the past lib dems have had parliamentary representation as well, so talk us through those and see what the trends are there. absolutely, somerset was a lib dem heartland full sutton long time, the place where paddy ashdown built up the party, they were expecting to go forwards, it was a council run by the conservatives but with a narrow majority. the lib dems even

yesterday talking about perhaps taking overall control. they did not just fail to take overall control, it went backwards, they lost seats in somerset, are very poor result. there are always exceptions to the rule, the county council's conservative leader was unseated by the lib dems, that was the one plus point, but overall a pretty poor picture in somerset and in what it says about their general election prospects, it does not look good at all. if you go up the m5 into gloucestershire, slightly different emphasis. again, conservative brent council, they did not have an overall majority going in but were farand overall majority going in but were far and away the largest party in the last couple of years, they increased their hold on the council. but in gloucestershire's case, the lib dems stayed pretty much where they were but it was labour who lost seats, from nine down to four. bearing in mind during the early

yea rs of bearing in mind during the early years of the blair government, labour and the lib dems together we re labour and the lib dems together were running gloucestershire county council. labour have fallen an awful long way in places like gloucester, urban areas where they used to have a parliamentary seat, they now have just one county councillor representing the city. they were losing seats to the conservatives yesterday. about gloucestershire and somerset, as we have seen elsewhere in the country, ukip had a pretty bad night. they knocked the political establishment in the west country four years ago picking up seats on the councils but they lost all of them last night. good to talk to you, latest thoughts from the west of england, gloucestershire and somerset, very interesting trends that we will pick up interesting trends that we will pick up on again, underlining some of the patterns we have seen elsewhere as well. lots of results still to come from scotla nd lots of results still to come from scotland because they did not start counting in scotland until 9am this morning so there are dozens of councils up and of course we are looking specifically glasgow because

thatis looking specifically glasgow because that is where labour has really been dominant for decades and the snp are very hopeful of getting control of glasgow. annita mcveigh is there for us. good morning, yes, it promises to be a fascinating story in glasgow, right across scotland. a number of big questions to consider, how will be snp do, have we seen peak national is perhaps? will the conservatives do as well and labour do as poorly as some polls have suggested, here in glasgow for example it is thought labour might lose control of the council for the first time in 40 years. all of those questions wrapped up if you like in the twin forces of brexit and independence, so these be the least local local elections that we have seen here? with me to discuss that, i have members from the snp and scottish labour. welcome to you both. a big disappointment for the snp in the last locals not to gain

control of glasgow council. can you do it this time? i remember the count in 2012 well, it was a huge disappointment, i have to say from yesterday's turnout and how it felt in the polling stations we are cautiously optimistic. whether we lead the administration as the largest party, or a majority, would be the icing on the cake, it would be the icing on the cake, it would be huge for the party in our 18 yea rs of be huge for the party in our 18 years of existence, having never come close to taking the administration of glasgow, but it is too early to tell yet. you have to get every man, woman in scottish labour past the finishing point yet you have not fielded candidates in all of the possible seats, two new wards, six new seats created. why haven't you done that? is it a strategic error? we are standing candidates across the local authority in glasgow, the reality is everyone accepts we are the underdog in glasgow, if you look at the

elections it is not right to compare like—for—like from the 2012 result, it is more reasonable to compare what happened at the general election in 2015 when the snp got 60% and last year when they got 53% of the vote, in this election the snp have said they want a majority in glasgow, i'm not sure how that will fall, we will see as the day goes on but i am proud of the campaign and candidate in glasgow, we are in the fight here. why is scottish labour the underdog, in your words? is it because of brexit, because ofjeremy corbyn's leadership more widely? we have to acce pt leadership more widely? we have to accept politics changed in scotland in 2014 when we saw the snp surge after the referendum is independent —— independence referendum. it is an uncomfortable place for the labour party to be, we talk about solidarity, equality, fairness, hope for our politics but our politics at

the moment is consumed with anger and division, that is a challenge for the labour party but in glasgow we have put forward a positive message and a plan to move glasgow boreham message and a plan to move glasgow bore ham wood, we message and a plan to move glasgow boreham wood, we believe we have transformed glasgow in the last few years. this building shows the amazing transformation labour has made because labour decisions in the city, that is the policy plan, not talking endlessly about another divisive referendum. on the doorsteps i'm sure people have been concerned about local issues but have they been equally concerned about brexit and independence? the permutations would make your head spin, brexit, independence, local issues as well as many other issues thrown in the mix. but our voters and supporters, i can only speak for snp supporters, they really want to change in glasgow, this has been a labour run council for decades and decades, they are sick and tired of the decisions made at council level so they want change. change was our key m essa g e so they want change. change was our key message and let's see if have responded to that. politicians all

put a spin on their own results, it would be a huge result for the snp in glasgow if we were the lead party in the administration. if you don't emerge as the largest party here and getan emerge as the largest party here and get an overall majority, you may emerge as the largest party but not get the majority to take overall control, i beg your pardon, to take control, i beg your pardon, to take control of the council, who would you go into coalition with? we would look to the administration, as we have said, we have had a good relationship with the green party, a lot of our politics is the same, left of centre, focusing on environmental issues, but similarly with many green counters in terms of the referendum as well, but i am focused here, we want to get the majority, we want to be over the line. if not, there are other permutations, we could lead as a minority administration without going into coalition. what we have said is we would not enter any

coalition with the conservatives. said is we would not enter any coalition with the conservativesm labour does poorly in these elections, what is next for the party here in scotland and nationally? we have to continue to fight for our values, labour values are more important now than ever before but we have seen that anger and division and have to turn our focus to the general election on the 8th ofjune focus to the general election on the 8th of june and focus to the general election on the 8th ofjune and said this country faces a clear choice, if you want to carry on divisive politics, tory versus snp, but if you want to move on from that and change the lives of people, when, women, children across the united kingdom, we need to get rid of the tory government and get a labour government. voting snp does not do that. thank you both so much for your time today. so of course lots of questions about what the eventual results here today will mean for the general election on the 8th ofjune and let me tell you as far as glasgow is concerned, 43 is the magic number, if the snp can get 43 men and women elected towards here then they will have overall

control of glasgow council, removing that controlled from labour, which has held control for 40 years. and for labour, just a single one of the men and women standing for scottish labour does not get elected today ben debuts that overall control. a fascinating story to unfold here. many thanks to you and your guests in glasgow. laura, the focus is clearly on glasgow because it is such a big, symbolic contest. but wait you think to whether conservatives had parliamentary representation in the past in scotland, there are other interesting tests? more tellingly for the general election, and there is not a direct read across, the more telling barometers for the general election will be whether the tories can start nibbling back more seats in the borders, perthshire, parts of scotland where, years ago,

they used to have a relatively decent level of representation which fell away quite dramatically, but now theresa may and ruth davidson, the relatively popular scottish tory leader, they are very hopeful of starting to take seats back. theresa may has already been on the stump in scotland. tory leaders in relatively recent history would not have dream. spending much time there. emily, i am very concerned about your iphone. is it working? i don't know. leg raid has an apple on it. it only has about 5% battery. raid has an apple on it. it only has about 596 battery. the very good news is you will not be getting the spin m essa g es is you will not be getting the spin messages from labour hq so you will have $2 what you think. if it was switched on is working, you would know doncaster has produce good news. this was one of the mayoral contests ina single this was one of the mayoral contests in a single authority, not a big, multi—authority. russjones has been re—elected for labour. —— rosjones

has been re—elected. the turnout was quite low, 29%. that is something we might want to talk about later to do with the profile of these jobs and to what extent they have made an impact on local voters, in many cases they are powerful positions. ifi cases they are powerful positions. if i can bring up the difference on the last contest. quite a significant increase for the tories but not enough to win the seat. we have a swing in doncaster, 0.8% from the labour to the conservatives. there was an independent there before. rosjones has been re—elected, the conservatives in second place. a quick word on doncaster, emily?

boom. i saw isaw an i saw an interesting quote from russ jones earlier, i hope i'm not being unfair, this is all to do with the fa ct unfair, this is all to do with the fact that we as labour and doncaster have done a good job, locally —— i saw an interesting quote from ros jones. was clear about a local campaign. is that fair? this is what local elections are meant to be about, we have strong local candidates putting out strong local messages, of course that is what local council elections will be about. it is confused when a general election is called the local election, it is difficult to know if people are voting nationally or locally. as we heard from the lib dem for wales, the labour votes in wales has solidified. her interpretation is that in the last couple of weeks and people have been

thinking, you know, if there is going to be a conservative or labour government, we're not going anywhere other than labour. but listen, we have to work really hard, we have a few weeks left before the general election and we had to make sure that people understand there is a choice, it does not have to be this way, it does not have to be a conservative government, labour is the alternative, but we will not be in government if we do not get the vote out and get people to votes labour. on the basis of the results elsewhere in england and parts of wales, where does that leave you in terms of confidence looking ahead in the next few weeks? it is all to fight for. we have a very large membership, we have to make sure people are roads to people and explaining —— people are out talking to people and we need to think carefully about the policies and how we can make britain better, that is

what politics ought to be about.|j what politics ought to be about.” must break now to joinjoanna gosling again for the latest news. huw, thank you. the conservatives have made big gains in the council elections in england and wales, recording their best results since 2008. many of the votes cast yesterday across england, scotland and wales are still to be counted, but labour have suffered losses and ukip have failed to win a single seat. the conservatives have been celebrating a series of victories across england and wales. initial results show the tories taking control of five local councils and winning more council seats than any other party. the tories also celebrated victory in the west of england, where the conservative tim bowles was elected to the newly created position of west of england mayor. however, senior members of the conservative party are downplaying the significance of that victory, saying many votes remain to be counted. i think the early results are encouraging, but they are early results. we have seen less than a quarter of the vote actually counted and reported. the turnout in local elections, of course, is much, much lower than in a general election.

it is wrong to predict what will happen on june 8th. we still have a general election to campaign for and to win after last night, but encouraging signs. elsewhere labour have lost three councils, two of then in wales. despite the losses in wales, labour did hold cardiff council. the party was also victorious in doncaster, where its candidate rosjones, the labour mayor was re—elected, securing more than 50% of votes. labour has defended its performance so far. the party's shadow chancellor, john mcdonnell, told people to wait for results elsewhere to come in beforejudging the party's performance. if you look at where we have really campaigned hard in terms of wales in particular, jeremy corbyn was down in cardiff, there has been a lot of work on the ground with a membership knocking on doors, we have defied all predictions on the losses. where we have lost in south wales, what is

interesting, it has not been to the tories in terms of what has happened in merthyr tydfil and blaenau gwent, they have returned to independents, which they were before 2012. it is difficult to extrapolate from local government results anyway. it's been a disappointing night for ukip. the party failed to win any of the seats it contested — losing 39 previously held council seats. —— losing 42 previously helps... held council seats. ukip says it still has sitting councillors in the country, although those positions were not up for election this time. it's been a night of mixed results for the liberal democrats. a short time ago the party had lost 28 council seats. —— 24 council seats. the lib dems also failed to retake somerset council from the conservatives, although the tory leaderjohn osman was ousted by lib dem former mp tessa munt. despite the overall picture of the conservatives performing well, some electro battles have been very close indeed. the winner of the seat in northumberland county council was decided by drawing straws after two

candidates received the same number of votes. here is the moment that the lib dem candidate selected a longer stroll to claim the seat. that meant the conservatives were denied overall control of the council. the final day of campaigning has begun in the french presidential election before voting takes place on sunday. polls show that the centrist, emmanuel macron, maintains a clear lead over the far right candidate marine le pen. our correspondent karin giannone is in paris with the latest. welcome to a busy friday in central paris. it is anything but normal because we are into the final hours of the 20 17th because we are into the final hours of the 2017th residential election campaign. come midnight french time, the candidates must fall silent and campaigning will be over before the vote on sunday. it has been an incredible campaign so far, extraordinary and particularly bad tempered. the final debate on

wednesday was one of the most heated that a french presidential election has ever seen. it is not an marine le pen any favours, emmanuel macron has increased his lead in the polls to 62% against her 38%. let's give you a flavour of what the papers make into friday, the final day. the financial newspaper talks about macron and le pen, a battle against extremism and says that emmanuel macron is the favourite going into the second round. they call it an extraordinary, unprecedented election campaign. le figaro calls marine le pen's campaign is shipwrecked, they talk about macron being the arch favourite. marine le pen always says the mainstream media are against her and this would be typical of their stu nts. and this would be typical of their stunts. they call her the big loser of the televised debate. le monde, another daily, marine le pen, it talks about the strategy of

the live. inside le monde they have 19 fact that the same marine le pen said in the presidential debate —— 19 fact that they say marine le pen said. they say she was lying in all maintain cases. let's show you a left—wing newspaper, that is jean—marie let's show you a left—wing newspaper, that isjean—marie le pen, marine le pen's father and the founder of the national front. pen, marine le pen's father and the founder of the nationalfront. they say she has not changed, forcing what marine le pen has always wanted to move on from a future image without her father's shadow, they say it is effectively the same le pen. it is not a dead cert for a emmanuel macron, 20% of voters are undecided so there is plenty to pay for. —— play for. the government is set to publish draft plans to tackle air pollution following a legal battle with environmental campaigners. the measures are expected to include a scheme to encourage drivers of older diesels to scrap their cars. and also the removal of speed bumps to cut pollution caused by cars

braking and accelerating. a british man has died while skydiving in thailand. it happened in the thai resort town of pattaya. 69—year—old james mcconnell — an experienced skydiver — leapt from a plane and landed in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip at the thai sky adventures airbase. this picture is from a previous jump. his son has posted a message on social media saying "fly free, my hero." that's a summary of the news — now back to local elections 2017 with huw edwards. welcome back to live coverage of the local election results in england, wales and scotland. we have spoken about some of the results already andi about some of the results already and i want to bring you another, one of the big english counties. let's look at essex, this is a county the conservatives have held, relatively co mforta bly. a huge majority of 37. you may be

wondering why in essex we do not have ukip on the graph. the reason is they have actually lost all their seats there and they are not in the first six. that is the history of what is going on, we will ask peter about that in a second, in essex, of all places, where they did so well in 2013. 14 games to the conservatives. sticking with that, i want to go to my colleague andrew sinclair in norfolk, great yarmouth. he can talk to us well the count is going on where you are, talk to us about essex and what you see in that result? (inaudible)

stop a second, andrew, i was hoping we would get your sound but i don't think we have it, do we? are we likely to get andrew back? can you hear me ok now? andrew, talk us through that ethics result? yes, i was just about to say that four years ago you could really made a name for themselves both across east anglia but particularly in norfolk, they came from nowhere to win seats, a notable number, right across east anglia. it seems as if we are now seeing the ukip vote disintegrating before our eyes. in the last few seconds the tories have taken a seat from ukip. ukip, as you said, were completely wiped out in essex last night. the early indications from norfolk and suffolk are that ukip will do very badly. i was speaking to a senior ukip figure

is short while ago as he looked at the boats coming out of the boxes and he said, i could try to put a positive spin on this but i can see what is before my eyes —— as he looked up the votes coming out of the boxes. we have had two results declared so far, you could have lost both seats, want to labour, want to the conservatives. it does not look good for them, if they can't win seats in their great yarmouth stronghold in norfolk, i think they will do badly. labour lost seats in essex, they are expecting a bad time in norfolk but as ijust said, they have taken a seat from ukip this morning. if brandon lewis is with you he might want to know that the person who took the seat for labour is the candidate standing against him in the general election. very interesting. looking ahead five weeks, i know this is a risky game, but give us a sense of where you think these patterns of voting are shifting? one has to put in the caveat that

this isn't local election with low turnout, and many people vote differently in local elections to general elections but the feeling i have picked up on the ground, begin to be reflected in results in east anglia, is that ukip are in serious trouble and that, for ukip, is very serious because they have seen anglia as their stronghold of support, it is where they always could be sure of is very big, strong following. east anglia recorded a very large leave vote in the referendum last year, so ukip do seem to be doing very badly at the moment and that does not look good for them as we go into the general election campaigns. no sign either, though, of a lib dem revival, not showing at all in great yarmouth, no real surprise, they have never done particularly well here, but they did not do very well in essex last night either. good to talk to you, we will be back

to you when we get some more results from norfolk, thank you for taking us through the essex results. lots of interest in the studio. laura? it is interesting what we have seen since the referendum with ukip looking for a new identity. they came up with what were controversial ideas at the start of this general election campaign, such as banning the burqa. steven woolfe has just told our colleagues on 5 live that darker forces, to use his phrase, who pushed policies like banning the burqa are to blame the big ukip meltdown. do you think he is right? steven woolfe is one of the chaps who got elected as ukip and then decided to join the conservative party so i have very little to say about him, to be frank. but if the right? no, ukip policies are incredibly consistent, we don't go charging around like the old parties looking at polling and changing our policies based on it.

we have a consistent policy. on the burqa, we have always said the law should apply equally to everyone, if i cannot walk into a bank wearing a crash helmet, why should anyone else be able to wear a face covering, no matter their religion? this country has always been tolerant and has a lwa ys has always been tolerant and has always had one rule for all, that is what ukip is standing up for. in terms of national trends, the big story that does not seem to be being discussed is about the lib dem leadership. look at what the lib dem leadership. look at what the lib dem leader campaigned his leadership on, it was all about his track record as a campaigner, all about how he will put the liberal democrats back on the map and wind local government elections with his pro—eu stance, and the fact is his entire mandate as leader of the liberal democrats has just collapsed... it is a brave attempt to switch attention to the

lib dems! we will talk, of course, we spoke tojenny earlier and will speak to more lib dems later when they are here to defend themselves. looking at essex, you have nothing left in terms of county councillors there, what is that down to? why are voters deserted you ? there, what is that down to? why are voters deserted you? it is very clear, we have a prime minister who has painted herself in ukip colours, who has said that in order to do what ukip is here to achieve, you have to vote conservative. when they announce the parliamentary election, going against everything the fixed parliamentary act was made to protect the country from, she has rode roughshod over that, bringing forward a cynical ploy to trick people into voting conservative. let's be clear, the prime minister is the puppet of ukip and its agenda, that is absolutely what this election is playing out. that is quite something to say, that theresa may is a puppet of ukip, brendan?” would not think that has any credibility with anyone who hears that. theresa may is very much a strong, stable person in her own right... laughter. it is 10:49am, we got through nearly

120 minutes on air before that came out, well done! theresa may gables the biggest u—turn in history, she is now pro—brexit! the biggest u—turn in history, she is now pro-brexit! this is somebody who has a track record of delivering in top circumstances, it is who we wa nt in top circumstances, it is who we want at the negotiating table in europe. let's pause for a second, we have been joined byjohn europe. let's pause for a second, we have beenjoined byjohn curtice again. it has been at least 1.5 hours since we spoke, we were talking about ukip initially, and note that we have got here from you and your team saying tentative signs that the increase in conservative support is greater in places where there was a high leave vote in the referendum in 2016, tell us more about that? yes, there is, the truth is it looks as though the conservative vote has increased more heavily in places where the leave vote was strongest back injune last year. it has risen rather less where

it went out the least. the opinion polls having remain voters switching to the conservatives, the second thing to bear in mind is the section of england in which we had elections yesterday was the section of england most likely to vote leave and i think it would therefore be even more interesting now to look to see what happens in those mayoral contests which are taking place in which more urban, rather more pro—stay—macro places to see whether thatis pro—stay—macro places to see whether that is replicated. i want to draw your attention to something else more important, we have the first evidence from scotland, scotland is going to be a difficult story to follow because as most of the councils are fighting seats on new ward boundaries, so it will be a long time before we get voting figures, however the scottish borders, an area the conservatives

are hoping to take a parliamentary seat from the snp, is one of the few places where the wards this time i have the same as last time and what we find? the conservative vote, the share of the first preference vote under the proportional representation system, is up by 19 points compared with 2012. that performance is consistent with the kinds of figures of around 30% vote across scotland as a whole in recent opinion polls. conversely, the snp vote is only up by three points, which i think they would certainly hope they will do better than that in other parts of scotland. the first sign that perhaps those double in scotland there is a conservative revival and maybe it is going to tell in places where it could make a difference on june the tell in places where it could make a difference onjune the 8th. one other thing to say about that, there was not much of a labour vote in this ward in the first place but they still managed to go down by five percentage points. that is intriguing, john. the hold that thought on scotland for a

moment, we expect most of the results to come through this afternoon and towards tea—time, so with what you said in mind, we have concentrated on glasgow because of the battle between the snp and labour, which are the ones should we now be looking out for? you mentioned the scottish borders, which areas will be most telling? as far as the english border where support tends to be low. perth, kinross, aberdeenshire, places where the snp have historically been strong but in last year's scottish parliament election the conservatives did relatively well, so as far as the conservative snp battle is concerned, that is where we are focused, that is where the tories' hopes of getting seats in july. another completely different

battle between the snp and labour, i certainly wouldn't presume that we can infer anything about glasgow from what happened in the scottish borders and we will need to wait much longer before we get some evidence as to whether the snp is advancing relatively strongly in what we used to call red clydeside but these days seems to be rather more like nationalist clydeside. one final point, we have had quite a debate in the studio about the relative areas of labour's performance, just a judgment on how labour is doing generally? the truth is, if one takes the labour party's objective on june is, if one takes the labour party's objective onjune the 8th to be elected as the government and to replace the conservative party in office, the evidence at these local elections is that it is an awful long way away from that objective, and that indeed if the general election had

been held yesterday the labour party would have suffered an even bigger defeat than it did in 2015, so from that point of view this is not good news for the labour party. but, more results to come, we will see whether or not the pattern is different in more urban parts of england, but the truth if it is not encouraging for existing labour mps. labour might still hope to narrow the tory lead but winning this election, well, shall we say it would be quite a stupendous performance if labour win the general election from the baseline that these local election results seem to be pointing to. john, we will talk again later. john mentioned the big battle in glasgow between the snp and labour, the snp's sister party in wales is plaid cymru, and leanne wood, the leader, is in the rhondda for us. bore da, leanne, thank you forjoining us. bore da, hugh labour holds onto cardiff, newport, and swansea, the plaid cymru has not managed to put

the brakes on their performance in those areas, what is your explanation for that?” those areas, what is your explanation for that? i haven't got an idea of the whole picture yet, results are still coming out for wales but it looks as though plaid cymru has made breakthroughs in new ground, i'm delighted to be able to report to you that darren macey has just taken a seat in the rhondda which we have never held before, we have held all but two in the rhondda but that is why we have never held and we have just taken new ground but that is why we have never held and we havejust taken new ground in denbighshire on top of gains in bridgend, in port talbot, and other places throughout the country. we are looking set to do well as well as holding onto control in kerry did young, so it is a good picture for us today in plaid cymru, i am here to talk about plaid cymru, not other parties. if you want to comment on

labour's woes, i suggest you speak to them. i certainly will, but given you don't have the overall picture, b give you the figures. so far in wales, labour have lost 75 councillors, the independents have gained 21, the tories have gained 50, plaid cymru have gained 14, the lib dems have lost nine, the greens have gained one. 15 games now, we have gained one. 15 games now, we have just put it in, to plaid have gained one. 15 games now, we havejust put it in, to plaid cymru, is that the level of performance you are satisfied with? well, we still have a lot of results to come through yet, we are in the middle of account here in the rhondda, some interesting looking piles of votes here, there are results expected in carmarthenshire and gwyneth, we are expecting some more surprises in areas that we have never held ground in before. so far things are looking good for plaid cymru, and it puts us

ina good good for plaid cymru, and it puts us in a good position to contest the uk election on june the in a good position to contest the uk election onjune the 8th, especially in places like this in the rhondda and seats that we will be looking to take, like ynys mon. leanne wood, good to talk to you from the rhondda, thank you forjoining us today. the plaid cymru leader leanne wood. going back to scotland, labour and tory sources telling me that in scotla nd tory sources telling me that in scotland the tory vote share is up very significantly, suggested by tory sources that they are doing well in what would normally be considered no—go areas for them like midlothian, that part of the central belt between edinburgh and glasgow that for decades has been labour held, the snp surge the last couple of years, the tories picking up there as well. we will be back with the panel in a while. time for us to take a quick break and we are going to get the latest now on the weather, with phil. the weather not only for wales but

across the british isles, and i take you immediately to a fine line of washing in tadcaster, that is to remind me to tell you later how windy it is across the pennines area. from the south, you can make other uses of a fairly strong wind affecting some of the channel coast at the moment. cloudy in painting but across lyme bay i have seen superb pictures from the weather watchers this morning ofjust how glorious the weather is in the area around about portland. it is notjust there, thanks to the area of high pressure which has been a familiar friend thanks to the area of high pressure which has been a familiarfriend in recent days, not a great deal of change at the moment in the weather overall. we still have a noticeable breeze coming in off a chilly north sea so if you are spending any time in the eastern counties of scotland and england, you will know about the

suppressed temperatures, despite the glorious weather that goes with it. the western side of scotland, the west of northern ireland, out towards the lancashire coast, we could be looking at 16, 17, 18, possibly 19 degrees. further south, though i showed you the grim picture in paignton, there is a breeze, more ofa in paignton, there is a breeze, more of a chance today of staying dry and seeing some sunshine, which has not been that prevalent across the south. it could well be that we will see some rain from the weather front getting into the very far south—west, towards the channel islands, certainly into the isles of scilly, as we go through the evening. overnight, ithink scilly, as we go through the evening. overnight, i think a game there is a touch of frost across scotla nd there is a touch of frost across scotland as we go through the first pa rt scotland as we go through the first part of the night so watch out for that as well. into saturday, still have the weather front close by to the far south—west but if you are looking for rain more widely across central and southern parts of england, having had such a dry spell, it is probably not a feature for you. further north, spell, it is probably not a feature foryou. further north, essentially dry, fairamount of foryou. further north, essentially dry, fair amount of cloud, through wales and the midlands may a spot of

rain first wales and the midlands may a spot of rainfirst up, wales and the midlands may a spot of rain first up, and again the onshore breeze kills the feel of the day across eastern shores. to complete the weekend, saturday into sunday, a change of wind direction but still cool change of wind direction but still cool, coming in from the north and north—east, said the eastern coast again perhaps a bit more cloud than you have seen of late across scotland, towards the west is where you see the best of the temperatures and still but rather chilly feel in the east. good morning. it's 11 o'clock, and you're watching our special live coverage of the local elections in england, 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. that has cast a shadow over these

contests. we'll have results as they're declared, and we'll be getting reaction from the parties to what's going on. it's been a very good night for the conservatives in england and wales. they've taken control of the councils in gloucestershire, lincolnshire, warwickshire and monmouthshire. they've also won the west of england mayoral contest. and it looks at this early stage that they're heading for their best set of local elections for a decade or more. it has been a disappointing night the labour. they're going backwards in england, and in wales they've lost overall control of bridgend and merthyr tydfil, two councils in their south wales heartland. but they have held on to their key welsh strongholds of cardiff, swansea and newport. they've also won the mayoral contest in doncaster. and it has been a pretty bad night for ukip. overnight they lost every seat they were defending. and the party has been wiped out on councils like lincolnshire, hampshire and essex.

their vote share is down dramatically, most of it going straight to the conservatives. coming up, we'll be live in glasgow. —— we will be live in birmingham to look at the west midlands metro may contest. expected to be a close contest. expected to be a close contest between the conservatives and labour. that count will go on for quite some time yet. and we will be live in glasgow as well, when the counting is on the way. —— where. the snp are trying to take the city council from labour. we'll be covering the results from scotland as they come in. ina in a moment, more from our guests, and we have some new members of the

panel. i will give them a proper introduction. laura is still with me. before we do any of that, let's look at the latest numbers that we have. this is very important. the numbers have been changing a little. we had a huge surge overnight and now we are in a bit of a lull before we get more results in the afternoon. so far, 170 games for the tories. —— gains. ukip have not held any seeds so far. 12 seats to the green party. that is the picture. that is the picture in terms of councillors. in a short while we will look at more specific areas. we will have a full round—up. it isa areas. we will have a full round—up. it is a good moment tojoinjoanna further news and the other news as

well. the conservatives have made big gains in the local elections in england and wales, recording their best results in almost a decade. many votes are still to be counted, but the tories have gained control of five councils, while labour have lost three. ukip have so far failed to win a single seat they were defending. with the story so far, here's our political correspondent, eleanor garnier. it is the conservatives with the biggest cheers. they won control of worcestershire, warwickshire, gloucestershire and the isle of wight. charles bowles is duly elected as the west of england mayor. in the west of england the conservative candidate made history by becoming a regional mayor. in cumbria, the tories have replaced labour as the largest party. but senior conservatives are playing down expectations ahead of the

general election. the turnout in local elections, of course, is much, much lower than a general election. it is wrong to predict what will happen onjune the 8th. we have a general election to campaign for and to win after last night, but encouraging signs. the tories are celebrating in essex as well, where this time around voters turned their back on ukip. in lincolnshire, where the ukip leader, paul nuttall, will fight for a westminster seat next month, the party was wiped out. with no win so far, the ukip future is in question. i have been ukip forfour years. the amount of times i have heard a ukip is finished, if i had a pound for everyone, i would is finished, if i had a pound for everyone, iwould probably is finished, if i had a pound for everyone, i would probably quite a bit woman. it is not over until it is over. and despite these pretty poor election results so far, it is not over. there was positive news for labour. in doncaster, they held onto the elected mayor's job, but the party has lost scores of seats in swing areas.

these counties are the tories' strongholds. it was going to be a tough night for labour, and we're in the middle of the general election campaign. mixed motives, people voting largely on local issues, not national ones. but what is coming across is that where people predicted we would be wiped out, in places like wales, we have done very well. the lib dems are made so far it has been a mixed set of results for them. we have held our ground in the face of a massive shift. an enormous shift of ukip voters to the conservatives. given that that happened, we have done well to stay where we are. the green party says with the conservatives dominating, other parties need to collaborate. there is a strong message that people want the parties to be working together rather than against one another. under this kind of syste m one another. under this kind of system it is clear when we stand

against one another, we lose ground and the conservatives gain. local elections results do not translate toa elections results do not translate to a general election, but they are a significant barometer. the outcome will influence the tactics of the main parties over the next few weeks. first son, the results today have been too close to call. the tories were denied an overall majority in northumberland after the lib dem candidate literally drew the longest straw. for now, back to the counting. plenty of that to be done. the final day of campaigning has begun in the french presidential election before voting on sunday. polls show that the centrist emmanuel macron maintains a clear lead over his front national opponent marine le pen. meanwhile mr macron has filed a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account in the caribbean. he has strongly denied the allegations. a british man has died while skydiving in thailand. it happened in the thai resort town of pattaya.

69—year—old james mcconnell — an experienced skydiver — leapt from a plane and landed in a nearby reservoir missing the airstrip at the thai sky adventures airbase. his son has posted a message on social media saying "fly free, my hero." that's a summary of the news — now back to local elections 2017 with huw edwards. welcome back once again to our studio at westminster. we are covering the live results from the local elections in england and wales. getting some signals of what might be in store in scotland. very early days there of course because most of the scottish results will not come in until later this afternoon. key battle grounds, not just in terms of the local contests,

but we might look at padron ‘s looking ahead towards the general election. lots to discuss. —— patter ands. we have a look at some of the results we have already had and maybe look at some of the details. we have a new panel. diane abbott is with us. and the conservative sam gyimah. and the lib dems tom brake. laura is still with me. can we start on scotland ? laura is still with me. can we start on scotland? i know you have been getting some intelligence? there is a pattern emerging. what the tories hope to do in the general election is borne out by the local results. that is, start to make progress in areas where tories frankly went out with the ark. in midlothian and five, parts of scotland that are laboured to the core, seats are being won by the conservatives. —— labour. in clackmannanshire are there was no tory representation whatsoever, but overnight that has

changed. they have representation in every ward. and one big scalp, i'm told the snp leader in fife council, gordon brown's old backyard, has lost his seat to a conservative. a picture that is bad for the labour party and bad for the snp, although we do expect the snp to take glasgow consul, a big totemic win. can we pick up on the conservative prospect in scotland, and whether what laura says makes sense to you? we are seeing encouraging results across the country for the conservative party. in scotland, we have had ruth davidson, who has run a terrific and energetic campaign, we would expect to move forward. it will be a challenge overtaking labour. they have four times as many councillors as we have. the key thing emerging from notjust as we have. the key thing emerging from not just scotland as we have. the key thing emerging from notjust scotland but england and wales is that on the theresa may, her strong and stable

leadership is cutting through. her position on brexit is resonating. particularly in scotland, we are the party that supports the union and will stand up for the union while the other parties want to break up our country. that last comment is clearly not true. the liberal democrats don't want to break up the union in scotland. i think perhaps there was some of that happening in terms of people identify which of the parties could challenge the snp. maybe the conservatives benefited from that. i hope the same will be true in some areas where the liberal democrats are strong. diane, your thoughts so far on the labour performance? there is no question these are different results —— disappointing results. but i think we have to be careful from extrapolating from local elections to the general. the turnout is much lower. and in many cases people vote on specifically local issues. but i am not pretending that these are not

disappointing results. stephen kinnock was on early saying something similar to what you said but he said that they were frankly with disastrous results. is that a word you would use?” with disastrous results. is that a word you would use? i wouldn't use that word. in wales there were disappointing but certainly not as bad as the polling suggested. we have held cardiff, we have increased representation in swansea. sol wouldn't use the word disastrous at all. the point he was making was that lots of labour campaigners have been let down, he felt, by weakness in terms of the leadership. i know thatis in terms of the leadership. i know that is a theme we have discussed many times in the past. but on a day when labour is counting significant losses in some areas, is it fair for him to raise that theme? stephen is entitled to his own opinion. what we are saying is that we do better overall in wales than the opinion polls would seem to indicate. we

still think there is all to play for in the general election. laura, what is your thought in terms of the labour performance generally? are not being specific in terms of wales or scotland. look, the convention is, and this is challenged by labour hq this morning, if it parties on track to even have a shot at taking power in a general election, they should be stacking up seats in local elections. it is not a direct reader cross. there are local issues. but thatis cross. there are local issues. but that is what convention dictates. if you follow that convention, this is a bad set of results for the labour party. i think what we will hear more from labour mps across the piece, apart from the core around jeremy corbyn, is people saying, as they already have been saying, they will talk about voting for their local mps, they will talk about voting to have a strong opposition, they will, wherever possible, not talk aboutjeremy they will, wherever possible, not talk about jeremy corbyn. they will, wherever possible, not talk aboutjeremy corbyn. and the message from the core around jeremy

corbyn would be very different. we have heard john mcdonnell saying this morning that the more people see ofjeremy corbyn, the more they like him. that is not what the results suggest. we are in a political era where the conventions are being smashed. dangerous to refer to convention. i still think there is everything to play for. everything to play for when it comes tojune everything to play for when it comes to june the 8th? yes, there is everything to play for. we know that ina everything to play for. we know that in a local election people would do things that they wouldn't do in a general. the idea that it is all done and dusted for the general election is a fallacy. you can't extrapolate from the local to the general election, even though this is a highly unusual local election happening in the middle of the general election. so she is right. that is why we are not taking anything for granted under the conservative side. if you want to theresa may as your prime minister you have two fold for her on june

the 8th. something quite clear about the 8th. something quite clear about the korber leadership is he has lost his party, he has —— he is losing in the labour heartlands and he hasn't spoken on brexit. not many people can see him sitting opposite 27 leaders negotiating for our country. if you do want the right prime minister, who i believe is theresa may, you have two vote for her. one thing that is certain as a result of these results is that the conservatives are not going to be able to run this line of the coalition of chaos. we can extrapolate something from these results. that looks as though it is very likely there will be a conservative majority. who is going to be providing the opposition and what size will that majority be due i hope we're not going to hear from the prime minister, coalition of chaos, and that is something tim farron has completely excluded. the

only way in which jeremy corbyn get into downing street is if he rides on the coat—tails of other political parties like the liberal democrats. a high street betting shop predicts that the labour party, unfortunately, will be winning 160 unfortunately, will be winning160 seats at the general election. they cannot form a majority government. and we excluded that option anyway. the option is not on the table. vote for theresa may on june the 8th. the option is not on the table. vote for theresa may onjune the 8th. if you vote for any other political party, you risk voting forjeremy corbyn. vote conservative to get theresa may. very quickly, a quick word? we have no intention of riding and anybody's coat—tails. when we see the results from the big cities, ride, we will see what people think ofjeremy corbyn's leadership.

ride, we will see what people think of jeremy corbyn's leadership. we have been talking about the ukip colla pse have been talking about the ukip collapse overnight, they have their white dead in quite a few the councils were they did so well in 2013. -- councils were they did so well in 2013. —— wiped out. this is paul nuttall‘s response. laura, looking at those words, that goes way beyond anything that suzanne and peter were talking about earlier? they were talking about a rebrand, a bright future. essentially he has notjust admitted defeat but essentially said that defeat but essentially said that defeat is worth it, ukip has achieved what it set out to do all those years ago. i think following that statement it will be very difficult for paul nuttall to say what you give is for. he is

basically saying, job done. i get why people didn't vote for us. it is a curious position. four years ago in this studio nigel farage came in and we couldn't get him out. he said their first several hours. it was their first several hours. it was their big breakthrough. this is implying, andi their big breakthrough. this is implying, and i hope i am not being unfairto implying, and i hope i am not being unfair to paul nuttall, the purpose has gone, has evaporated. that is the imprecation. he does say in another part of the statement that the party has a bright future. the wave that swept it in in 2013 has swept back out again. what do you make of that? he is putting a brave face on what is a ukip defeat. what lam face on what is a ukip defeat. what i am encouraged by is that we are winning votes across the political spectrum and across the country. but you are being massively helped by a ukip collapse, that is clear. in

essex and elsewhere. it is still early. there are lots of results yet to come. we had a referendum. theresa may has the right approach to the brexit negotiations. voters are recognising that stable leadership is what will deliver the right result in terms of brexit and beyond. i welcome that. but it is notjust a beyond. i welcome that. but it is not just a ukip collapse that is helping the conservatives. it is in wales and scotland, we are yet to see what is happening, but another pa rt of see what is happening, but another part of the country, we are waiting across the board. —— winning. part of the country, we are waiting across the board. -- winning. that is encouraging. before we go to edinburgh, just to set the scene again, what is at stake in the scottish elections? well, a lot. there are local elections across the country but this is a testing ground, if you like, for whether or not the snp will fall back from their huge peak that they achieved in the 2015 election, extremely good results in 2016. can the tories make

genuinely big inroads, notjust in pa rt genuinely big inroads, notjust in part of the country that they have held before but right across the board in scotland? that is what theresa may once, that is what ruth davidson, the scottish tory leader, has been working on, and it seems from these early signs they may have made huge strides. i am hearing rumours of tactical voting, people going to the lib dems. i am hearing of straight switches from labour to the tories. all sorts of stuff. a lot of action happening in scotland. it isa lot of action happening in scotland. it is a really, really important set of results, because it will dictate some of what will happen onjune the 8th. let's see if with the evidence in edinburgh. wejoin our correspondent. what is the state of play as you see it? the snp think they are continuing to do well, based on results from 2012. they think they have increased their

numberfrom they think they have increased their number from last times. they think they have increased their numberfrom last times. but they think they have increased their number from last times. but the conservatives and the lib dems are happy. we have only had a couple of declarations. many in egg —— edinburgh west. that is a big constituency for the lib dems. they are very optimistic that would give them a good base on which to fight them a good base on which to fight the general election. you heard laura talking about the conservatives been buoyant in scotland. i think that is absolutely the case. my phone has been ringing off the hook with conservatives around the country optimistic about what they are seeing. the result we had a moment ago, the party won a seat from labour. and across the country, there are areas where typically the conservatives have been very poorly represented in the past. many of them traditional labour heartlands. the party thinks today they are doing extremely well. a talk about how patterns of voting

change. people inevitably are looking ahead a few weeks to the general election. what kind of lessons a re general election. what kind of lessons are you learning? there is a certain signal coming from snp voters that they preferred the greens as their back—up preference. single transferable vote here. they are voting firstly for the snp candidate, and afterwards, their next preferences the greens. some sources here think that yes, there are transfers of votes. but in areas where certain parties, unionist parties, are preferred to others, those votes are going elsewhere. take edinburgh west, where the lib dems are the main opponent of the snp, many unionists are not voting for labour or the tories, thereby straight to the lib dems. the conservatives think that the unionist vote in glasgow west is

coalescing around them. we will look at the wards that comprise edinburgh south. that is the last remaining edinburgh seat that labour won in 2015. ian murray's seat. the snp elected to put by big challenge. we will look to see if the labour party are winning those unionist votes in edinburgh south, or weather that has been chipped away and whether potentially in a few weeks, we could see labour pots last seat in scotla nd see labour pots last seat in scotland go to another party. nick, thank you. we are going to go from edinburgh to aberdeen. we are joined by the former first minister, former leader of the snp, alex salmond. thank you forjoining us. hull pleasure. what you make of things so far? well, it's early in the day in terms of a total pattern. but here in the north—east the snp are running very strongly. the snp

have high hopes of taking control of the city. the conservative vote is very strong and we will have to do something about that in few weeks. to what extent would you agree with the reports of a conservative in parts of scotland, and what do you attribute that to? well, the conservative vote is on the rise but at the end of today, probably scotla nd at the end of today, probably scotland would be the only place where the conservatives have been beaten. that is to say the objective ofan beaten. that is to say the objective of an election campaign is to win more votes and more seats than any the party, and we are confident the snp will do exactly that across scotland. so when it comes to the general election, we want to reinforce this trend. there is one thing desperately needed in this country and that is a real opposition to theresa may and the conservative party. the snp in scotla nd conservative party. the snp in scotland intend to provide it. there

isa scotland intend to provide it. there is a little problem on the sand. i will carry on and hope for the best. that is a wee bit disconcerting! we are going to carry on. i am wondering about glasgow. clearly it isa wondering about glasgow. clearly it is a big battle between the snp and labour. how do you read that battle and how important is it for the snp? one of the snp's key targets, if you ta ke one of the snp's key targets, if you take glasgow, the iconic city the snp are looking to take control of, that would be a major moment for the scots —— snp. in the north—east of scotla nd scots —— snp. in the north—east of scotland we are hoping to take control of aberdeen, the northern lights, which would also be a major moment. these are two very important targets. but votes across the country can. we will be looking to become the largest party in terms of seeds and votes after all the votes are counted today. i think one very interesting trend, when you see the

disappearance of ukip from english politics and welts politics for that matter, is the extent to which the conservative party have actually become ukip. they have eliminated ukip by becoming ukip. and the sort of extreme language that the theresa may used in downing street the other day, that could have come from nigel farage. the conservative party have managed to assimilate ukip votes by becoming ukip. ithink managed to assimilate ukip votes by becoming ukip. i think a lot of people will think twice before endorsing this type of conservative party. alex salmond, thank you very much. alex salmond, thank you very much. alex salmond, thank you very much. alex salmond, the former scotland first ministerfor the alex salmond, the former scotland first minister for the snp, saying some forthright things. sam, you wa nt to some forthright things. sam, you want to come in on that. i will bring you in in a moment. ijust wa nt to bring you in in a moment. ijust want to bring in professorjohn curtice. just a thought on the scottish picture first before i bring in my panel. what did you make

of that? we need to decode what alex salmond said. he set himself the rather low objective of being the largest party in scotland in terms of votes and seats. actually the smp micromanaged that in 2012 and what was widely regarded as a disappointing performance. given that no opinion poll has put the snp other than being the most popular party in scotland for a very long time, his objective seems rather low. i thought in truth there was perhaps, and certainly it was an acknowledgement, that the conservatives are advancing significantly. we have heard that from aberdeen and edinburgh. what will perhaps worry the snp more, and we saw this happened last year in the scottish parliament election, that in individual areas voters start to go to one unionist party, maybe the lib dem is —— the liberal democrats in edinburgh west. that makes it more difficult for the snp to win this many seeds if the

unionist vote becomes more congregated. it is early days. but as it were, i think we will now begin to be surprised if there was a very substantial conservative advance north of the border, bearing in mind it 2012 they did not do very well. we are still asking the key question, how well are the smp going to do? snp gains are expected. it is the size of the gains that are crucial to understanding how well they have done. that will give us a flavour as to how much nicola sturgeon's very bold moves to force a second independence referendum have played. some inside the snp will think, hang on, nicola sturgeon made an audacious move by demanding a second referendum, knowing that theresa may would say no. if that has translated into a search for the scottish conservatives, that may be a worry for some inside the snp. it was a finely balanced decision. there were

people on different sides, playing different ways. it reminds us that the constitution has been an issue. the dominant political issue in scotla nd the dominant political issue in scotland is the constitution. john, can we have a final word at this point from you? we dealt with pa rt this point from you? we dealt with part of the picture in scotland. just a broad view of where we are with the other party across england, scotla nd with the other party across england, scotland and wales? we started the morning saying the conservatives had done well. getting further results from england and a variety of other councils. that impression has been reinforced. it looks as if conservatives are doing that little bit better than they were doing on average overnight. the broad pattern we told you about at nine o'clock is still in force and maybe the conservatives just doing that and that better than before that. thank you. john willjoin us again later on. we will have a good conversation about those points. there are several things there to pick up on, not

least from alex salmond's contribution. at 11. 30am, we watch catch up with the latest news and let'sjoinjoanna. huw, thank you. the conservatives have made big gains in the council elections in england and wales, recording their best results since 2008. many of the votes cast yesterday across england, scotland and wales are still to be counted, but labour have suffered losses and ukip have failed to win a single seat. the conservatives have been celebrating a series of victories across england and wales. the results so far show the tories taking control of five local councils and winning more council seats than any other party. the tories also celebrated victory in the west of england, where the conservative tim bowles was elected to the newly created position of west of england mayor. however, senior members of the conservative party are downplaying the significance of their victories saying many votes remain to be counted. i think the early results are encouraging, but they are early results. we've seen less than a

quarter of the vote actually counted and reported. the turnout in locational elections is much, much lower than in a general election, so you know, it's wrong to predict what's going to happen onjune 8. we still have a general election to campaignforand to still have a general election to campaign for and to win, after last night. but encouraging signs. elsewhere labour have lost three councils, two of then in wales. despite the losses in wales, labour did hold cardiff council. the party was also victorious in doncaster, where its candidate rosjones, the labour mayor, was re—elected, securing more than 50% of votes. labour'sjohn mcdonnell told people to wait for results elsewhere to come in beforejudging the pa rty‘s performance. if you look at where we've really campaigned hard, in terms of wales, in particular, jeremy corbyn was down in cardiff. there's been a lot of work on the ground with our membership out there knocking on doors. we've defied all the predictions on the losses. where we've lost in south wales, what's

interesting, it hasn't been to the tories actually in terms of what's happened in merthyr tydfil, they've returned to independents. the results have been disappointing for ukip. the party failed to win any of the seats it contested — losing 46 previously held council seats. 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 23 council seats. the lib dems also failed to retake somerset council from the conservatives, although the tory leaderjohn osman was ousted by lib dem former mp tessa munt. despite the overall picture of the conservatives performing well, some electoral battles have been very close indeed. the winner of a seat in northumberland county council was decided by drawing straws, after two candidates received the same number of votes.

here is the moment that the lib dem candidate lesley rickerby selected a longer straw to claim the seat. it meant that the conservatives were denied overall control of the council. the final day of campaigning is under way in the french presidential election before voting takes place on sunday. polls show that the centrist, emmanuel macron, maintains a clear lead over the far right candidate marine le pen. hello and welcome to a busy friday in paris, but it's anything but normal here in france, as we enter the final hours of the presidential election campaign 2017. at midnight tonight, local time, the candidates must fall silent, the campaigning must fall silent, the campaigning must end, before a day of pause and reflection on saturday and then the final vote on sunday. what an extraordinary campaign it's been, so

fractious, so bad tempered, cull mainiating in the debate on wednesday night when the two candidates sat face to face for two—and—a—half hours and argued bitterly. it hasn't done marine le pen favours in the poll. emmanuel macron is now on 62% edging up slightly against her 38%, following that debate. let's look through the papers quickly to see how they are mulling over this moment in french politics. they are very much in the macron camp. marine le pen this paper says has a strategy of lies. they have put the 19 points she said in the debate calling them all untrue. le figaro called the le pen campaigna untrue. le figaro called the le pen campaign a shipwreck and say the macron is the arch favourite. calling marine le pen the big loser. the financial paper talks about macron, le pen, the battling of

extremism. then very stark message on the front of the left—wing paper, thatis on the front of the left—wing paper, that is a picture of marine le pen's father, the founder of the national front. it says she has not changed. despite all her efforts to move away from the past of the national front, this paper says she is still her father's daughter. it is a big lead for emmanuel macron in the polls. remember, up to 20% of french voters are still undecided. abstention is a big thing in french elections, many people could simply stay away or spoil their ballots. there still is everything to play for. the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, has raised a few eyebrows for comments he made about english language losing its importance. during a conference in italy on the state of the european union, mrjuncker chose to speak in french, due to the presidential elections being held there there. i'm hesitating between english and french, but i make my choice. i will

express myself in french. because... applause slowly but surely english is losing importance in europe... laughter the head of the world's second largest investment bank, goldman sachs, has warned that britain's financial centre — the city of london — "will stall" when the country leaves the european union. lloyd bla nfein lloyd blanfein told the bbc that the future of the sector, which employs more than a million people and pays about 12% of all government tax revenue would depend on the terms of britain's exit from the eu. that's a summary of the news — now back to local election 2017 with huw edwards. welcome back to our live coverage of

the local election results in england and wales and scotland. let's stay with scotland, because we have our first scottish local authority result in. one of the smallest local authorities in scotland. this is clackmannanshire. this is a hung council. the snp short by two seats of overall control. the conservatives on five, that will be seen as a gain for them. that means tla we can look at the scoreboard for scotland: er we've had ray result from orkney as well. we're adding those in. the independents on 20. very early days, let me underline that again. orkney and clackmanna nshire

orkney and clackmannanshire are the first two. laura, a quick word on that. clackmanna nshire an first two. laura, a quick word on that. clackmannanshire an area where the snp are just short there. but a conservative, well, four seats i think, can we call that a surge, certainly an increase. what we're seeing is tory foot prints going into place where's they didn't previously exist. that's the chatter out of scotland, potentially by the end of the day, an extraordinary set of results for the tory party that they will hope to translate into westminster increased representation, which has been so tiny for such a long time. the question of the constitution is the thing that has been on the table, this is a unionist versus independence battle, rather than anything to do with lockal issues in most places. let's' see how the conservatives are doing else wr. we go to kent. a traditional strong hold and ukip has in the past done rather well. peter, just bring us up to date there.

here in thanet, they're counting seven of the 81 kent county council seats. this area is margate, ramsgate and broad stairs, the area that ukip thinks as a strong hold, they hold the local district council here. nigel farage stood in the general election here and came close second. in the other national seat, also ukip came second. as they're counting away, they've said that the turnout is just below 32%, lower than the national average. what is the important thing here, is the conservative it's are walking around with broad smiles on their faces. last time round, ukip won six of the seats here. labour won one and there was an independent. it's gone down to seven seats. now i'm told by the conservatives that it's completely changed. they say that the ukip vote has totally collapsed and it's almost like winding the clock back and now it's just between them and labour. ukip have not appeared on

the ballot papers at all. people just haven't gone out and voted labour. now the conservatives are predicting that they could win up to five of these seats and labour could win two. so it's a complete change of the political geography in this area which was seen as a ukip strong hold. can we ask the question why and what are ukip telling you and what are others saying about what's happened to that ukip vote and what are the reasons people are giving for not backing them this time? when i've been on the streets and you've been asking people how are you going to vote in the general election, what do you think will happen, will nigel farage stand in south thanet again and talking about local issues, people have just said and talking about local issues, people havejust said brexit and talking about local issues, people have just said brexit is brexit, job done. that's what is coming from the count at the moment. people think brexit is done. ukip has done theirjob. also, the

council, the only council run by ukip. there's one key issue over an airport closure and whether this will be compulsory purchased by the local council. the council when they came in, ukip said they would do everything to keep this as an airport, that ended. there's a bit of local opposition against the sitting district council and that's reflected in the county council votes a nd reflected in the county council votes and how people are voting in this area. a final thought, though, asi this area. a final thought, though, as i keep on saying, this is a bit ofa as i keep on saying, this is a bit of a risky business, do you want to give us any thought about the parliamentary battles coming up in a few weeks' time in that part of world ? few weeks' time in that part of world? well, i'd say on the parliamentary basis, you've got one seat, north thanet, that is safe as houses, conservative, always has been. the mp has been there since 1983. he's carrying on. he's very well known locally. the other seat is the one that nigel farage only

announced a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't going to stand against. i saw nigel farage a few weeks ago and said, why aren't you going to stand? he gave a wry smile. he was meeting the party faithful. i believed when i looked him in the eyes, that he believed job done, i'm not going to win here. there is the issue locally of the expenses claims and ukip a lwa ys of the expenses claims and ukip always said that it wasn't a fair fight, wasn't a level playing field. the conservatives have said that it was a level playing field and the file was passed to the criminal prosecution service. i think the conservatives from the results here and from what they're looking at by sampling the votes as they're coming m, sampling the votes as they're coming in, it looks like these two seats will definitely be conservative come the general election. peter, once again, thank you very much for bringing us up to date in thanet. back to the studio. let's talk to dan and to sam and tom. sam, first of all, the picture there in kent, what do you make of it? again,

encouraging. again, good to see that we are winning seats in places where ukip we are winning seats in places where udem we are winning seats in places where ukip did very well last time round. we are doing quite well. i think the overall picture as i've been saying throughout is that we are competitive everywhere. the conservative party is the only party thatis conservative party is the only party that is competitive in england, in scotla nd that is competitive in england, in scotland and wales. going back to alex salmond's comments, what we saw was a denial, the snp are in denial. they are so tunnel visioned about the independence referendum that they've taken their eye off the ball on governing. that's what ruth davidson and theresa may have focussed on in the elections there. we've seen that that's being played out around the country. this is not a ukip collapse that is benefitting the conservatives. if you take warwickshire, it's a labour—conservative battleground. we've come out on top. somerset, gloucestershire, that was conservative, liberal democrats. in wales, where labour are saying it's

a mixed picture, we know that the first minister, carwynjones, h shielded jeremy corbyn from what could have been more difficult election results for them. kent, you know, which is generally conservative heart land, the rest of england and wales, shows that we are competitive because we are speaking for all of britain. is that a fair point that carwyn jones in for all of britain. is that a fair point that carwynjones in wales has been able to shield labour from jeremy corbyn, that's the phrase used? he is the leader in wales. and people will know that. it's not about shielding anybody. let me just say this: we heard paul nuttal say that a big tory advance is a price worth paying. there will be labour voters, including those who haven't voted in the local elections, who will not think a big tory advance is a price worth paying. they will be frightened what will happen if theresa may wins or even if she gets a big irmajority. —— bigger

majority. that will focus minds. ukip may think a big tory advance is a price worth paying. millions of vote rs a price worth paying. millions of voters will not think that. when i speak to people on the doorstep they are terrified of the prospect of a jeremy corbyn premiership. this is a man who is not supported by 75% of his own mps. come on. indeed. that's why he's not going to be the next prime minister. what is clear certainly in england is that ukip has made a substantial contribution to helping the conservatives win. i think the prime minister has very deliberately pitched a hard brexit to attract those voters. i think it will quite cynical of her to have launched her barrage against the european union the day before the council elections, which i think the purpose of that was to say to ukip vote rs purpose of that was to say to ukip voters — come to me, i will represent the hard brexit views that you represent or you believe in, which personally i think will do huge damage to the british economy and british families and jobs.” think that's a distraction by the

way. this is a pivotal time in our country's history. the time that we will face on june 8 country's history. the time that we will face onjune 8 is do you want theresa may orjeremy corbyn as your prime minister? who do you trust to deliver on brexit? who do you trust to lock in the economic progress? it's notjust to lock in the economic progress? it's not just about to lock in the economic progress? it's notjust about brexit. the uncertainty and the risk that is posed by a jeremy corbyn premiership will hitjobs, will hit people's pay packets and — will hitjobs, will hit people's pay packets and - are you saying it's a distraction for voters to think about anything other than the choice between theresa may and jeremy corbyn in a general election? this isa corbyn in a general election? this is a general election, it's about every issue in people's lives. it's not just a every issue in people's lives. it's notjust a choice between the leaders at the top of the party. but ultimately, when i talk to people on the doorstep, when most people think about this, they are concerned about leadership, a lot flows from leadership. they can you hear me? can are concerned about whether the leader can —— they are concerned about whether they can deliver.”

we nt about whether they can deliver.” went to a school this morning and had an interesting q&a with the school council and two thirds of those questions were about cuts. the £3 billion worth of cuts proposed by 2020 and the impact on the number of teachers and class sizes. this is a general election — teachers and class sizes. this is a general election - is that a distraction? so who do you want to be prime minister? is that a distraction, you used to be an education minister. is it a distraction for voters to worry about schools or less money for head teachers? i wasn't commenting on voters. i was speaking to the point. our economy is impacted by brexit but i believe that strong and stable leadership from theresa may... does sam geta leadership from theresa may... does sam get a prize for every time he says strong and stable. it's important. it's the most important thing in the election. it's antidemocratic to say that the nhs and education is a distraction.

demonising jeremy corbyn may yet rebound on you. i think triumphalism will rebound on you. thank you very much. lots of strong views here. we wa nt to much. lots of strong views here. we want to catch up on what's going on in glasgow, because we have some news there. anita? we certainly do. quite a story for you here from glasgow, because we've just had the first three wards declared and we know because of those results that labour cannot have an overall majority here in glasgow. so we know already at this early stage that labour has lost overall control of glasgow council for the first time in 40 yea rs. council for the first time in 40 years. that council for the first time in 40 yea rs. that really council for the first time in 40 years. that really is quite a story here developing. with me is our scotla nd here developing. with me is our scotland political correspondent glenn campbell. that's a bit of a wow moment hearing that first result. yeah, there are 85 seats in glasgow. labour were fielding 43 candidates. in other words, they needed all of those to be elected here in glasgow for them to retain overall control of the city

chambers. we know that they have lost in shettleston and therefore they can't get to the magic number. whether they end up being part of a power—sharing deal or not we have to wait and see the the snp have been targeting this city for years. they would hope to finish as the largest party perhaps with overall control but one other factor here is there are breakthroughs for the conservative party in glasgow. let's look at that. shettleston ward, one of the more deprived parts of glasgow, yet a conservative has won a seat there. there was a huge cheer when that was declared. one wouldn't have expected necessarily this to be natural territory for the conservatives, what's the significance of that? absolutely, that's a big breakthrough for the conservative party getting a councillor elected in shettleston. there was a huge cheer, a celebration because the conservatives until now have only had one seat in the city as a whole.

ruth davidson, the scottish party leader, has fought this campaign not so much on local issues but on the big national picture and campaigning against a second referendum on scottish independence. so it may be that has played an important factor in the tories making that breakthrough. we're hearing this have broken through this what i believe is the most deprived ward in the whole of scotland in fergusly park in paisley, an astonishing result for them. it seems that in certain parts of the country they're winning over support from labour and perhaps from elsewhere to make those gains. glenn, thank you very much. so, let's see if that early gain for the conservatives transitions into more gains across glasgow council and also, that big, developing story here, labour has lost some of the seats it held. we've heard that in the first three declarations that. means they cannot have an overall

majority at glasgow council. if we look back to 2012, in a quarter of the councils in scotland, the party that won the largest number of seats didn't actually go on to form or be pa rt didn't actually go on to form or be part of the administration. it is still possible that labour in some sort of coalition could be running glasgow council, but the snp, as we know, this is a big, symbolic target for them. they are trying to get to the magic number of 43 seats and web overall control —— win overall control here. very interesting. thanks very much. what do we make of that? you heard glenn's thought on the kind of mix of, the peaks, if you like, which is causing surprise. sure, massive moment for glasgow to go to the snp in terms of council control, remember, glasgow is absolutely a yes city in the independence referendum. now the test for the snp is whether or not they can take an overall majority. and what has been a phenomenal snp

campaigning machine has been targeting to try to do that. it will bea targeting to try to do that. it will be a disappointment for them if they don't actually manage to take control of the council. i'm hearing whispers that might not happen. yet again, you hear evidence that the tories creeping back and frankly, until very recently, no bookie in the crown triwould have even given you a bet that the tories would have been able to take council wards in places like shettleston. that is an astonishing change, absolutely astonishing. thanks very much for now. we were reporting earlier about conservative performance in scotland, but also in wales. they now control monmouthshire council. they made gains there. we will speak to the leader of the welsh conservatives, at city hall in cardiff. how would you describe your performance overnight? we've worked tirelessly over the last 365 days leading up to this campaign. ultimately our local champions have come through and won in all areas we

needed to win, wrexham, overall control in monmouthshire. very good result in the vale of glamorgan and doubled numbers in bridgend, double digits there, the home constituency of the first minister. we take nothing for granted. we know there's a lot of hard work to be done. it is pleasing to see local communicates being rewarded for all their hard work. labour still in overall control of cardiff, swansea and newport. you can't be that chuffed with that. well, we've doubled our representation here in cardiff. as i've said, i've given you a list of where we have moved forward. we have moved forward across all parties really. i've come from the vale of glamorgan, where we have taken a seat there, which was four plaid cymru councillors, they've held it for 30 years. now conservative councillors there. we have taken off labour and off the remember domes. we're taking —— lib dems. we are

taking seats from all parties. people recognise the hard work that local champions have been undertaking over the last 365 days, not just when undertaking over the last 365 days, notjust when it leads up to election time. it's local issues, yes? not about national issues at all despite the fact that this is taking place during a general election campaign? well, what has interested me is the amount of people who have disassociated the general election from the local election. i was out knocking on doors up until 10pm last night, it was such as about the bypass, it was an incinerator in barry and provision of education in some areas. there were local issues playing right the way through this campaign, but! playing right the way through this campaign, but i don't doubt obviously the general election has had an impact as well. but we know full well that our local champions have been out because we take nothing for granted here in wales. every day of the week, leading up to this campaign and before, promoting what they stand for, promoting the beliefs of the welsh conservative

party and they've been rewarded in the ballot box. now the hard work of delivering in county halls. we move into the general election and we continue those conversations in all parts of wales to make sure that we succeed at general election in delivering mps to support theresa may, because it's vital that the choice before the british people is over theresa may orjeremy corbyn. final point, are you going to acknowledge that the collapse in ukip's vote has at least helped you quite a big deal in some areas? well, as i said, we take nothing for granted here in wales. we work tirelessly in all parts of wales to try and secure people's confidence. that has been rewarded in parts of wales. we still have nine councils counting here. the full picture hasn't emerged yet. i heard what you said about glasgow and the conservatives moving forward there. there's a ward in barry caddock where we haven't had representation ever before. that was the leader of the council's ward and we have taken a seat there. the leader got back in with just 14 votes. we're succeeding

in taking votes from labour, plaid cymru, the liberals across the board. we know what hard work hier in wales and —— work is here in wales. we're prepared to work tirelessly to deliver a majority for theresa may. the consequences if we don't, is a coalition of chaos under jeremy corbyn, the nationalists and the liberals. andrew, thank you very much forjoining us. i'm sorry the picture was slightly breaking up towards the end. we heard every word there. we heard coalition of chaos again tom. we did, even though it's clearly not going to happen and tim farron my party leader has ruled it out. clearly the results from wales for the lib dems are not particularly good. we think for instance that cardiff, the city, is something that's hay real ross —— that's a real prospect at the general election. we lost our council leader in cardiff. we gained a seed from plaid cymru. the —— seat from plaid cymru. the picture is mixed. i hope we will speak about the south—west

of england, where the lib dems have done well, taking a seat from the council leader in dorset and somerset. we will be talking to martin oats shortly. we have been talking earlier on about somerset and gloucestershire too and the west of england. we will come back to that. laura, we will see you in a short while. we're back here in the studio ina short while. we're back here in the studio in a moment. i think the best thing now is to look at weather. it's studio in a moment. i think the best thing now is to look at weather. it's phil. studio in a moment. i think the best thing now is to look at weather. it's phil. thanks studio in a moment. i think the best thing now is to look at weather. it's phil. thanks very studio in a moment. i think the best thing now is to look at weather. it's phil. thanks very much. studio in a moment. i think the best thing now is to look at weather. it's phil. thanks very much. always a safe bet. let's continue that theme about the west that you picked up theme about the west that you picked up on there. i will trants port you towards the paignton area. quite a bit of cloud there. the exception to the rule. here, brighterthan bit of cloud there. the exception to the rule. here, brighter than it has been of late in parts of the south—east. and as you work your way further north, i'm sure you're getting used to it scotland, northern ireland, north of england, parts of wales too, it has been a glorious week for many. slightly marred by the flow around that area of high pressure which has brought so much of this settled weather because the winds are coming in off

a chilly north sea. at the moment, no better than ten degrees or so, as my son found out on sunday at broad stairs. if we come to the north of scotland, mid—afternoon, there is low cloud just flirting with some of these eastern shores. it's the onshore breeze that pegs you back. in the west, as high as 20,18 or 19 today. similar across northern ireland. a lot of dry weather. you've seen the satellite picture. glorious conditions for much of walesa nt glorious conditions for much of walesant north glorious conditions for much of walesa nt north of glorious conditions for much of walesant north of england. further south, yes, there is more cloud here than anywhere else across the british isles. but it is pink waited with more holes —— punctuated with more holes. some of those holes are in the south—western quarter, devon, cornwall, the isles of scilly and channel islands. you will find eventually some rain for some. further north in scotland, away from the influence of that front, the skies stay clear. there will be a frost. as there has been the past

couple of mornings. that band of weather, if you're wanting rain, only really is a concern down across the far south—west and into the channel islands, through the course of the day on saturday. more cloud than of late perhaps across the greater part of england and wales and it may just greater part of england and wales and it mayjust have enough about it across the heart of wales, the midlands and lincolnshire, on the first part of saturday to give a spot of rain. we still have that temperatures differential from east to west. from saturday into sunday, the one noticeable change is that we're bending the isobars into a slightly different direction. no warmer really for the most part, because there's still that hint of north and north westerly about it. cloud and cool over on the eastern shores. in the west, the best of the sunshine and things bucking up nicely i would have thought across the south—east into the start of next week, we'll still see a lot of dry weather. good afternoon.

welcome to viewers on bbc two and the bbc news channel, for our special live coverage of the local elections in england, wales and scotland. quite a few important threads to discuss. 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 are talking about lots of things. we are talking about lots of things. we are talking about lots of things. we are talking about local authorities delivering very important local services. we'll have results as they're declared, and we'll be getting reaction from the parties to what's going on. it's been a very good night for the conservatives

in england and wales. they've taken control of the councils in gloucestershire, lincolnshire, warwickshire, the isle of wight and monmouthshire. they've also won the west of england mayoral contest. and it looks at this early stage that they're heading for their best set of local elections for a decade or more. its been a disappointing night for labour. they're going backwards in england. and in wales they've lost overall control of bridgend and merthyr tydfil, two councils in their south wales heartland. but they have held on to their key welsh strongholds of cardiff, swansea and newport. they've also won the mayoral contest in doncaster. and it has been a terrible night for ukip. overnight they lost every seat they were defending. and the party has been wiped out on councils like lincolnshire, hampshire and essex. their vote share is down dramatically, most of it going straight to the conservatives.

counting still under way in glasgow. we now know from results already in that labour have lost their overall control of glasgow. that is a very big development. lots of results still to come in. we're basing that on the so far. coming up, we'll be live in birmingham to look at the west midlands mayoral race. it's expected to be a close contest between the conservatives and labour. here we are back in the studio. i have been joined by here we are back in the studio. i have beenjoined by peter here we are back in the studio. i have been joined by peter kellner, the distinguished analyst. peter will be talking about some of these trends. laura will be back. and

dianne, sam and tom are still here. we will be talking a bit more about those things. the most important thing at this point is to look at the figures. we need to get right up—to—date with where we are. the conservatives have made 199 gains in terms of council seats. labour 142 losses. the lib dems 23 losses. plaid cymru on 19 games. the snp on a single game. lots of scottish results to come. ukip, that is a pretty dramatic tally. no seats to their name so far. 59 losses. when we said it has been a brutal night and day for ukip, it has been. seven games for the green party. those are the results. we will have a little

chat in a moment about what it means. but first, joanna has the latest news. the conservatives have made big gains in the local elections in england and wales, recording their best results in almost a decade. ukip have so far failed to win a single seat they were defending. labour have suffered losses. they have lost overall control of glasgow for the first time in more than 35 yea rs, for the first time in more than 35 years, although the counting in the city is continuing. with the story so far, here's our political correspondent, eleanor garnier. it is the conservatives with the biggest cheers. the party has won control of warwickshire, gloucestershire, lincolnshire and the isle of wight. charles bowles is duly elected as the west of england mayor. 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. senior conservatives are playing down expectations ahead of the general election. the turnout in local elections, of course, is much, much lower than a general election. it is wrong to predict what will happen onjune the 8th. we have a general election to campaign for and to win after last night, but encouraging signs. the tories are celebrating in essex, too. voters turned their back on ukip. in lincolnshire, where the ukip. in lincolnshire, where the ukip leader will fight for a westminster seat next month, the party was wiped out. with no wins so far, the ukip future is in question. i have been ukip forfour years. the amount of times i have heard that ukip is finished — if i had a pound for everyone, i would probably quite a rich woman. it is not over until it is over. and despite these pretty poor election results so far, it is not over. there was some positive news for a

labour. in doncaster, they held onto the elected mayor's job. labour. in doncaster, they held onto the elected mayor'sjob. but labour. in doncaster, they held onto the elected mayor's job. but the party as last scores of seeds in swing areas. these counties are the tories' strongholds. it was going to be a tough night for labour, and we're in the middle of the general election campaign. mixed motives, people voting largely on local issues, not national ones. but what is coming across is that where people predicted we would be wiped out, in places like wales, we have done very well. the lib dems are made so far it has been a mixed set of results for them. we have held our ground in the face of a massive shift. an enormous shift of ukip voters to the conservatives. given that that happened, we have done well to stay where we are. the green party says with the conservatives dominating, other parties need to collaborate. there is a strong message that people want the parties to be working together rather than against one another. under this kind of system

it is clear when we stand against one another, we lose ground and the conservatives gain. local election results do not translate directly to a general election. but they are a significant barometer. the outcome will influence the tactics of the main parties in the next few weeks. for some, the results have been too close to call. the tories were denied an overall majority in northumberland after the lib dem candidate literally drew the longest straw. for now though, it is back to the counting. there is plenty of that to be done. the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, has said the english language is losing its importance. during a conference in italy on the state of the european union, mrjuncker chose to speak in french, due to the presidential elections being held there there. i'm agitated between english and french. but i made my choice. i will

express myself in french. applause. because slowly but surely english is losing importance in europe. the final day of campaigning has begun in the french presidential election before voting on sunday. voters will choose between emmanuel macron and marine le pen. meanwhile mr macron has filed a lawsuit over online rumours that he had a secret bank account in the caribbean. he has strongly denied the allegations. that is a summary of the news. now back to you edwards. welcome back. lots to talk about. we

have taken stock. i have shown you some of the figures. the conservatives have made quite solid gains. labour had a disappointing performance. peter kellner is here. some headline thoughts. what are your thoughts at this stage? clearly very good for the conservatives. they have beaten all the predictions that were made ahead of yesterday as to how they would do. certainly in england. to some degree in wales. probably scotland but it is early days. disappointing for a labour. both against where they should be at this stage and against the expectations, which were very low before yesterday. i think also the liberal democrats and the snp will be disappointed. ukip, it's a catastrophe. one of the big picture points, each time we have local elections, there are bits of britain that didn't vote yesterday, london

didn't vote, the big metropolitan cities did not vote on the whole, and that is where the remain vote which lost the referendum is strongest. there is a big gap in our understanding as to whether labour or the liberal democrats might be appearing to underperform because most of the english votes have been cast in leave england. you extending that note of caution to most people who want to read into what will happen in four weeks? who want to read into what will happen in fourweeks?” who want to read into what will happen in four weeks? i wouldn't read specific numbers into what will happen. but two general elections in the 1980s, which came in 1983 and in 1987. in 1983, the tory lead in the local elections was three percentage points. the opinion polls gave them a lead of 10%. they won the general election by 15. similar in 1987. local elections showed a modest tory

lead, they won big. past performance does not guarantee what happens in the future. in as far as we have something like an equivalent pattern going into a june election with the conservatives ahead in the polls, look at what happened in the locals then,in look at what happened in the locals then, in the campaigns then. it does not look good for a labour. a quick note. i'm going to go to west sussex, areas where the lib dems have held seats in the past. a note on the lib dems? their performances party. they were hoping they would make net gains. they are making gains in some places, losses in others. tom may have better award by ward data. it is not clear to me that tactical voting is happening on the left of politics very much. on the left of politics very much. on the right what we can say is that where the ukip vote was biggest,

four years ago, that is where the conservatives have gained this time. look at essex, look at lincolnshire. if there is going to be tactical voting, it might be more efficient on the right of politics than on the left. let's get some evidence. let's go to west sussex. wording. peter henley is there. where are you so far? —— worthing. henley is there. where are you so far? -- worthing. across the south of england, the conservatives doing well. ukip wiped out in hampshire. last ten seats. a lot of nervous faces here. west sussex, ukip is the official opposition to the conservatives. in general, the shire counties are conservative dominated. some government mps were saying they felt their harshest critics were on the schar county councils over school funding and social care. ——

shire. there are worried faces in ukip. they should be able to hold one seed. it may be the only ukip seed they hold. they have got 54% of the vote. —— they got 54% of the vote in 2013. fingers crossed they can at least hold onto something. vote in 2013. fingers crossed they can at least hold onto somethingm thought about the lib dem performance on the south coast? what would you say? they picked up one in hampshire. you mentioned eastleigh. it isa hampshire. you mentioned eastleigh. it is a stronghold, eastleigh. they still have the district council. i think that as buoyed them by little bit for the general election. in the by—election they held onto it. they lost it in the general. the lib dems are hoping they make come back in eastleigh. they seem to be able to pick off individual areas. they picked off in dorset the leader of the council, the conservative

leader. the same thing happened in somerset. looking at the hampshire figures, ten gains for the tories. a single gain for the lib dems. ukip taking that hit, losing eight seeds. whatever the reason people are giving for not voting ukip this time when they voted in such big numbers in 2013? they say, what is the point? brexit is happening. even in areas where there were strong leave votes. ukip have not made the impact in local government we might have expected. interesting quote from aaron banks, who hasjust said that the current leadership has crashed the current leadership has crashed the car at the first bend of the race. ukip on the current leadership without positive radical politics it is finished as an electoral force. is that a theme, given what you have

just said, that will chime with people? yes, absolutely. they don't seem unhappy about it. talking to the ukip people, they say they have done theirjob. and in local government i think they did feel lost. how can they campaign on something like school funding? how can they offer a protest vote? i will be watching the green party closely as well. they have high hopes on the isle of wight, where the conservatives took back the council and independents went down. also in dorset they picked up a seat there. i think the greens feel they may be able to get some of those protest votes, particularly from remainers. straight to cornwall. martyn oates is there. can you give me your thoughts on what is going on? broad thoughts. the broad picture in the south—west, as ever,

really, is the great conflict between the conservatives and the lib dems. here in cornwall, the lib dems fancy their chances of taking overall control. i suspect they may be sobered by that result in somerset, where they took the scalp of the tory leader of the council but saw the tories reinforce their hold on the council. more specifically about the conservative performance and where you think it has done well and where they have been vulnerable? ? well, the lib dems were optimistic in somerset. clearly that has been disproven by the results. a very interesting result just in from the results. a very interesting resultjust in from devon. the former liberal democrat mp lost his seatin former liberal democrat mp lost his seat in 2010 and went on to become a cou nty seat in 2010 and went on to become a county council. he hasjust lost seat in 2010 and went on to become a county council. he has just lost his council seat to the tories. we are just looking at the somerset figures. six gains for the tories,

six losses for the lib dems. in your experience, has the ukip vote fed to the conservatives? it looks as if thatis the conservatives? it looks as if that is happening. it is also interesting to look at the ukip presents in council zones in the south—west anyway. in cornwall at the last election they won six seats, which was quite a dramatic breakthrough, through resignations and by—elections that dwindled to just one in this election. that single ukip councillor is standing again. but they are really not defending very much. yes, the mood of the vote, the shift of the vote across the region, seems to be very much from ukip to the conservatives. a finalfraud on much from ukip to the conservatives. a final fraud on the parliamentary battles ahead, with usual caution

about translating these local results, because there are so many local issues. what is your sense of it? i have no doubt of the lib dems nationally would be looking at these elections as a pointer as to whether they might be able to make big gains or anni gains at the general election. the cornwall result may be one to watch. if they do gain overall control in cornwall, they are the biggest group already. in ukip terms, a lot of talk here, not finalised, but you not standing candidates against cornish mps, three of them at least, who were seen to be staunch brexiteers. in terms of vote shift already, that is potentially ominous for the lib dem challenges. martin, thank you.

tom, you wanted to talk about the south—west. we are now talking about it. what about the lib dem performance? i accepted his party. however, in these seats we want to regain the general election, there are good signs. dorset going slightly closer to england, eastleigh, places like cheltenham. where the liberal democrats have worked hard, we are actually managing to improve, even if that is not filtering through to additional council seats. if you look at somerset, although we lost seats, the percentage vote for the lib dems went up 5%. there is some hope there. it is something to build on. in many of the seats that we lost, the margins were not necessarily that big. a shift potentially opens up that big. a shift potentially opens up some of those seats for the

liberal democrats. is that kind of increment going to give you more confidence going into the general election? well, yes. i think it will. places like eastleigh where we took seats, including from ukip, three seats. that puts us in a strong position. in cheltenham we took mac —— took seven out of ten seats. whether it is those towns, the south—west, there is potential. the strong message we are trying to put across is that if people want an opposition, they should support the liberal democrats. it is very clear that labour have not provided that opposition. and we want to be strong enough to have the large enough numbers in parliament to do that in what does look increasingly likely to bea what does look increasingly likely to be a conservative government, either with a majority or potentially a very large majority. and i hope some people will think twice about that. ukip voters who have switched to the tories may think it isjob done. brexit is under way. conservative voters may

wa nt to under way. conservative voters may want to start thinking about what it means for things like the funding of the nhs, the funding of schools. will those issues be better addressed by conservatives, would they like opposition mps to argue they like opposition mps to argue the case for better investment?” haven't met many ukip voters thinking about voting lib dems. that is what you are implying. surely they are not coming from a background, whether natural port is going to be the lib dems? background, whether natural port is going to be the lib dems7m background, whether natural port is going to be the lib dems? it has a lwa ys going to be the lib dems? it has always been the case that the majority of ukip voters, the conservative party is there a natural alternative. it is also true there is not a 100% chance that mac tra nsfer there is not a 100% chance that mac transfer you —— of ukip voters to the conservatives. i think the lib dems, with the greatest respect, are whistling in the wind. they have bet the house on this right or wrong position on the

eu. it will not, go off. the labour party represent the most anti—brexit constituencies and the sixth six most pro. we have tried to provide a national approach. one thing on ukip. the swift ukip collapse is quite extraordinary. i don't think we have seen anything like this in modern times. even the snp held on for longer. the general election is a completely different ball game. we have to make the case that a vote for theresa may is a vote in the national interest. the question for dianne is, you have been an mp for 30 years, i think, this year. very experienced, long—standing and respected member of parliament. surely it must be depressing seeing the leadership that jeremy corbyn is offering to the labour party at the moment? sam, i don't find jeremy corbyn's leadership depressing at all. it is precisely because i have

been an mp for a long time, i know we live in a very interesting times where the past is not a predictor of the future. tories have always gone on for a big opinion poll leads to have a win in a general election. the past is not a predictor of the future. there is everything to play for. we have the final result in from cardiff, which dianne will like. labour holding onto cardiff. 40 seats on cardiff city council. can we have a look at the figures? the conservatives on 20 having put up a strong performance. the lib dems on 11. lied, rihanna three. just look at the difference. —— plaid cymru. the tories have gained 13 seats in cardiff. a strong performance. but labour still in charge. the lib dems down five because there are strong pockets of lib dems supported areas

in cardiff. plaid cymru up one. that will be a disappointment. they were hoping for a bigger performance. that is the picture in cardiff. the results justin because that is the picture in cardiff. the resultsjustin because that is the final cardiff result. we were waiting for the last couple of wards. what is going on in scotland? straight to glasgow thoroughly latest on what is developing. anita mcveigh will bring us up—to—date. some more declarations made. wins in a number of awards for the snp, the scottish conservatives, the greens and labour as well. it was those declarations are little earlier that we re declarations are little earlier that were perhaps the most significant so far. with those first three declarations we realised that scottish labour would not be able to have an overall majority here in glasgow. and also there was an interesting win for the conservatives in the ward of shettleston, not an area where

traditionally you might expect the conservatives to make those gains. with me i have an e wells, msp from the scottish conservatives, and katy gordon from the lib dems. firstly, to the gain at shettleston. was that something going into the contest you thought the conservatives could win? i think shettleston is probably one of the ones we thought we had a good chance in. we had campaigned there during the 2016 election and we could see the labour vote was coming to us. we knew that independence was playing a part. independence was playing a part. independence was playing a part. we found that people wa nted playing a part. we found that people wanted the snp. even the local council issues, the local council issues are festering away. independence was one of the key message is that we are the strong

independent —— opposition to stand against the snp. katy gordon, as it been hard to make your voice heard, to get your message across, in between the class of labour and the snp? what i'm really excited about is the areas where we are campaigning really hard and challenging for westminster, that is where we are making the gains. we are tying to get local issues across despite national noise. here in glasgow? glasgow, to be fair, it's difficult when there are two major competing parties and trying to get your voice heard is quite difficult. igo your voice heard is quite difficult. i go back to the fact that in the areas where we are hoping to win at westminster, that is where we are fizstmin

clear we will call for growth as well. each candidate has done local issues and had serviced on. however, we know independence is huge. the first minister only announced a few weeks of back. it is a big thing in glasgow. thank you both very much. as the day progresses, lots more wards still to be declared. big things that we will be looking out for, will the snp gained 43 seats? that magic number would mean they have overall control and overall majority of glasgow council, hosting labour control after 40 years. that would be very significant. and we wait to see how well the conservatives do, can they make the sort of games here in glasgow and across scotland that the opinion polls have been suggesting they might do? back to the studio. making the point about a big battle

for a labour. one making the point about a big battle fora labour. one of making the point about a big battle for a labour. one of the biggest battles for labour is can they hang on to derbyshire? this has been a stronghold. they have in hanging on there with a pretty big majority. more than 20 last time. this is a halfway house, if you like. these figures i am showing you know. look at that. so far, the tories on 20, labour on 15. we are looking at 35 out of 64 wards declared. it is basically halfway. but clearly, that is so far is strong conservative performance. if you look at the change, that will tell you they have put on nine seats in derbyshire so far. labour down by nine seats. we are expecting another 30 results from those wards. we're nowhere near the final result. but it is obviously a strong conservative performance so far. let's talk to my

colleague in matlock in derbyshire. bring us up—to—date with how you see things? it is worse for a labour then you just said. look behind me, 27 conservative seats to 17 labour. we are now in a position where labour has lost 11 seats to the conservatives. they have lost one to the lib dems. the majority has gone. this is a council which the conservatives, to be fair, and i spoke to the party chairman when he was canvassing, didn't really secretly, privately, expect to take. but it seems they have. and it seems this is because the ukip vote has pretty much been halved. wherever ukip was strong in 2013, half of their vote has gone to the conservatives and they are winning a labour heartlands. we arejust labour heartlands. we are just looking at these vote share changes. we just saw that the ukip losing 15%. that translating,

as we saw just ukip losing 15%. that translating, as we sawjust now coming to a boost for the tories by 16%. the swings and roundabouts have moved very clearly. what are people saying about the reasons for the ukip collapse? how do you read the picture? and very importantly, what are they saying about the labour campaign and why labour has been squeezed? s two things have made labour voters not turn out for labour. those are the eu referendum and the party leaderjeremy corbyn. you go out on the streets and people do not like jeremy corbyn as leader. they really just do not want to go and vote for labour under those circumstances. also, the eu issue very important here. i think that's shown by the fa ct here. i think that's shown by the fact that maybe those ukip voters are now thinking they're going to vote conservative because that's the way to get the brexit deal that they want. stay with us, tony. i will show the figures for

nottinghamshire. so far, this again is roughly halfway. in the a final result. 25 to the tories, eight to labour, four independents. i'm stressing this is half a result. fourupfor stressing this is half a result. four up for the tories, five down for labour. a comment on that and what that tells us? that tells us that labour ran nottinghamshire cou nty that labour ran nottinghamshire county council and probably won't be running it tomorrow. that was a cou nty running it tomorrow. that was a county where there was no overall control, but labour ran it as the majority party. that's simply not going to be the case tomorrow. it looks like if halfway through, any way, it looks like labour will lose nottinghamshire. labour, remember, was the council where both the conservatives and labour launched their local election campaign. it seems the conservatives have been successful. thanks very much. i must

go to dianne first of all. notjust nottinghamshire, on the derbyshire result, if that goes in that direction, you know, that's a massive set back isn't it? if the result is what these results appear to indicate, they will be disappointing results. as far as the general election is concerned, we're not even at the halftime. we will see what happens when the whittle blown for full—time. see what happens when the whittle blown for full-time. that very forth right message there aboutjeremy corbyn i mean, tony saying that was his experience on the streets following candidates as they were canvassing. again, it's not easy for you to swerve that dianne, isn't it really? it is an issue for lots of voters it's an issue for some voters, though not voters i'm talking to. this is not a presidential election. i think that the electorate may sicken of the notion the tories are trying to peddle that this is a presidential

election, we vote for president theresa may. i believe tory triumphalism may be their undoing.” com pletely triumphalism may be their undoing.” completely get the presidential point you're making. of course i do. but ultimately, if your potential supporters or your previous supporters or your previous supporters are saying to you, look, the leader is an issue for us. regardless of any notions of a presidential campaign, the leader is an issue for us, that's something that you have to tackle. yes, we have to tackle it. jeremy is going all around the country. he's meeting and speaking and engaging with people. what we find is when people really engage with our leader, much of the stuff that the tories are peddling falls away. you're right, we don't have a presidential system. but in general election is more presidential than local election. people could vote labour yesterday confident there's no way their vote to make jeremy corbyn prime

minister. come a general election, mightn't you lose some of the votes you had yesterday because of the jeremy corbyn factor? again, go back to the 80s, go back to the 70s, places where labour would do very well in local elections, very badly nationally, places like norwich for example, in '83, where they love the labour council, voted labour in the council elections. a month later, voted tory because they didn't want michael foot to be prm. isn't there a danger that these figures, disappointing though they are, overstate labour support?” understand what you're saying, as you know better than i, this is a relatively low turnout type of election, on' general, we have a higher turnout. i believe that labour voters will be repelled by tory triumphalism and the notion of giving theresa may some kind of plank cheque. -- blank cheque. the

idea of the conservatives peddling views about jeremy corbyn. what we've been hearing time and again today are the views of voters about jeremy corbyn not the conservatives' views about jeremy corbyn and that his leadership is weak and floun dearing. that's for the labour party. the choice will be between a weak and floundering jeremy corbyn. elections tell us something significant but is it a cast iron guarantee that the precise configuration of votes in five weeks, no of course, not. it doesn't mean they tell us nothing. they tell us something because the prime minister has by launching this barrage against the european union the day before the council elections made this partially about brexit. so i think it is, to some extent, a

reflection of what's likely to happen in the general election. same with the ukip vote for instance.” have another result from south ayrshire. this is a hung council. some of these scottish results coming through a little more rapidly. we will get more now through to 2pm. 12 seats to the conservatives there. nine to the snp. labour on five. the independents on two. the change from last time and we see that the conservatives have modest gain of two seats. the snp also. labour losing four seats. it is a hung council. short by three of a majority. that's the latest result in from scotland. waiting for us patiently outside parliament is douglas carswell. good afternoon, thanks for waiting patiently to talk to us hi there. what do you think of it so far? speaking as ukip's first and last member of parliament, i'm delighted with this result. a lot of people like me, 3. 8 million of us

supported ukip at the last election because we were so passionate about that referendum. now what we need to do is make sure that theresa may gets a megamandate to go and make sure that we get on with it and get brexit and get the deal that's in our interesting. it's wonderful to watch. for the former colleagues of yours, telling us today this is all about a challenge to rebrand, it's a challenge to get new leadership, to get the party to put forward new, radical policies. there is a future for ukip. what do you say to them? there are a lot of good people in ukip. i wouldn't want to say anything unkind. we all know that it's over. we all know that the, you know, let's be frank, i'd be surprised if ukip field more than 100 candidates in the general election. i don't mean that an aggressive, insulting way, it's a reflection of the fact that thousands of ukip supporters and activists realise that the only way to make sure we get the deal that we need to get is to make sure that theresa may has a megamoney date on june 8. there are all sorts of areas

where we can disagree to the tories. theresa may's candidates have to be returned to the building behind me so she with make sure we get the deal in our interests and that's why we will see big support. we get a lot of straight switches in the general elections, i hope that's replicated in the general election. just look at the figures here. while you're with us. i'm looking at the figureses for england and the share change since 2013. they're quite remarkable. we're looking at the share change since 2013. 13% up for the tories, 2% down for labour. 3% up the tories, 2% down for labour. 3% upfor the tories, 2% down for labour. 3% up for the the tories, 2% down for labour. 3% upforthe lib the tories, 2% down for labour. 3% up for the lib dems. you were saying that, that's the precise point you were making. absolutely. isn't it a compliment to

britain's political culture that this mood of anti—establishment politics is manifested in record support for a vicar‘s daughter from maidenhead. compare that to what's happening in france. this is a great news for the country and our democracy. i'm not sure is theresa may sees herself as the anti—establishment candidate. may sees herself as the anti-establishment candidate. that's why she's doing so well. she's the anti—establishment candidate and insurgent candidate. for those people who, you know, you've been campaigning in recent years, telling people that ukip is the answer, and this is before brexit and to some extent after it, i'm just wondering what they make now of a message from you, which is now radically different again in party terms? there was a window of opportunity for six to eight weeks after the rochester by—election, where we could have been a libertarian version of the sdp, but we didn't change gear. we didn't change our tone. that window of opportunity has closed. i think the sensible thing

for anyone out there who used to support ukip is to recognise that no party is perfect, but it's the choice between a chaotic corbyn administration and theresa may getting on with it. on that basis alone, we will see the vast majority of ukip voters at the last general election make that change too. i made that change. it's a difficult change to make. but you know, we shouldn't make this with any sense of regret. we do this as a party that's been 10 successful. -- has been 100% successful. aaron banks said today the current leadership has crashed the car at the first bend of the race. ukip without positive, radical policies is finished as an electoral force. the point is that he's saying that possibly with positive, radical policies it wouldn't be finished.” don't, with respect, take aaron with anything more than a pirchling of salt. you know —— pinch of all the.

he's entitled to his views as are other members. what really matters is what the 3. 8 million ukip voters decide to do. it's clear that whatever the leadership in ukip decides, the core support, the people who voted for us last time, they're off. we've lost about half our vote, i reckon in the next three, four weeks we will see ukip down to 1% or 2% in the polls. that's good, we've done ourjob. thank you very much forjoining us at westminster. i'm going to pop along to our other studio and talk tojohn curtis, along to our other studio and talk to john curtis, who along to our other studio and talk tojohn curtis, who has been looking in detail at some of these figures. our resident expert and analyst. john, first of all, on the ukip point, with douglas carswell predicting they'll be down to 2% in the polls, he has a bit of an agenda on this, but what do you make of the

ukip picture? the ukip vote has fallen away in the last couple of weeks because many voters, douglas ca rswell suggests weeks because many voters, douglas carswell suggests has decided they're voting for the conservative party is the best way to realise their vision of brexit. whether the vote is in truth going to fall away further, i'm not so sure. if you look at the details of the opinion polls, there was a sudden drop in ukip support the moment that theresa may announced the election. since then it's tended to hold steady. in truth, the kind of figures we've been seeing in the results are pretty much consistent with the 6%, 796 pretty much consistent with the 6%, 7% that the party has been getting in the opinion polls. i'm not sure we should necessarily assume the rest of it will disappear. there will be some people who actually do feel that the conservative party are not tough enough on immigration, doubt whether they will deliver the brexit they want or think of it as being too much of the establishment. i suspect some of the ukip vote will survive. with the labour

performance, we had a provisional result in derbyshire, for example, which if it was carried through would be a massive blow. what do you make of labour's performance?” think one important pattern to be aware of is that the biggest swings against labour in england have been in the wards where labour were previously strongest and that is also reflected in the councils which have swung most against labour. they are northumberland, a council which perhaps on a better day labour would have won control of, almost went to the conservatives. derbyshire, which they hope to control and retain control of. that isn't going to happen. and evidently the same thing is happening in nottinghamshire. those were the three most labour councils, apart from durham, that we re councils, apart from durham, that were voting today. they are the councils where labour are apparently in most trouble. of course, that means, if this were to translate into the general election, it does therefore mean that maybe even if

therefore mean that maybe even if the conservative lead is a little bit less than the opinion polls might suggest, the impact in terms of seats could still be very, very substantial because if the swing against labour is greatest in the seats it's trying to defend, ergo, labour is going to lose more seats than otherwise would be the case. there's going to be some concern inside the labour party, particularly how perhaps some of its traditional support bases seem to be being eroded as evidenced by local elections. if you were in conservative central office today or whatever they call the headquarters, how optimistic should they be in terms of talking about, as they were recently, a possible land slide?” think i would still reckon i have a reasonable chance of getting there. i would certainly also be encouraged by the progress being made in scotland, which will help. i think the one word of caution would be, what i'd look at for this afternoon are the results from the city regional mayor contests. in some ways they're difficult to read,

because personalities will matter more. but given what happened in bristol, if it were to be the case that perhaps in more urban england the conservative advance isn't so great, maybe actually then there will be a little degree of cause of concern. thing to watch out for this afternoon: what happens in birmingham. though the truth is labour are going to win in liverpool and manchester, how much does the tory vote go up in places like that as well. a final thought about the picture in scotland. we were talking earlier about the prospects there for the conservatives and snp and indeed labour, of course, in glasgow, because we know what the picture is there. what would you say st —— say? picture is there. what would you say st -- say? we were expecting the conservatives to make a substantial advance. that's happening. we expected the snp to advance, but we didn't know by how much. on the evidence so far, probably not as much as the snp would like therefore not doing as well as in the last couple of elections. one word of

warning, of course, because the conservatives have got a councillor in shettleston does not mean they are the most popular party. remember, this is proportional representation, getting 25% of the vote will get awe i councillor in scotland. therefore —— get you a councillor in scotland. the geography is rather different than england because it's not a winner ta ke england because it's not a winner take all system. shropshire, let's look at the results there. this is a partial result. we see a very strong conservative performance. so far the changes look like this: 57 of 74 declared. that's the

picture there in shropshire. just a quick look at percentages. 51% of the vote so far. i want to go to north west wales and look at gwynedd. so what we're going to do now is

chat around this table here. peter, your thoughts on what we heard from john curtis and the results we've just had. yeah, a few minutes ago you showed the national vote change. if you put labour and liberal democrats together and say that's prot yes, sirrive block and —— that's progressive block. and then the conservative block as well. there's a slight swing from right to left since four years ago. but the right has gained seats, the left has lost seats. the conservatives have gained more than ukip have lost. labour and liberal democrats are down. this has some significance for the general election. it shows that when one side is divided, as the right was four years ago, through conservative and ukip, you don't do as well as when that side comes together. whereas the left is more divided. in seats terms it's bad news for labour. one quick point for

the conservatives, if these vote shares hold up, then this could be the very best results that any governing party has had in local elections going back to 1979. it's touch—and—go as to whether it beats the local elections held in the middle of the falklands war, when the conservatives were massively popular, margaret thatcher was massively popular. it might beat even that in terms of the con—lab battle. whether that tells us anything about five weeks' time, who knows. but like with like, this is significant. peter can say that with some confidence. within some hours, i'd have thought. north tyneside. this is a mayoral result. this is a single authority mayor elections: dianne is looking at this carefully.

labour have held on in north tyneside. just a quick word on that dianne, given that you've wanted to pin point labour success as well. it's important to wait for the result of these big mayoralties, we

will see when we get those results that labour still has support in depth. these local elections don't tell us everything, all this talk of a megamandate, land slide, some voters will find that chilling and that will help us in the general election. sam? the general election will be an historic one in terms of where we are in the country. it is important that whoever ends up as prime minister does so with the strongest possible mandate. now jeremy corbyn has been leader of his labour party for longer than theresa may has been leader of the conservative party. this is the first electoral test that they've both faced as leaders of their party. i think the results are beginning, very early days, speak for themselves. i agree with dianne. we can't be complacent. but for different reasons. i think the risk onjune 8 ofjeremy different reasons. i think the risk on june 8 ofjeremy corbyn as prime minister as too great. for the lib dems, we will clearly be fighting in

the strong holds, places like eastleigh, cheltenham, the south—west. there will be an intense battle in the seats where we are conservative facing, where there is now a very stark choice between a conservative party which i think has gone off onto the hard right, in terms of adopting a hard brexit position. where i think liberal democrats supporters and labour vote rs democrats supporters and labour voters need to look carefully at what do they want the outcome of the general election to be? do they want to grant the government a large mandate where they will railroad through some of the measures they have been trying to around school cuts and underfunding of the nhs or do they want an opposition, the liberal democrats, there and able to challenge the government to restrain their worst excesses in terms of what they might do afterjune 8. another result in from north ayrshire. some of these scottish results now coming in for us. this is one of those areas where

traditionally in parliamentary terms the conservatives have had representation. i think i'm right, sir george younger was the mp for ayr in years gone by. this is an area where the conservatives certainly are making confident noises and they're putting on six seats in north ayrshire. let's see if that is repeated elsewhere. we wa nt to if that is repeated elsewhere. we want to talk about cambridgeshire. two things there, the county election and of course, one of these big metro mayor election as well, peterborough and cambridge. two things to talk about. our correspondent is in soham. bring us up correspondent is in soham. bring us up to date on the county contest

first. well, yes, big shocki suppose in terms of the county council elections in that two of the most senior ukip candidates have lost their seats to the conservative. pete reeve was married to linda duffy, one of the ukip candidates. that is a big disappointment for ukip. otherwise it is going fairly as expected. two ukip losses the big story here. that's one, now i mustjust to let, just to explain to viewers what are going on, six big mayoral contests are going on, these big city regions, all part of the government's devolution strategy, handing power to the big city regions in some cases with a big budget, in some areas looking after transport, housing and things like that. this is one of the contests in

your patch there. tell us about that contest your patch there. tell us about that co ntest a nd your patch there. tell us about that contest and when we should have a result on that. we should get a result on that. we should get a result at around about 5pm, we think. counting has just result at around about 5pm, we think. counting hasjust got result at around about 5pm, we think. counting has just got under way. as you say, for the mayor of cambridgeshire, no results yet. we do have early turnout figures. this is across the six districts that are voting. no local elections here. turnout is low, atjust over 20%. same story in fendon. it is the turnout figures for cambridge and south cambridge that really provide the first clues as to who may be the final two candidates in the run—off. we do think it will go to second preference votes. turnout of over 40% in both cambridge and south cambridgeshire. that will only benefit the liberal democrats, who've been canvassing and campaigning aggressively on an anti—brexit ticket in an area that

voted remain. we think the liberal democrat candidate will be one of the two candidates in the run—off. elsewhere, seven parliamentary constituencies in cambridgeshire, six of them tory. all the councils have tory jorts six of them tory. all the councils have toryjorts and we do think james palmer, who has been the front runner throughout the race, he is likely, we think, to head off the liberal democrat challenge. it has been close to call throughout the campaign. it will go to the wider declaration at around 5pm thanks very much for bringing us up to date. another result in. this is norfolk: the greens in norfolk, that's interesting. the greens in the past have been quite confident in parts of norfolk itself. they've lost three seats there. looking at the change in the percentage share.

i stress, i stress that is not the final result there. we're getting close to the lunch time news. i want to say thank you very much to dianne and to sam and tom. you've been exemplary guests all of you, thank you very much. peter, we'll talk against ina you very much. peter, we'll talk against in a short while. thank you very much. now, the one o'clock news will be starting on bbc one. it will be on the bbc news channel too. that's all for now from our special coverage of the local elections in england, scotland and wales. we'll be back here at election centre on the bbc news channel and on bbc two again this afternoon from 2pm with more results, so with thanks to all the guests. we thank you for watching and we'll see you later on. bye for now. labour loses a number of councils, including glasgow, for the first time in more than 30 years. it was a deeply disappointing night for ukip, which has only taken one seat so far. the liberal democrats

had a mixed night — they have failed to make a significant breakthrough. many results are still coming in — we'll have the latest from around the country. also this lunchtime... new government proposals could include a targeted scrappage scheme for older vehicles to try to cut air pollution. the president of the european commission, jean—claude juncker, tells a conference in