Clegg: 'Lib Dems on journey from party of protest to government'

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has hailed gains in council elections across England as "remarkable" for the party.

UKIP has won over 130 seats so far and is averaging 25% of the vote in the wards where it is standing.

The Conservatives have lost more than 300 councillors and the Lib Dems, more than a hundred.

And in the South Shields by-election the Lib Dem candidate came seventh - after the BNP.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said his party was on a journey "from a party of protest to a party of government".