David Cameron hailed a string of victories in the North of England yesterday as he celebrated a stunning electoral breakthrough.

The capture of Bury — not held by the Tories for 22 years — and North Tyneside, its first metropolitan borough in the North East, capped a day in which the Conservatives swept back into Labour’s heartlands. The party was on course for a “hat-trick”, with gains of 256 councillors, a 44 per cent national share of the vote and an expected victory in London.

Mr Cameron travelled first to the West Midlands, where the Tories won Nuneaton and Bedworth, and then to Cheshire to drive home the message that the party was back as a national force.

Earlier he said: “I think these results are not just a vote against Gordon Brown and his Government. I think they are a vote of positive confidence in the Conservative Party. I think this is a very big moment for the Conservative Party, but I don’t want anyone to think that we would deserve to win an election just on the back of a failing Government.

“I want us to really prove to people that we can make the changes they want to see. That’s what I’m going to devote myself and my party to doing over the next few months.”

The failure to gain toeholds in Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester and Liverpool was brushed aside by one of the key architects of the Tories’ campaign victory, Eric Pickles. Gains in authorities such as Sunderland, Barnsley, Rotherham and Wakefield showed that the Tories were clawing their way back into contention in the North, he said.

“The wheels aren’t slipping anymore, we’re beginning to get traction,” said Mr Pickles, the Shadow Local Government Secretary. The results were a vindication of Mr Cameron’s incremental approach to rebuilding the party’s infrastructure in areas where until recently it had been moribund, he said.

Another senior Tory strategist said that it was the spread of the gains, as much as their number, that was delighting the party’s HQ. The Tories also captured Maidstone, Southampton and Harlow councils.

A Shadow Cabinet minister said: “These results are going to send a shiver down almost every Labour MP in a marginal seat in the country.”

The Tories said that the swings against Labour, if replicated in a national campaign, would remove Cabinet ministers such as Ed Balls, Jacqui Smith, John Denham and James Purnell.

The results confirm a significant regeneration of the Tory grassroots. In addition to progress in the North and the West Midlands, the Tories made gains in Wales, taking control of the Vale of Glamorgan for the first time. There were also big gains in Cardiff and Flintshire.

Although the results in the North West did not live up to gains elsewhere, there were hopeful omens for the Tories in the forthcoming Crewe and Nantwich by-election in less than three weeks. The Tories took two out of the three seats in the traditionally Labour Crewe West ward, part of the constituency represented by the late Gwyneth Dunwoody. The party needs a swing of just over 8 per cent to take the parliamentary seat.

Victory in Crewe would help the party to claim that it can translate its local government gains to Westminister. After losing the Ealing Southall by-election last year, however, Mr Cameron knows better than to take anything for granted.

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