Thursday's local elections dealt a major blow to the Conservative Party, as they lost 1,060 seats and control of 48 councils. Labour and the Liberal Democrats each

gained hundreds of seats across the country, with Labour becoming the largest party in local government for the first time in over two decades. The Tories' losses were seen as a clear rejection of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his first electoral test, with some experts cautioning that his party's losses crept towards the 1,000 pre-election forecast used by Tory chairman Greg Hands in the hope of portraying a defeat below that scale as better than expected.

Labour made significant gains, taking charge of councils such as Stoke-on-Trent, Medway, Swindon, East Staffordshire, Bracknell Forest, and Dover, while the Lib Dems took Surrey Heath in Michael Gove's constituency. The Green Party won their first council majority in Mid Suffolk and gained over 200 seats, leaving them with a total of 479 in their best local election results ever.

The Tory losses came despite the introduction of photographic ID in the elections for the first time in England. Unhappy Conservative MPs admitted the party's results were dire, but insisted there was little evidence that voters were rushing to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Some experts cautioned that Sir Keir's vote share for England does not look enough to win an overall Commons majority without gains elsewhere. Instead, he could be left needing to do a deal with either the Lib Dems or Scottish nationalists to prop him up in No10.

The SNP boasted that it could 'pull the strings' of a minority Labour government after the Tories suffered the election meltdown. A jubilant SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said he expected to hold the 'balance of power' after the general election next year. Despite the heavy losses, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak remained defiant, conceding the results were 'disappointing,' but said he was 'not detecting any massive groundswell of movement towards the Labour Party or excitement for its agenda.' Photo by Rwendland, Wikimedia commons.