Results have been steadily trickling in for the last 12 hours, and we've now heard from most of the main political party leaders. Here's what they've been saying:

• Labour leader and Prime Minster Keir Starmer tells the BBC that the local elections' results have so far been "disappointing", but he believes his government needs to go "further and faster" to see the change he hopes to bring about
• Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey tells reporters in Shrewsbury he's feeling “confident” about the result for Shropshire Council. It's been run by the Tories for more than a decade, but he believes the Lib Dems are shaping up to be "the new party of Middle England"
• Greens co-leader Adrian Ramsay is also striking a positive note this morning, telling the BBC he's also "confident" the party will see big returns in council races
• Kemi Badenoch has yet to comment since results began pouring in overnight. Writing on social media last night, she said: "I’ve seen the very best of our party—and the very best of our country"

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

The Liberal Democrats have won the first declaration in Devon, gaining the seat from the Conservatives.

Their vote was up by nearly 10% on 2021, a better performance than we have seen in most wards today.

The party's success may, however, have been aided by the fact Reform won 25% of the vote - which perhaps helped contribute to the Conservatives' 20 point loss.

The Lib Dems have also now won a second seat in Devon from the Conservatives. Their hopes in this county are seemingly beginning to be realised.

We can bring you lines now from the prime minister, who is on a visit to a defence contractor in Bedfordshire.

Starmer tells the BBC that while the by-election result in Runcorn and Helsby was close - and Labour has defended three mayoralties - the results overall are "disappointing".

"The message I take out of these elections is that we need to go further and we need to go faster on the change that people want to see."

The BBC's Leila Nathoo asks if he means going further and faster in the same direction.

Starmer says that the "tough decisions" his government made in the Budget are starting to bear fruit.

Kate Whannel
Politics reporter

Reform UK was born out of the Brexit Party – but it has broadened out from campaigning on the single issue of leaving the European Union.

Immigration

It campaigns for tough action to bring down immigration, arguing that it has got out of control and is damaging the country.

It has pledged to freeze all non-essential immigration if it wins power at the next general election.

Those with what the party calls “essential skills” - such as healthcare workers - would be allowed into the country.

Net zero

Its other main policy is scrapping net zero targets, which leader Nigel Farage says are destroying jobs and driving up household bills.

The party also wants to scrap subsidies for renewable energy, allow companies to drill for more gas and oil in the North Sea and fast-track nuclear energy.

Local spending

At a local level, Reform UK wants to follow the example set by Elon Musk in the US, where the tech billionaire has been trying to make dramatic cuts to government spending.

Farage says where Reform has power it will bring in auditors to examine council spending and get rid of waste.

He also says he wants to end a culture of working from home in local government.

First result from Durham is a Reform winpublished at 10:59 British Summer Time 2 May

10:59 BST 2 May

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

The first Durham County Council result sees Reform win with 36% of the vote, taking it from Labour.

Nigel Farage's claim that County Durham could follow Northumberland in electing a string of Reform councillors could have some validity.

• Some context: This is the first of Durham's 98 council seats to have been declared, so there's still a way to go. As we've been saying, votes are still being counted and we won't see the broader results until later

Image source, Reuters

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is currently giving a Q&A to workers during a visit to a defence contractor in Bedfordshire.

We're listening across, and will bring you reaction to the election results so far.

Elizabeth Glinka
Political editor, BBC Midlands

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey is handing out ice creams in Shrewsbury town centre this morning to thank voters for their support.

In his first comments since polls closed last night, Davey tells reporters he is feeling “confident” about the result for Shropshire Council which is expected this afternoon.

He also jokes to one customer that “the ice cream is melting just like the Conservative’s support”.

The council has been run by the Conservatives for the past 16 years.

He is accompanied this morning by the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, Helen Morgan, who helped run the party’s local election campaign across the county.

A small boost for voter turnoutpublished at 10:41 British Summer Time 2 May

10:41 BST 2 May

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

There is little sign that the electorate's disillusion with the state of the country has been translated into a reluctance to go to the polls.

Turnout is so far running at 34% - up a couple of points on what it was in 2021 - so if anything turnout in these elections may be a little better than four years ago.

Disgruntled Labour MPs urge leadership to change coursepublished at 10:34 British Summer Time 2 May

10:34 BST 2 May

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Image source, Reuters

It’s not just Labour’s loss in Runcorn that is worrying some of the party’s MPs.

It is that, on the limited results so far, the party seems to be under-performing relative to poor local election results in 2021.

Labour has lost ground in Northumberland and failed to capitalise on Conservative unpopularity in Staffordshire.

So far, most of the critics who are speaking on the record are on Labour’s left.

Richard Burgon – a shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn – says: "The Labour leadership must urgently change course. It should start by ditching the plans to cut disability benefits and increase taxes on the wealthiest instead."

The co-chair of the left-wing group Momentum, Sasha Das Gupta, urges more MPs and councillors to speak out against the leadership’s direction, and says that "continuing austerity and failing to offer real change risks handing the country to the likes of Nigel Farage".

Speaking off the record to some MPs from across the party, they seem to agree that the main issues raised with them on the doorsteps were winter fuel cuts, fear of cuts to disability payments, and immigration (not all in that order).

We're still waiting on two mayoral races to be called - and all but one of the council races.

Now that we've had a chance to step back, here's a look at the key times you should be dialling in for (NB these are current estimates and are subject to change):

• 13:00 BST - County Durham is expected to be one of the first councils to return results this afternoon
• 14:30 BST - the Hull and East Yorkshire race will be the next mayoral contest to announce a winner
• 15:00 BST - This is when you can expect the pace of results to start picking up - keep an eye out for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral contest here
• Early evening-ish: The bulk of the results should flood in during this window
• 19:00 BST - The final races we expect to get results for are in Kent and West Northamptonshire

For the contests that have already been called - including the closely fought by-election in Runcorn - take a look back at our most recent recap.

Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of the Green Party, says there have been positive results for his party so far, such as winning a local council by-election in Lambeth, south London.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he says the vote shows that we now have a five-party system in British politics, with voters "looking for an alternative" to Labour and the Tories.

Ramsay adds that he is confident his party will get a record number of councillors in these elections.

Asked about coming behind Reform in the West of England mayoral election, which Labour won, he insists his party did have a strong Green vote in the area but admits "we would have liked to have won".

The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats says that while the results that have come in so far are in areas where Reform was likely to do well, there are areas where her party “hopes to make big gains against the Conservatives".

Daisy Cooper tells BBC Breakfast she thinks the Lib Dems "can replace the Conservatives as the party of Middle England".

She adds that the Lib Dems are “deeply concerned” about the rise of Reform.

“There are people looking for alternatives. It’s our job to show it’s the Liberal Democrats who can offer the change that the country is crying out for.”

Nigel Huddleston MP, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, tells BBC Breakfast his party was “steeling itself for a tough night”.

“We knew this set of elections would be difficult. Overnight, unfortunately, it does look like we have lost Conservative councillors.”

Asked about Nigel Farage stating that his Reform Party has “supplanted the Tories as the main opposition”, Huddleston says “that is not a credible comment” - pointing out that the Tories still have 121 MPs to Reform’s five, and will likely still have more than 4,000 seats in local government following this election.

Johanna Chisholm
Live page editor

Night of firsts: Reform’s success in the Runcorn race made it the party’s first parliamentary by-election win. In Greater Lincolnshire, it also locked down its first mayor.

Locking horns: Labour and Reform went head-to-head in multiple races overnight. Reform’s tight victory over Labour in Runcorn made it the closest by-election in UK history. Farage’s party also trailed Labour in all of the mayoral races it won, including North Tyneside, West of England and Doncaster.

March goes on: Reform looks set for further successes, so far locking down 24 and 23 seats in Staffordshire County Council and Lincolnshire County Council respectively.

Labour and Tories suffering substantial rebuff in council electionspublished at 09:10 British Summer Time 2 May

09:10 BST 2 May

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

In terms of local council elections, we've so far had results from 141 wards across four or five councils.

Reform UK have, so far, been winning about 39% of the vote, which puts them 11 points ahead of the Conservatives. They have also won 79 seats - more than any other party.

In those same elections, the Conservatives have been trying to defend 99 seats and have only succeeded in defending 37 of them.

Unless their ability to hang on to seats improves throughout today, their total losses of seats is going to be towards the high end of what people were anticipating.

Labour are also losing seats.

If you compare these results to those in May 2021, when these seats were last contested, the Conservatives are typically down by about 26 points or more. Labour are down by about nine points or more, so both have suffered quite a substantial rebuff.

In the case of the Conservatives, this is confirming the message of the general election last summer, when the party lost to Labour.

Richard Price
Reporting from Staffordshire

Reform is beating the Conservatives in Staffordshire's local elections to decide who will run the county council.

So far, Reform has won 24 of the 30 seats that have been declared, with the Tories holding on to the remaining six.

There are 32 seats still to be counted across Cannock Chase, East Staffordshire, Stafford and the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Reform UK need just eight more seats to take overall control of the county council.

Ahead of this election the Conservatives held 53 seats, Labour held five and four were held by independent councillors.

Council leader Alan White was among the high profile losses for the Conservatives, losing his Lichfield Rural East seat to Reform UK.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Reform UK chairman Ken Owen says the results show "the people of Staffordshire have sent a message to the current sort of administration".

Image source, EPA

Labour Party Chair Ellie Reeves says the party knows there's more to do, but they're getting on with it and "change takes time".

"People don't feel change overnight, but we're getting on with delivery," she tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The increase in National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage only kicked in last month, Reeves gives as an example.

Reeves, the MP for Lewisham West and East Dulwich, also points to reducing NHS waiting lists and the opening up of breakfast clubs - including in Runcorn - as evidence of the change that the Labour government is delivering.

"We know there's more to do," she adds.

Alan Webber
Reporting from Lincolnshire

Reform is on the march in Lincolnshire, riding on the coattails of Andrea Jenkyns’s resounding success in the mayoral election.

Three out of seven districts have declared so far, and results are now coming in from East Lindsey, where the turquoise wave shows no sign of abating.

At the moment, Reform has 23 seats, while the Conservatives, who started the night with 53 seats, are down to just one councillor.

The Conservatives are expected to regain some ground, but things are looking good for Reform.

Joshua Nevett
Political reporter

Image source, PA Media

Dame Andrea Jenkyns has been elected as the mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, giving the party she represents, Reform UK, its most powerful office to date.

In her victory speech, she declared it was a "new dawn in British politics" and vowed Reform would "reset Britain to its glorious past".

She beat the Conservative candidate by more than 40,000 votes, which will feel like like a personal vindication for the former Tory MP.

A former Greggs worker and Miss UK finalist, Jenkyns will now control an annual budget of £24m and hold powers over skills, transport and economic development in the region.

The result marks a remarkable political comeback for a former Conservative MP voted out less than a year ago in the general election.

But as Jenkyns's meandering political career shows, she has form for bouncing back from crushing disappointments with attention-grabbing election wins.

• Read more about Dame Andrea Jenkyns here

Earlier, we speculated that Reform could be on course to set a new record in what was shaping up to be a closely fought race in Runcorn and Helsby.

With the ballots now tallied (twice round), we can now confirm that the party has made history with its six vote majority - the smallest ever recorded in a by-election.

The previous record was held by the Liberals in the 1973 Berwick-upon-Tweed by-election. They won by only 57 votes.

This hotly contested seat was won by Labour just last year in the general election - but the numbers show this morning Reform has achieved a stunning turnaround:

• From 2024 to 2025, Labour's vote share dropped from 53% to 38.70%
• While Reform's swung from 18% to 38.72%