Voters gave Tony Blair a bruising farewell and Gordon Brown a worrying welcome early today as Labour suffered heavy losses in elections in England, Scotland and Wales.

The Prime Minister, who will announce next week his time-table for stepping down after a decade in power, will leave the Chancellor a party in its weakest local government position since the 1970s.

Mr Brown, expected to succeed Mr Blair in early July, will inherit a party demoralised by a series of poor election results and opinion polls suggesting that its standing has reached the 1980s nadir of Michael Foot’s leadership.

Another survey last night revealed that Labour was now seen as twice as divided as the Conservatives and Liberal democrats.

Mr Blair, who may stand down from Parliament before the next general election, triggering a by-election in his Sedgefield seat, played a big part in his final election campaign despite fears that the electorate would use it to give him a “final kicking”. As the results began to trickle in it was clear that voters had decided to punish Labour across Britain.

The Scottish election, where Labour was trying to fight off a determined nationalist surge, produced a high turnout. Mr Brown will begin the fightback as soon as Mr Blair stands down. Allies say that whether he faces a serious challenge or not he will use the Labour election campaign to set out his agenda in a series of speeches.

An opinion poll released by the BBC’s Newsnight revealed the scale of the challenge facing Mr Brown, with a seven-point Tory lead over Labour as the most trusted party on health. The Tories have a similar lead on climate change and a 17-point lead on immigration.

Labour is regarded as divided by 64 per cent of respondents, compared with 36 per cent saying the same of the Tories and 25 per cent seeing the Liberal Democrats in that light.

Mr Blair will take a back seat from the moment he hands over to Mr Brown in early July. Officials said yesterday that he had yet to decide whether to stay on as an MP.

It has long been expected that he will take a role as roving ambassador in Africa and the Middle East, as well as being an international progress chaser on climate change. But he could also earn millions of pounds from his memoirs and on the American speaking tour.

There were indications in Scotland that turnout for the Holyrood election was at least 60 per cent, a figure that would set a record in a devolved election. The turnout appeared not to have been matched south of the border. There were reports that turnout in some areas, such as Middlesbrough, was as low as 20 per cent.

Labour was pessimistic as the polls closed about its chances of holding Glasgow Govan, one of the key battleground seats, where the SNP needs only a 2 per cent swing. There were also Labour worries about Paisley South, a seat the party has held at every election since the Second World War.

The Newsnight poll by Communicate Research carried bad news for Labour over sleaze as well as the perception of divisions. When asked in the poll whether they thought that the political parties were sleazy, 59 per cent said that the description applied to Labour, 47 per cent said that it applied to the Tories and 30 per cent to the Liberal Democrats.

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