BBC Breakfast

In Scotland, first time voter Grace Deveney says she decided to vote Labour, despite being pro-independence.

She says Labour's policies clinched it for her, especially over education and giving the Covid vaccine to teachers.

But, speaking in the town of Gourock, west of Glasgow, she praises the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon as "such a good influence to young girls".

"It wasn't that a fact of not agreeing with the SNP's policies", she says, "it was just that I liked Labour's a wee bit more".

Meanwhile, childminder Susannah Knox, who supports the SNP, says she "stumbled slightly" when deciding who to vote for this year.

After feeling her job had been marginalised over the past year, she says had second thoughts on backing the SNP.

"But then when I looked at the wider picture for Scotland, and what I want for my daughter... I want it to be a free and independent Scotland," she says.

She ended up voting for the SNP as "validation" for how they dealt with the pandemic "on the whole", and says she thinks the referendum is a different issue - "you'll have a vote in the referendum and then you can decide".

One of the biggest stories yesterday was the Conservatives winning the Hartlepool by-election - a seat Labour had held since its creation in 1974.

Floating voter, Muhammad Ali Ahmad tells the BBC the result was a shock but he is pleased Tory candidate Jill Mortimer won.

Muhammed, who lives in Hartlepool but works in Newcastle, wants to see more jobs and training in the town, so young people don't have to move away.

Labour supporter Georgie Hume put the result down to "disillusionment and disenfranchisement with both local and national politics and leaders".

"For Labour, unfortunately they’ve had quite a tumultuous few years so they’ve lost support and I think they need to have a stronger opposition," she says.

Sacha Bedding, a community centre manager, says the Labour vote "collapsed" because of "internal fighting locally, internal fighting nationally, a feeling that the Labour party policies don’t engage with their heritage supporters in this part of the world".

"They are leaning towards the metropolitan areas and it doesn’t sit well in communities like ours," he adds.

As well as the tight race in London, there are 12 more mayoral roles up for grabs in England - with some results already in.

On Friday the Conservatives managed to keep hold of the Tees Valley mayoralty - an area once considered a Labour stronghold - with Ben Houchen increasing his share of the vote to 73%.

Meanwhile, Labour's Joanne Anderson became the first black woman to lead a major British city.

Labour also held the mayoralty in Doncaster.

Later today, we're expecting results from the mayoral elections in North Tyneside, the West of England, Liverpool City Region, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Salford, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, London and Bristol.

The West Midlands is one to watch, with the Conservatives' Andy Street hoping to keep his role, while Labour are hoping to take the West of England mayoralty from the Tories.

West Yorkshire will also elect a mayor for the first time - but we might not get that result until tomorrow.

It's currently a close race in London's mayoral election, with Labour's Sadiq Khan 25,000 votes ahead of the Conservative's Shaun Bailey.

Counting in the capital resumes this morning, with seven out of 14 constituencies declared in full.

Mr Khan is on 487,104 first preference votes (39.0%), with Mr Bailey on 462,837 (37.0%).

Meanwhile, Green Party's Sian Berry has chalked up 98,267 votes (7.9%), with the Lib Dems Luisa Porritt next on 46,225 votes (3.7%).

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.

• Look up the results in your area here
• See London's latest results here

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

We'll hopefully find out the full results later tonight.

In the meantime, from policing to the Tube, read up on what powers the London mayor has, here.

Image source, Get

Crunching the numbers: What does the data tell us?published at 09:45 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

09:45 BST 8 May 2021

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

The BBC has been collecting data in 1,000 key wards.

This gives us something known as the projected national share.

It gives us an estimate of the share of the vote the parties may have won in a nationwide general election - if voters had behaved in the same way as those who actually voted in the local elections.

So on the basis of those 1,000 key wards, the BBC projects that if a general election was taking place, the parties would have the following percentage shares:

• Conservative 36
• Labour 29
• Lib Dem 17
• Other 18

The projected Conservative lead of 7 points is similar to the average Conservative lead of 6 points in the most recent Britain-wide polls.

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 nationwide net swing from the Conservatives to Labour of 2.5 points from the 2019 general election. Hartlepool's by-election saw a 16% swing the other way.

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.

Environment Secretary George Eustice says there are a number of factors behind the Conservative's success in local elections in England, including Brexit, the success of the vaccine roll-out and the track record of Tory councils in delivering cost-effective local services.

The party made a number of significant gains on Friday, including winning the Hartlepool by-election and picking up control of several councils.

“Parts of this country that elected Labour for a very long time, feel taken for granted," Eustice tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"The Brexit decision and the wrangling over that in recent years has focused minds in that they’ve questioned whether the Labour Party was really in touch with their priorities.”

He says it can also be easier for a Conservative council or mayor to work "in partnership" with a Conservative government.

While he says the government will work with all councils, whatever their political makeup, "in these difficult times", he says, "there’s a case for local authorities and government working in partnership to solve problems".

On the Scottish election, he told BBC Breakfast it was the "wrong time" for a referendum on independence, with the country emerging from the pandemic and beginning its economic recovery.

BBC Breakfast

Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds says there will be a review of the party's policies in a bid to reconnect with voters.

He says that in places like Hartlepool - which Labour lost yesterday - and its traditional heartlands elsewhere, people "do not now see Labour as answering" their concerns.

"That's now what we have to reflect on and why we have to change," he says.

Mr Thomas-Symonds says his leader Keir Starmer has "led very courageously on things like tackling anti-Semitism in the Labour Party - now it is a question of moving on, having that review of our policies".

"And also make sure we are changing our party so that our party is connected in communities up and down the country - that is the challenge and we are determined to do it."

Some lessons from the elections so farpublished at 08:52 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

08:52 BST 8 May 2021

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

Image source, 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.

As his political opponents have found to their frustration in Westminster, the prime minister's prowess as a campaigner sucks oxygen from everyone else - and goodness knows it must have taken a lot of puff to blow up that inflatable blimp.

Image source, Reuters

In contrast, Sir Keir Starmer has just enjoyed a few weeks of making the running in SW1. But much of the country has demonstrated once more that Labour turns swathes of voters away.

Caution is still wise, hordes of results are yet to come, and for both of the big parties, and particularly the prime minister, the outcome of the Scottish results is possibly the start of a brand new nightmare.

Continue reading here.

It's been a bumper crop of elections this time round, after polls were delayed from last year because of the pandemic.

Let's recap who's being elected:

You can look up the latest results in your area here.

Scotland result heading for pro-independence majority - but what then?published at 08:36 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

08:36 BST 8 May 2021

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

The SNP’s John Swinney has not quite given up on a majority for his party.

He's told the BBC this morning it’s going to be “incredibly close”. He’s right – it could come down to one seat.

But it’s not just about the SNP.

The Scottish Greens are likely to pick up a few seats this afternoon, on the regional list, which means there will be a pro-independence majority in Holyrood. Mr Swinney is adamant that is a mandate for indyref2, a second independence referendum.

So what next?

Boris Johnson has repeated, in the Telegraph, external this morning, he thinks a referendum would be a bad idea.

He plans to block it. That will infuriate independence supporters – Mr Swinney said this morning that the prime minister must accept “democracy in Scotland”.

But he confirmed the SNP intend to go ahead with legislating for a referendum at Holyrood – then daring the UK government to challenge them in court. The UK government will almost certainly do that – setting up a legal showdown down the road.

Nicola Sturgeon has ruled out a wildcat – or "illegal" referendum, and I don’t think she would go ahead with a vote that wasn’t seen as legitimate internationally.

But this story is going to continue to be a big part of Scottish and UK politics in the coming years.

SNP unlikely to get overall majoritypublished at 08:17 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

08:17 BST 8 May 2021

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

There is still a chance the SNP could get an overall majority but in truth it’s a remote chance.

It rests on whether or not the SNP can pick up Galloway and Aberdeenshire West – two Conservative-held marginal seats. Those do look like more of a long shot.

And it also depends whether or not they can pick up a couple of list seats – one in the Highlands and one in the south of Scotland.

Bu they would need to get at least three of those four seats, and on the evidence of what we’ve seen so far they will be lucky to make it.

So we’re probably not looking at an SNP overall majority.

But there will be a majority of pro-independence MSPs – the SNP and the Greens in combination.

One of the ironies of the result is that perhaps one of the reasons the SNP are not going to get an overall majority is because - despite the claims from unionist parties that voters were much more concerned about the pandemic - actually these results reveal the extent to which voters were concerned about the constitutional question.

One way that was realised was the extent of tactical voting, particularly in those seats that both Conservative and Labour were defending.

There is pretty clear evidence that where the Conservatives have been lying third they switched to Labour, and equally, where Labour was lying third they switched to the Conservatives.

This is also going to be a record high turnout for a Scottish Parliament election.

So I think we can take away first, that Scotland’s voters on both sides of the argument really are concerned about the constitutional question.

And secondly, probably when all the votes are counted it’s going to underline that this country is pretty much evenly divided between supporters of independence and supporters of the union.

After the end of counting on Friday the SNP are sitting on 39 constituency seats. The magic number at Holyrood is 65 - the number of seats it takes to win a majority.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said herself it is on a "knife edge"

Image source, .

Rather than one party being up or down across the country, the race is becoming far more local.

In most seats now, the contest seems to be between the SNP and whichever other party has the best chance of beating them.

Image source, .

BBC Breakfast

Image source, Reuters

The SNP's deputy first minister John Swinney says the party's results in Scotland are "an astonishing achievement... given the fact that we are now about to embark on a fourth consecutive term in government".

For a reminder, the SNP currently have 39 constituency seats so far - and would need 65 to get a majority.

Asked whether he thinks people voted for the SNP because they wanted a referendum on Scottish independence, he says people vote for parties for a number of reasons.

But, he adds: "Central to our manifesto commitment was the proposition of there being a referendum on independence during this parliamentary term."

"I'm confident that there will be a majority for such a proposition in Scottish Parliament after the election and at that stage the democratic will of the people of Scotland needs to be acted upon, and Boris Johnson needs to support us in that process".

What about if the prime minister blocks a referendum, would the SNP legislate for one?

"We certainly would, yes," he says.

It has been a story of Labour holding its ground against challenges from the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru to edge towards victory.

But the final make-up of the parties in the Senedd will not be known until final regional list seat results are announced when counting resumes today.

We're nearly there - with just eight final results due later.

Just after midnight, Labour had reached 30 of the 60 seats, matching its best-ever Senedd election result.

Read more here.

Results will continue to come in across England, Scotland and Wales after a bumper set of local and national elections.

Due to coronavirus restrictions in many of the counting venues, the results are taking a little longer than usual to be announced.

You can use our postcode checker to find the result in your local area.

And you can find our interactive at a glance results here:

• The results in Scotland
• The results in Wales
• The results in England

Adam Fleming
Chief political correspondent

Boris Johnson has done an interview in today's Telegraph, external and while he was in Hartlepool yesterday celebrating the Conservative victory in the Westminster by-election, this morning he's turned to the results in Scotland, and he says now is not the time for another independence referendum. He describes that as being a reckless thing to do.

Notice he says “not now”, not “not ever”.

The challenge for the prime minister when he responds to the final results in the Scottish Parliament later today, is to sound like he’s the prime minister of the United Kingdom rather than the prime minister of England.

Elsewhere in UK, I think Labour will be hoping that they have a better day. And they should do better than yesterday - we’ll get the results of the mayoralties in Manchester, London and Bristol, where the party is expected to win.

We’ll also get the final picture in Wales where it looks like Welsh Labour have managed to hold off challenges from the other parties.

This may mean that Keir Starmer wakes up a little bit less sad today than he did yesterday.

Image source, EPA

So to recap:

• Counting will resume in the Scottish Parliament elections, with the remaining constituency MSPs expected to be declared by the end of the day, along with those on the regional list.
• With 52 of the 60 seats declared in the Welsh Senedd, Labour are set to stay in power. We should know the final results later today.
• Counts are also continuing across England, where the Conservatives have already made significant gains. We’ll get results in more of the mayoral elections, including the key battleground of the West Midlands, this afternoon.
• We’re also expecting results for the London Assembly and mayoral race this evening, but this could slip into Sunday.

Stay with us for all the results.

Image source, Getty Images

With 52 of the 60 seats declared in Wales, Labour is on 30 with the Conservatives on 12, Plaid Cymru nine and the Liberal Democrats one.

It means Labour is set to stay in power in Wales after matching its best-ever Senedd election result - with exactly half of the 60 seats in the Welsh Parliament.

The Tories took the Vale of Clwyd from Labour, and Brecon and Radnorshire from the Liberal Democrats.

But Labour held firm in other Tory target seats, and they took Rhondda back from Plaid Cymru.

Leader Mark Drakeford said he would "do whatever I can" to ensure Wales has a "stable and progressive" government.

Read our report in full here.

Image source, Getty Images

We're also waking up to the second day of counting in the Holyrood election, with the SNP dominating the constituency vote.

The party won three new seats but failed to win some target constituencies, making it hard, but not impossible, to achieve an overall majority:

• Three seats changed hands - all won by the SNP
• After the first day of counting, with 48 seats declared, the SNP have 39 MSPs, the Lib Dems four, the Conservatives three and Labour two.
• The SNP's hopes of an overall majority were dealt a blow late in the day when Scottish Labour's Jackie Baillie held on to the most marginal constituency, Dumbarton
• Nicola Sturgeon was returned in Glasgow Southside, with a comfortable majority, just marginally down on last time
• Former Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw also increased his majority in Eastwood - another target seat for the SNP.

Get fully up to speed here.

Image source, EPA

More results will be announced today, giving the parties a clearer idea of how many of England's councils they will end up running.

The Conservatives have already made significant gains, with Labour losing control of several local authorities.

Counting will also restart in English mayoral elections.

PM Boris Johnson called the results so far "encouraging", while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer promised to lead a fightback and set out a "bold vision".

On Thursday, people in England voted in elections for 143 councils, 13 mayors and 35 police and crime commissioners.

Read more here