Comment Central: Results and reshuffle, as they happen

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The Conservative Party is on course for sweeping gains across England as the local election results point towards meltdown for Labour.

Although most of the county councils have yet to declare, early results show the Conservatives taking dozens of seats from Labour and seizing control of two county councils in the Liberal Democrats’ stronghold in the South West.

In Staffordshire, Labour, which has controlled the county for over 20 years, has already lost half its seats and the Tories are on course for an easy victory.

The Conservatives also took control of Devon and Somerset from the Liberal Democrats. The Tories have not been in power in Somerset for 16 years.

The Liberal Democrats fared better when up against Labour in Bristol, a unitary council which was under no overall control. It has now switched to the Liberal Democrats with Labour losing eight of the seats it was defending. Its devastating losses there were shared out in equal gains to the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, but allowed the latter to grab the reigns.

Despite the humiliating loss, Dawn Primarolo, health minister and Labour MP for Bristol South remained defiant. “[It] is clearly disappointing, lots of good Labour councillors have lost their seats. It’s undeniable that the voters are angry and it focused around the issues at Westminster and MPs expenses. “

In the new unitary authority of Central Bedfordshire, the Conservatives gained overall control as Labour failed to win a single seat. They swept past the 34 seats needed with only six Liberal Democrats and one independent councillor standing between them and a monopoly of the council.

The Tories easily retained overall control of Lincolnshire County Council, where Labour was nearly wiped off the electoral map, but a small number of independent candidates scored victories. The threat of an early BNP breakthrough never materialised but the Lincolnshire Independents won four seats and came second in many other contests - in some cases depressing the Tory share of the vote. While the Tory vote went up by 4.2 per cent, the Lincolnshire Independents saw their share go up by 9.1 per cent.

But Labour took a battering, with its share falling by 9.1 per cent, and lost 17 councillors. In Lincoln, a Labour stronghold for the party’s county council group, the Tories gained seven of the 10 seats contested and gained 15 as a whole across the county to reach a total 60. The Liberal Democrats lost two seats and their share of the vote fell by 1.8 per cent.

Conservative and council leader Martin Hill said: “We are very pleased. Based on our results, it’s looking very ominous for Labour. Their vote has just gone because people are aware that the Labour government is in disarray.”

Party officials hinted yesterday that Labour was likely to lose more than half its county council seats and all the four county councils that it still held. Results so far will have done nothing to lift their spirits. Pundits suggested the Tories will gain at least 200 seats although it is questionable whether they will get the 43 per cent share of the vote they gained in local elections last year.

Initial reports of turnouts of around 30 per cent suggested that many people had cast a protest vote by staying at home. But in some areas of the country such as Bristol and Lincolnshire the turnout was in the mid 30s slightly less than the 38 per cent in the last set of European elections.

The minor parties, such as the Greens, UKIP and BNP, are expected to pick up several of the 2,000 councils seats contested, although they are more likely to benefit from a protest vote in the European elections. The scale of Labour’s potential losses will only become apparent later today, when most of the county council results are declared. Elections for the 72 British MEPs were also held, but these results will not be declared until Sunday night.

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