Matthew Evans, leader of the Conservatives on Newport Council is disappointed they did not manage to break through against Labour.

Bob Dale
BBC Live reporter

The Conservatives in Hastings are celebrating this morning, after gaining three seats.  

The Conservatives have won a resounding victory in the Warwickshire County Council election gaining an extra nine seats to take full control of the local authority. 

The Greens and Liberal Democrats managed to keep hold of most of their councillors but it was a bad night for Labour - who lost half of their numbers with some high-profile casualties. 

The Conservatives now hold 36 seats, Labour has 10, the Lib Dems seven and the Greens two, while Stratford First and Whitnash Residents Association each have one.  

BBC News Channel

Politicians from Labour, the Conservatives and UKIP respond to the results so far.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry says it is "a mixed picture" for Labour with some good results, including victory in the Doncaster mayoral elections.

And she asks: "Where's the Tory surge in Wales that we were hearing about so much?"

Conservative minister Brandon Lewis says the results for his party are "encouraging" but insists the Tories have "an awful lot of work to do" before the 8 June general election.

UKIP's Suzanne Evans rejects the idea that her party is finished as it "polled over 12%" in the Doncaster mayoral contest.

However, she concedes that UKIP has "reached our peak, if you like" and faces a challenge ahead, now that the UK electorate has backed leaving the EU.

Simon Dedman
BBC Essex political reporter

This is how Essex looks this morning following the county council election. After 2013, we had a pretty blue county but there were certainly a few more blobs of colours other than blue in there.

While we now have some small pockets of other colours, Essex is now pretty much a sea of blue.

BBC Wales political correspondent Arwyn Jones analyses the results so far in the local elections in Wales.

BBC News Channel

BBC political editor Laura Kuennsberg says that an opposition party hoping to be heading for Number 10 after 8 June "should be gobbling up seats" in local elections.

Instead, she says, Labour is falling back.

The other striking aspect of the results so far is what seems to be "a total collapse so far in the UKIP vote", Laura adds.

The Conservatives are hoping for a "straight switch" from UKIP to them and that last year's Brexit vote has "removed UKIP's reason for being".

With results available from 20 out of 88 councils:

Conservatives: 464 total seats won, up 125

Labour: 322 total seats won, down 65

Lib Dems: 118 total seats won, down 13

Plaid Cymru: 44 total seats won, up six  

Green: 10 total seats won, up four

UKIP: No seats won, down 30

Independent: 166 total seats won, down 36

Andrew Sinclair
BBC Look East political correspondent

The votes from yesterday's County Council elections will be counted this morning with both the UK Independence party and Labour expecting a bad day.

Overnight UKIP lost all nine of its seats on Essex County Council while Labour also made losses to the Conservatives.

Tory sources tell me that their canvassing suggests a similar result in Suffolk and Norfolk.

They describe the UKIP campaign as "barely non-existent" and Labour's as "lacklustre".

UKIP will be nervously watching the counts at Great Yarmouth and in the west of Norfolk where it currently has most of its seats. Labour has been putting a lot of its effort into shoring up its traditional heartland of Norwich.  

In Essex there was little sign of a Liberal Democrat revival. If there's to be any in Norfolk it'll probably come from the North coast.

We should have all the results by early afternoon.

Image source, Reuters

Prospective Labour parliamentary candidate Gillian Troughton loses her seat on Cumbria County Council.

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Nick Eardley
BBC Scotland Westminster correspondent

This is a city where the SNP, Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats all have seats they think they could win on 8 June. The SNP won all bar one seat here in 2015 and have an eye on the one they didn't take.

All four parties will be looking at the results today to analyse their support and see whether the hopes they have at the moment are reflected in the ballots.

At the moment, the council is governed by a Labour-SNP coalition - one of the few in the country.

The SNP are hoping they'll be the largest party at the end of counting. Labour will be hoping to stem the losses they've seen in other elections in Scotland - and looking in particular at how they do in the wards that make up the Westminster Edinburgh South constituency, where they held on in 2015.

The Tories hold 11 seats on the council at the moment. Friday's result will be an indication of whether, as many have suggested, there has been a bounce for the party north of the border.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson took the party from fourth to win the Edinburgh central constituency. We might get more of an idea later of whether that was personal appeal or a sign that the party's message is being well received in the capital. Some think it's possible the Tories could be the second biggest party here come this afternoon. 

The Lib Dems were the biggest party on the council between 2007 and 2012. But they were decimated in 2012, losing 14 of their 17 seats. The party is confident they'll increase their tally today and they'll be looking in particular at Edinburgh West where they think they can win on 8 June.

The Scottish Greens have six seats here at the moment. It will be interesting to see whether they benefit from an independence bounce - will SNP voters give the Greens their second or third preferences (and vice versa)? It's possible they'll be in a position to play  a role in coalition negotiations in the coming days.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The Shadow chancellor has said the local elections haven't been quite the "total wipeout" expected for Labour. John McDonnell said in areas where they had campaigned they had won the seat. 

He said Jeremy Corbyn's image had been distorted by the media, which was hurting Labour's chances. Mr McDonnell argued that if the Labour leader was given a fair outing in the media then people would see what an "honest, decent and principled" leader he would be.   

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, PA

It loses all its 41 seats so far, including in Lincolnshire and Essex, in a "disappointing" result.

After results from 23 local authorities, UKIP has lost 41 councillors and made no gains.

It was wiped out in Lincolnshire, losing 13 seats, while all its nine representatives in Essex were defeated.

Ex-leadership contender Lisa Duffy said it was "disappointing" but she would "not call it a disaster".

Elections expert John Curtice said UKIP had lost "everything they've been trying to defend", while the BBC's political correspondent Ross Hawkins said that while the party would continue to be well represented on district councils, there were growing question marks over its electoral future.

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