Labour has lost trust of working people, says Starmer

1. The Conservatives win the Hartlepool by-election with a majority of 6,940 votes, and a swing from Labour of 16%
2. Jill Mortimer becomes the town's first Conservative MP since the constituency was created in 1974
3. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Tory gains are down to a focus on people's priorities and bouncing back from the pandemic
4. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says he is bitterly disappointed with the election results and takes full responsibility
5. The Tories win councils in Northumberland, Harlow, Redditch, Dudley and Nuneaton & Bedworth but lose control in Cambridgeshire
6. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon retains her seat for the SNP as early Scottish Parliament elections are announced
7. Former SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson wins Edinburgh Central, previously held by ex-Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson
8. With more than a third of the Welsh Parliament results in, the Conservatives have missed out on some of their key targets
9. Labour wins the mayoral contests in Doncaster and Liverpool but Conservative mayor Ben Houchen increases his majority in Tees Valley

That's all for now...

Those last declared seats in Wales sound an imaginary klaxon on our election coverage for now.

The team will be back in a few hours looking ahead to all the results coming on Saturday, when we expect final tallies in the Welsh and Scottish parliaments, lots more English council results and quite a few English mayors.

Goodnight.

BreakingLabour end day on 30 Senedd seats

The last seats of the day have been announced for the Mid and West Wales region in the Welsh Parliament election.

Labour has taken two seats, Plaid Cymru has won one and the Liberal Democrats has taken one - giving them their only seat in the new Senedd.

It leaves Labour on 30 seats, the Conservatives on 12, Plaid Cymru on nine and the Lib Dems on one.

What happened today?

PA

We will be closing the page shortly but before we do here is a quick summary of what has happened today.

England

• The Conservatives won the Hartlepool by-election with a majority of 6,940 votes, and a swing from Labour of 16%
• The Tories won councils in Northumberland, Harlow, Redditch, Dudley and Nuneaton & Bedworth but lose control in Cambridgeshire
• Labour wins the mayoral contests in Doncaster and Liverpool but Conservative mayor Ben Houchen increases his majority in Tees Valley

Scotland

• The SNP is likely to form the next Scottish government, but it is still unclear if it can secure the 65 seats needed for an outright majority
• With 48 of 129 seats declared, the SNP have 39 MSPs, the Lib Dems 4, the Conservatives 3 and Labour has 2
• The SNP failed to take its two key targets of Dumbarton (Labour) and Eastwood (Conservative) but did take Edinburgh Central and Ayr from the Tories
• The Greens are polling at about 7% and Alex Salmond's Alba party about 2%

Wales

• With 48 of the 60 seats declared, Labour is on 28 with the Conservatives 12 and Plaid Cymru 8
• A party needs to win 31 seats to claim a majority in the Welsh Parliament
• Labour has held on to all but one of its seats targeted by the Conservatives
• The Tories narrowly took Vale of Clwyd from Labour and beat the Liberal Democrats in Brecon and Radnorshire
• Plaid increased majorities in their north-west heartlands but lose Rhondda to Labour

Analysis

Laura Kuenssberg

Political editor

Reuters

This isn't a general election, where everything can change, where voters' choices can shift the course of the whole UK in a moment of decision.

But the scale of these votes means our politicians are being given much more than a flavour of the public's opinions right now.

It shouldn't be forgotten that many contests are yet to conclude - hand sanitiser, screens and social distancing have slowed the pace.

In Westminster, Boris Johnson has been through a torrid few weeks. But much of the country has just shown again that he is a magnet for millions of voters.

You can read the rest of Laura's blog here.

Could Labour win a majority?

David Deans

BBC Wales politics reporter

Mid and West Wales is the last result we are expecting tonight in Wales - and it will be crucial in finding out if Labour need at least some opposition support, or whether it can govern alone.

Labour is expecting to hold the two regional seats it already had in mid Wales at a minimum, which would give it 30 Members of the Senedd.

A source says that a third seat is a possibility - something that would give them an outright majority of two.

What went wrong for Labour in Hartlepool?

Newsnight

Former Labour MP Caroline Flint says working class communities outside of university towns feel as if they are not being listened to. By 2019, she says the party had become too pro-Remain and voters disliked Jeremy Corbyn. Her majority had started to decrease since the 2015 election, she adds.

Former Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames says in the 1980s the Conservatives had to change, and now the party has had to change again because of Brexit. What Boris Johnson has achieved "is quite exceptional... and will enable him to now move forward".

Conservatives want to make a difference and be in power, whereas Labour "want to continue its navel gazing", he adds.

Labour needs to reconnect with its base and working class support, says Ms Flint, people in Hartlepool don't think they have been "understood and respected".

Labour is continuing to make arguments that are in the Westminster bubble, she adds, rather than talking about things that people want to hear in Hartlepool.

In Pictures: Election counts across the country

PA Media

Unused ballot papers seen at the Wavertree Tennis Centre, Liverpool

Getty Images

The ballot boxes pile up in London

PA Media

Relief for Liberal Democrat Alex Cole Hamilton who holds on to his Edinburgh seat

PA

Less joy for the former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, whose party is currently running at 2%

PA

It's a waiting game for Labour supporters in Aberdeen

Reuters

Captain Beany, a Senedd candidate, waiting for the votes to be counted in Cardiff

Reuters

Boris Johnson was greeted by an inflatable version of himself in Hartlepool

Green party's relatively successful local elections

Professor Sir John Curtice

Polling expert

PA Media

The Green's London mayoral candidate could beat the Lib Dems to third place

The Greens have enjoyed a relatively successful outcome in the English local elections today.

The party has made a net gain of 40 seats and the party is on average up by four points in 2016 wards and by seven points in 2017 wards.

Although their performance is not quite as strong as it was in 2019, these local elections appear to confirm that the Greens are now able to win a non-trivial proportion of the vote.

Meanwhile in the London mayoral election, it looks as though at present the Green candidate Sian Berry will pip the Liberal Democrats to third place.

Support for the party might be anticipated to be highest in wards with relatively large numbers of university graduates.

Conservatives have parked tanks on Labour's lawn - Powell

Newsnight

Shadow business minister Lucy Powell says "the red wall has been crumbling for 20 years, there are long term issues that we have".

"People of Hartlepool and elsewhere are voting for change," she says.

"We have been talking to ourselves too much... people want decent, secure jobs, close to their homes.

"We do need a new reckoning on the economy, we need an economy which works for everyone all over the country.

"We're facing a Conservative party which has parked their tanks all over our lawn."

Starmer under pressure

Nicholas Watt

Political editor, BBC Newsnight

Keir Starmer is under enormous pressure tonight from both wings of his party.

Starmer supporters are very disappointed - they want a clearer exposition of policies.

Some Starmer backers think the pandemic could be Boris Johnson's Falklands moment. If so, he could win the next election, and that would cause Starmer to be replaced as leader.

Potentially, that could be someone from the left of the party again. Those on the party's centre ground fear that could be the end of the party.

FM aims for 'stable and progressive' government

PA Media

Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford says he will “do whatever I can do” to ensure Wales has a “stable and progressive” government once the final results are in.

He told BBC Wales he would prefer to be in a position “where you have a government that is able to command a majority for the action that it needs to take on the floor of the Senedd”.

He said: "We will see how close we come to that.

“At the end of, probably, tomorrow, we will see what other parties have done in the election.

"Then without trying to rush a decision at this time on a Friday we’ll take a couple of days to make sure that we make the best decision that we can for Wales.”

Labour is currently expected to win at least 29 seats. It would need 31 to win control without assistance from other parties.

We're part of a different Conservative party now - Opperman

Newsnight

Conservative MP Guy Opperman says northern towns, having voted Labour for so many years, want to see something different happen to their local area.

He says the Conservative government is regenerating one of the largest industrial sites in the whole of Europe, in Redcar.

The Conservatives are the "party of delivery, and the party of building back better", he says.

"We're part of a different Conservative party now, because of our success in the north east."

'Vaccine bounce' and 'Starmer bloodbath' - tomorrow's headlines

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The i

Daily Mail

The Daily Telegraph

The Times

The Guardian

The Sun

A good day for the parties governing during pandemic

The story so far in Wales...

All but one of the Welsh Parliament constituency results are in, but counting is continuing for the regional seats. Here's how the make-up of the Senedd looks so far tonight.

BBC

Tories have moved further in grabbing Labour seats

Laura Kuenssberg

Political editor

This isn't a general election, but it gives a striking impression as to what's going on in politics across the country right now.

For the big picture, the Conservatives are cock-a-hoop. Labour are disappointed, limping behind.

Results are not yet over, but there are three things we can already say:

Tories have moved further along in grabbing Labour areas which the opposition used to be able to rely on. It's more evidence of a profound move over time, while Labour is getting squeezed to the cities.

We're also reminded of the fragile connection between Westminster and the rest of the country. Boris Johnson has had a torrid time in Westminster in the past few weeks, yet he remains a magnet for millions of voters. Labour have discovered they are a brand which some people want nothing to do with.

We are in a scenario where there are very different situations for politics across the country. Welsh Labour's performance is different to England's. All the parties have to grapple with the fact that the jigsaw is becoming more and more complicated. It used to be a pretty stable political system.

Close race in London with half of votes declared

Sam Francis

BBC News, London

BBC

Labour's Sadiq Khan is about 25,000 votes ahead of the Conservatives' Shaun Bailey in the race to become mayor of London, with seven out of 14 constituencies declared in full.

But Mr Bailey is outperforming the previous Conservative candidate, Zac Goldsmith, based on the declared constituencies.

Most polls predicted Mr Bailey would trail Mr Goldsmith, who forced Mr Khan into a run-off in 2016 after securing 35% of the vote.

The mayor of London is elected on a Supplementary Vote system, where each voter can choose a first and second preference for mayor.

If any candidate receives more than 50% of the first preferences they win the election outright. If no winner is found based on first preference votes the top two candidates enter a run-off, where their second preferences are added to their total vote.

In 2016, Mr Khan only became mayor of London only after securing 56% of the second preference votes.

Mr Khan is currently around 4% behind his 2016 votes, based on the declared constituencies.

More than half the votes still need to be counted, and we won't know the full result until tomorrow evening, but it is looking much closer than many polls predicted.

Labour needs policies - Zahawi

BBC

Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi says he doesn't think voters like Keir Starmer's "political point scoring" during the pandemic.

He says Labour also does not have policies. He says voters want to know what will be done for them.

The government now has to focus "and deliver" in the coming years, he states.

Boris Johnson has the "obsessive laser-like focus on delivery, delivery, delivery," he adds.

First results in London elections show no change

Sam Francis

BBC News, London

EPA

The first results of the Greater London Authority (GLA) election appear to show a similar picture to 2016.

Electors confirmed the first seven members of the 25-member London Assembly. No constituencies changed hands.

Membership of the London Assembly is split in two - with 14 representing constituencies representing two boroughs, and the other 11 elected by a party-list system.

Labour have held four constituencies so far; The Conservatives have held three.

The result of the Mayor of London election is expected on Saturday.

Seven more constituencies will elect London Assembly members tomorrow.

'People felt in safe hands with Mark Drakeford'

Getty Images

Former Labour First Minister Carwyn Jones said the major issue raised on the doorstep had been his successor Mark Drakeford's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It was competence, it was Mark, it was the fact that people felt they were in safe hands," he said.

"People were telling me over and over again how well they thought Mark had performed as first minister during the time of the pandemic."

He spoke to BBC Wales as Sarah Murphy retained his former seat in Bridgend for Labour, a constituency his party lost to the Conservatives at the 2019 UK general election.

"From our perspective this is better than we could have dreamt of in many, many ways," he said.

"To see Sarah win is fantastic, and to win so well, that's really good."