Andy Burnham and Tracy Brabin have been emphatically re-elected as mayors of Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire, following victories for other Labour mayors on Saturday. Burnham won by a convincing margin, taking 63.4% of the vote – with his nearest Tory challenger managing only 10.4%. John Curtice noted that despite Burnham’s vote share falling four points, the Tories’ fell further so it still meant a 3% Tory-to-Labour swing. Brabin increased her share of the vote 7.3 percentage points to 50.4%, with the Tories down 14 percentage points to 15.1%. West Yorkshire Mayoral Result: ? Brabin ..read more

The results of the 2024 London mayor election are due to be announced shortly, with Labour sources now confident incumbent Sadiq Khan will comfortably win a third term against Tory rival Susan Hall. Some of the constituency results coming in so far show swings towards Labour, and we will update this page with the full results as they come in. Sadiq Khan had won 350,453 votes in the four areas reporting first, to Hall’s 164,423. The expected victory comes in spite of Tory electoral changes such as voter ID requirements and a switch to first-past-the-post that some in Labour had feared could cos ..read more

Bristol council stays in no overall control, as the Greens surged to become the largest group and Labour lost three seats in an alarming sign for the party. The Greens won 10 seats for a total of 34, though falling short of the 36 needed for a majority. Labour is the next biggest grouping with 21 seats. The Conservatives lost half their seats, plummeting from 14 to 7, while the Liberal Democrats were unchanged with 8. Labour were victorious in the Avon and Somerset police and crime commissioner race, which covers Bristol and Bath, which was won by former South West MEP Clare Moody. This is the ..read more

The chair of the Labour Muslim Network has warned Labour has “so much work to do with regaining the trust of Muslim voters”, as the party’s Gaza stance appeared to dent local election support in some areas and a row erupted over “Islamophobia” claims. Ali Milani, who stood against former Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the 2019 general election, told the BBC there was “hurt” and “betrayal” among many Muslim voters at Labour not immediately backing an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and not supporting an arms embargo. “We’re now seeing the electoral consequences of that.” ‘We have to show we value Musli ..read more

Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) manage aspects of policing in each region. Labour held its PCCs in Wales, where Jane Mund was elected in Gwent and Emma Wools in South Wales. They become Wales’s first female PCCs, and Wools becomes the UK’s first Black PCC. Labour also held the Northumbria PCC role, where Susan Dungworth took over from newly elected North East mayor Kim McGuinness and garnered a majority of more than 100,000. It has not lost any PCCs thus far but we will be updating the list as results continue to come in over the weekend. Labour Police and Crime Commissioner gains: Avon a ..read more

The BBC has unveiled its projected national vote share based on this year’s local elections, putting Labour on 34% – nine points up on the Tories, but one point down on its estimated share in the last two sets of elections. The BBC’s projected national share – which estimates the share of the vote the main parties would have won if voters across Britain had behaved in the same way as those who voted in wards contested by all three main parties in this year’s locals – puts Labour on 34%, the Tories on 25%, the Lib Dems on 17% and others on 24%. Labour’s projected national share was 35% in both ..read more

Labour has won two newly created regional mayoral posts in the north of England and declared it has won another in the East Midlands, despite facing a setback in Tees Valley. The party notched up victories in the North East mayoral election and in York and North Yorkshire – an area that covers Rishi Sunak’s constituency of Richmond. The wins turn the increasingly sprawling map of metro mayoral areas nationwide increasingly red, despite the party’s Chris McEwan falling short of dislodging Tory Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen. Kim McGuinness in the North East won convincingly over independent cand ..read more

Labour has gained Nuneaton and Bedworth council from the Conservatives – the local authority that covers the bellwether constituency of Nuneaton. According to the BBC, Labour gained a remarkable 15 seats on the council to take its total to 20, while the Conservatives lost 14 councillors, ending the day on 16. Nuneaton has traditionally been considered a bellwether seat, having elected representatives of the winning party in every general election since 1997. It was held by Labour’s Bill Olner throughout the New Labour years before being gained by the Tory Marcus Jones in 2010. Jones’ most rece ..read more

Labour has won the new North East mayoral election, defeating former Labour mayor and independent candidate Jamie Driscoll. Kim McGuinness won more than 185,000 votes, defeating Driscoll convincingly, who attracted around 126,000 votes. The Conservatives placed third with Reform UK fourth.   A recent opinion poll for the election put McGuinness only marginally ahead of Driscoll,  a left-winger who was barred from the selection process to be Labour’s candidate for the mayoralty. McGuinness, who grew up in a council house in Newcastle, was elected as Northumbria’s Police and Crime Com ..read more

Local elections are drawn-out affairs. Unlike in a general election where the result is known by the morning, the outcomes of some of most intensely studied contests will not be known until Saturday afternoon. This means that the analysis can shift as the results come in. There will be opportunities for the Conservatives to switch up the narrative, particularly having hung on in Tees Valley and especially if they also hold the West Midlands mayoralty.  But – with the enormous caveat that only a third of the results had come in as this was written – it is overall looking pretty grim for th ..read more