Counting is nearly complete across England and Wales and the picture in the local elections is clear: Tory losses and a red wave. Thursday saw 103 English councils go to the polls with ten mayoral races and dozens of police and crime commissioner positions up for grabs too. The by-election in Blackpool saw a huge swing to Labour but the real story of the night is Reform coming within 100 votes of the Conservatives. Here’s the national picture so far:
It's notoriously difficult to extrapolate a national result from local elections but Professor John Curtice has had a go for the BBC. They estimate that had the whole country gone to the polls Labour would win with a nine point margin. That's a record equalling low for the Tories but with Labour not extending their lead on a year ago.
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