BBC Newsnight

UKIP Brexit spokesman Gerard Batten says he doesn't know where the leader Paul Nuttall is, saying: "He's probably got his feet up having a drink."

Mr Nuttall has denied interview requests today.

With regards Brexit, Mr Batten predicts: "We'll come out in name but in substance we'll still be a member."

He says his party is still relevant because "our job is to get Britain out of the EU - not a single thing has changed so far". 

Labour campaign chief and candidate Andrew Gwynne says: "You have to believe you can win and I do believe we can win. We are fighting for every single vote."

He tells Newsnight the party will be "dusting ourselves down after a bruising day".

"We've got five weeks to change the next five years. We want to see a transformational Britain, very different to the one we live in now.

"There are lessons to learn both from good results and poor results."

BBC Newsnight

BBC Newsnight's political editor Nick Watt says with mayoral victories in Birmingham and Tees Valley, "the Conservatives have ventured into Labour heartlands - it looks like they are gaining ground in areas where they've not had much of an impact for the last 25 years". 

"While the message from Conservative ministers is 'no complacency', in private one said to me it looks like Theresa May's gamble was the right one."

Meanwhile he says Labour insists it's "still in the fight" although "senior Labour figures in private are in despair".

The scene was "dysfunctional" in Manchester as Jeremy Corbyn turned up for a victory rally but mayor Andy Burnham did not attend. 

The Guardian

The Guardian reports, external that John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, "will be at the centre of Labour’s pitch to voters in the next four weeks as the party tries to win the public’s trust after a poor set of local council results".

The paper says Labour "intends to respond to the losses by showing more of the shadow chancellor, who will reveal more about his values and personal story in the coming days". 

In England the Conservatives picked up 319 more seats, Labour lost 142, the Lib Dems lost 28 and UKIP lost 143.

In Scotland the Conservatives gained 164 seats, Labour lost 133, the Lib Dems lost three, the SNP lost seven and others lost 21.

In Wales the Conservatives gained 80 seats, Labour lost 107, the Lib Dems lost 11, UKIP lost two, Plaid Cymru gained 33 and others gained seven. 

This is how the parties look with all seats declared. 

Look at how the day unfolded and find the results in your area.

Brian Taylor
BBC Scotland Political Editor

Image source, PA

Let's talk numbers - there have been boundary changes which mean that some comparisons are made with "notional" outcomes in 2012, the last time these councils were contested.

On that count, the SNP are notionally down by a fractional seven seats. However, in terms of absolute numbers, the Nationalists have ended up with more councillors than in 2012.

Plus the SNP are the largest party in Scotland's four largest cities - including Glasgow, where jubilant supporters attended their ousting of Labour. They have waited decades for that.

Read more from Brian.

Nick Servini
Political editor, Wales

Labour behind the scenes are delighted but to admit as much would be to reveal how low expectations were approaching this council vote.

"This could have been a lot worse," as one senior figure told me this morning.

That said, to have two of Wales' most economically deprived areas, Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil, looking to independents to improve matters at council-level, rather than Labour, is a serious problem.

Welsh Labour can clearly insulate itself from its UK-wide problems at assembly and council election level but the key question is how it can do that in a Westminster campaign.

The Conservatives, and Plaid Cymru, did what it said on the tin; they made gains in places they were expected to without landing any spectacular blows.

They know the general election will be dramatically different in turnout and in the dominance of Brexit as an issue. They will also hope that will make the result very different as well.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

The local elections may not be an exact guide to the general election result but for Labour politicians they have provided either proof of an electoral defeat foretold or an opportunity to mitigate it.

For some of Jeremy Corbyn's opponents, Friday's results suggest that the opinion polls are broadly right and the best approach towards self-preservation in the next month or so, as a general election approaches, is to keep what they hope will be a safe distance from the party leader.

As one former minister put it "I don't want him anywhere near my seat - they should continue to send him to places we won't win".

A senior Labour figure described the party's local election performance as "calamitous".

So much so that some of Mr Corbyn's supporters fear another attempted putsch by his internal opponents.

That doesn't seem likely, though.

Read Iain's blog to find out Labour's plan

The Liberal Democrats were hoping to start their comeback but instead they lost seats, five in total across the West. 

But there was a glimmer of hope for them in Wells - remember Tessa Munt's heartache two years ago when she was ousted as the city's MP? 

She's now back as a councillor - having beaten the Somerset County Council leader, John Osman, by 95 votes. 

The former Lib Dem leader, Paddy Ashdown, admitted "it wasn't as good a night as we'd wished".  

Jonathan Isaby, editor of the Brexit Central website, says the council results suggest the votes of former UKIP supporters  are "up for grabs again".

"If the current government were, down the line, to renege on delivering Brexit as we expect them to, UKIP could possibly see a resurgence. 

"But what you have effectively seen over the last 10, even 15 years, is increasing numbers of people voting UKIP at elections who are dissatisfied with the status quo... to the point at the last general election UKIP got nearly four million votes. 

"All of the sudden after the referendum, those votes are clearly up for grabs again and there's only one of the three established parties that is committed to delivering Brexit. From last night's results the Tories seem to be snapping all those votes up."

James McGrory, executive director of Open Britain, highlights that the "combined vote share for Labour and the Lib Dems was higher than that for the Conservatives and UKIP but was split between a number of parties".

He says there's been "a total and utter collapse" of the UKIP vote and a "wholesale move of their vote to the Conservatives". 

"Those who don't want to see a hard Brexit may well be a bit concerned at Paul Nuttall saying the Tory advance is a price they're prepared to pay."