Image source, PA Media

We have more from Sir John Curtice on the BBC's projected national share (Conservatives 36%, Labour 29%, Lib Dems 17% Other parties 18%)

"The projected Conservative lead of seven points is similar to the average Conservative lead of 6 points in the most recent GB-wide polls," the polling expert says.

"The election results thus appear to confirm the apparent vaccine boost to the Conservatives' popularity.

"But in contrast to the result in Hartlepool there is a projected net swing from the Conservatives to Labour of 2.5 points from the 2019 general election.

"Labour have made at least some progress in this election, albeit far less than what one might expect from an opposition in the middle of a government's term.

"The Liberal Democrat projected share is two points lower than the party's performance in the last local elections in 2019 and only slightly better than that registered in 2016 and 2018.

"The party still seems to be doing little more than treading water, even if it is still stronger in local elections than it is for Westminster."

Here's a round up of some of the councils that have changed hands over the last few hours.

• The Conservatives take control of Basildon, which had previously been under no overall control
• Labour loses control of Plymouth, with the Conservatives gaining six seats.
• A Conservative win in Maidstone means the party takes full control of the council
• It's the same situation in Cornwall, which moves from being under no overall control to being in the hands of the Conservatives
• And in Pendle one seat moves from Labour to the Conservatives, giving the latter a majority of seats in the area

In case you're wondering, a council is under no overall control when no single party holds 50% + 1 of the seats.

You can see all of the latest English council results here.

The BBC has published its projected national share. What this means is that the number-crunchers have, using results from the English local elections, worked out what percentage of the vote the parties would have run had this been a general election.

The results put the Conservatives on 36%, Labour on 29% and the Liberal Democrats on 17% - with the remaining parties on 18%.

Polling expert Sir John Curtice says the results show Labour has made some progress since the 2019 general election but "it is more like the progress of a snail, rather than a hare".

With nearly half of English councils it's possible to start drawing some conclusions. For the Conservatives it's a clear story of gains everywhere with the exception of the South East. For Labour, it's the opposite, with losses in every region, particularly in the West Midlands.

For the Liberal Democrats it's a mixed picture, with gains in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber offset by losses elsewhere. As it stands, they have lost seats today.

And the day's other winners, starting from a low base, are the Greens, who have made progress in all regions, adding more than 30 seats.

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

There is still a path for the SNP to get an overall majority, although that is increasingly narrow.

Ms Sturgeon is now looking to be in a weaker position with her party. This means she might want to push for a referendum sooner.

Meanwhile, a more emboldened Boris Johnson might feel as if he can decline a request for a fresh independence referendum.

Scotland is pretty much divided down the middle on the merits of independence. Boris Johnson, if he approved a referendum, could potentially lose the argument.

In what was expected to be one of the tightest races of the Scottish Parliament election, Labour have held on to the seat of Dumbarton.

Labour's Jackie Baillie has held the seat since the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. In 2016 she won by just 109 votes but this time she increased her majority to 1,483 over the SNP.

In a pattern seen elsewhere in seats held by pro-UK parties, Labour's vote increased by 6%, while the vote of the Conservatives dropped by the same amount - showing a willingness among pro-union voters to vote tactically.

'Majority you can count on fingers and toes'published at 20:30 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

20:30 BST 7 May 2021

Glenn Campbell
BBC Scotland Political Editor

Dumbarton is the most interesting constituency which is still to declare today.

The Labour-held seat is the most marginal in the whole country.

I think it is going to be really tight this time. We heard Jackie Baillie, the defending MSP, say it was too close to call.

The numbers I am hearing are of a majority you could count on your fingers and toes.

Whether it is a Labour majority or an SNP majority, who knows?

There are hopes of a result in the Welsh Parliament election tonight. Here are some of the headlines from the results so far:

• Labour has gained the seat of Rhondda from Plaid Cymru - only the second seat to change hands
• It has held all of its other seats declared so far - apart from the Vale of Clwyd, which it lost to the Welsh Conservatives
• Labour has held on to all the other seats the Conservatives were targeting
• Plaid Cymru has held seats four seats in its heartlands, with increased majorities
• At 20:20 Labour stood at 21 seats, with the Tories on 7 and Plaid on four

The former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has criticised the direction of the party under Sir Keir Starmer for “offering nothing” but “insipid support for the government”.

Asked on Channel 4 News if Sir Keir should resign, Mr Corbyn said “it’s up to him what he decides to do”.

Mr Corbyn, who’s currently an independent MP having had the Labour whip removed, said “people want to know what the Labour Party now stands for” and the party has to “offer people a vision for social justice”.

He said the results were “very very bad in parts of the country” but in Wales “seem quite good", adding the leader of Welsh Labour “has never apologised for being a socialist”.

He insisted that the policies of his 2019 manifesto were right and popular, adding “I think the party has to recognise what its roots are, what principles are, and meet (people’s) needs.”

Image source, PA Media

Alba Party leader Alex Salmond tells the BBC that his party, which is polling at about 2%, is "making breakthroughs in some places".

However, he adds that "in terms of making a parliamentary breakthrough, it may be that we fall short".

He says the results are "not that bad" for a political party that is only six weeks old.

He also insists that in some areas, his party "saved the SNP's bacon" by encouraging people to vote for the pro-independence party at the constituency level.

Prof Laura McAllister
Cardiff University

Laura McAllister, professor of public policy at Cardiff University, says Labour "performed better than most people expected them to" in Wales.

"After 22 years in power, with a Conservative Party that was really strongly tipped to make significant breakthroughs, and of course Plaid Cymru biting its ankles as well, that's some achievement," she said.

"If Labour comes out with 28, 29 seats I think that would be a pretty remarkable result."

The first result from the London Assembly election is in, with the Conservative candidate Tony Devenish holding the West Central seat by 2,225 votes from Labour - much reduced from a 14,000 majority in 2016.

The West Central seat includes two Tory run councils - Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, as well as the Labour Hammersmith and Fulham - and has been held by the Tories since the creation of the Assembly in 2000.

The result may be a blow to the hopes of Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey. The last time a Conservative won the London mayoralty, Boris Johnson in 2012, West Central was won by more than 29,000 votes.

Image source, Reuters

In London, Labour's Sadiq Khan had been widely expected to win in the race to be mayor.

There has been some speculation that the Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey is performing better than expected.

However BBC Radio London's political reporter Susana Mendonça warns that it is "early days" and that only a small number of constituencies have so far been counted.

"Both Bexley and Bromely and West Central have verified around 78% of their votes - they are both Conservative leaning areas," she says.

"The picture will changes as we go through today and tomorrow."

Edinburgh Central takes SNP closer to targetpublished at 19:18 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

19:18 BST 7 May 2021

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

The SNP victory in Edinburgh Central, widely anticipated in the wake of Ruth Davidson's decision to stand down, means the SNP are now half way to their target of winning six marginal constituency seats in order to get to 65 seats.

Former SNP Westminster Leader Angus Robertson has taken the Edinburgh Central seat from the Conservatives.

The previous MSP was ex-Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, who is standing down from Holyrood and taking a seat in the House of Lords.

The SNP vote in the seat rose by 10.4% while both the Tory and Labour vote fell on the last election.

Image source, Press Association

Labour's Joanne Anderson has become the first black woman to run a major UK city after winning the mayoralty of Liverpool.

She succeeds Joe Anderson, who is subject of an ongoing police investigation. The city council was also subject of a highly critical report and some services will be run by government appointed commissioners.

Ms Anderson says she is "wholeheartedly determined to put our city on a restorative path after a difficult year".

Labour's shadow Treasury minister Bridget Phillipson says "the message we are getting from voters is very clear".

"We've got to change and we have started that process of change under Keir Starmer," she says.

"The anger that was there in 2019 has gone - I'm not being chased off doorsteps in the way I was back then.

"But that's not the same thing as persuading people they can vote for us.

"We have a long journey ahead of us."

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has been in Cambridgeshire where his party has gained five seats, denying the Conservatives control of the council.

He says "in many parts of England the Liberal Democrats are the party to vote for if you want to beat the Conservatives" and that the party's message has "resonated".

The Lib Dem campaign across England has been mixed, however, with the party falling back slightly on its position the last time these councils were contested.

Scotland regional list 'snapshots' give flavour of Saturday's resultspublished at 18:35 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

18:35 BST 7 May 2021

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

Image source, EPA

The focus has understandably been chiefly on constituency contests so far, but we are also starting to see some figures for regional list rankings.

The full calculations for the regional lists will be done tomorrow, once all constituencies have counted, but some returning officers have been reading out both tallies for their local areas.

These are just little snapshots, scattered across several regions, but give a small flavour of how things may develop.

The Conservatives’ “peach vote” strategy may have paid off, with the party increasing its share in four of the five declarations so far.

The Alba Party meanwhile has not managed to gather more than 2.2% of the list vote in any of the five, and are behind the Family Party in two of them. This does not bode well for Alex Salmond’s party.

The Greens meanwhile are in fourth place in all five to have declared so far, which will give them hope of staying in fourth place at Holyrood ahead of the Lib Dems.

Image source, UK Parliament

More criticism of the Labour party has come in from one of its own MPs - and he doesn't hold back.

Khalid Mahmood - who was until a few weeks ago a shadow defence minister - says: "A London-based bourgeoisie, with the support of brigades of woke social media warriors, has effectively captured the party.

"They mean well, of course, but their politics – obsessed with identity, division and even tech utopianism – have more in common with those of Californian high society than the kind of people who voted in Hartlepool yesterday.

"The loudest voices in the Labour movement over the past year in particular have focused more on pulling down Churchill’s statue than they have on helping people pull themselves up in the world.

"A bit of superficial flag-waving – reinforced by urgent memos from party HQ – isn’t going to fix that.

"We fix that by supporting jobs in these so-called left behind areas – with changes to public procurement, for example, that bring jobs back to the UK and support manufacturing jobs, including those in high tech, advanced manufacturing."