We're still waiting for the London mayor result, which BBC London's Political Editor Tim Donovan says is unlikely to arrive before 10pm.

The candidates are currently waiting around at London's City Hall.

Image source, PA Media

While we await the London mayor result, some news from earlier in the Scottish election.

Former First Minister Alex Salmond failed in his bid to return to the Scottish Parliament, as his Alba party missed out on a seat in the North East regional list

Alba polled 8,269 votes in the region, 2.3% of the vote - well short of the number required to get an MSP.

The former SNP leader had earlier conceded that his new party was unlikely to return any parliamentarians to Holyrood

Mr Salmond says he will continue as party leader.

In a statement, he said the 32 Alba candidates had been "injecting urgency" into the need to deliver independence and that it intended to stay on the political scene. It plans to hold a conference in June and contest local elections in Scotland next year.

Labour MP - and former party chair - Ian Lavery has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for sacking Angela Rayner as party chair.

"It looks as if taking responsibility means throwing Angela Rayner under the political bus - that is not the right attitude to adopt," he tells the BBC.

"Something sadly has gone wrong in the party - knee-jerk reactions like this don't do anyone any good."

Meanwhile, another Labour MP, Emma Lewell-Buck, has tweeted:, external "I can’t put into words how disappointed I am right now about the sacking of Angela Rayner."

Green London Mayoral candidate Sian Berry says the party is expecting a "record number" of councillors and has made gains all around England.

She says the Greens are taking seats from Labour and Tories and attracting voters "fed up of two-party tribalism" who are inspired by their environmentalist message.

With just 13 councils still to declare the Greens have added 70 seats.

Editor of the Labour List website - a news, views and comment website about the Labour Party, Sienna Rodgers, says "it's certainly a bold move".

She says earlier this week a source close to Angela Rayner told her they were concerned Rayner would be blamed for a bad showing in these elections, particularly following a year in which she had been "sidelined".

"A lot of the blame is being attributed to Angela Rayner", she says, which lots of people in the Parliamentary Labour Party "have found quite confusing".

A Starmer-supporting frontbencher told her this evening that this could be seen as the "wrong response, a knee-jerk reaction".

"There have actually been good results for Labour today," she says, adding that Labour have won a mayoralty from the Conservatives and there have been other good showings.

Jamie Moreland
BBC London

There has been a lively mood outside London's City Hall as the mayoral candidates gathered ahead of the results announcement.

UKIP's Peter Gammons shared a joke with Rejoin EU's Richard Hewison, and YouTubers Niko Omilana and Max Fosh met, surrounded by their camera crews.

Candidates from the smaller parties soon arrived too, with Steve Keller, Brian Rose, Laurence Fox, Madu Reid and Piers Corbyn entering through the tight security.

Despite some chants and songs by anti-vaccination protesters, there's a feeling of nervous excitement in the air, even though most candidates are aware of the BBC's projection that Sadiq Khan is likely to win.

Labour's shadow schools ministers Wes Streeting says he has a lot of respect for Angela Rayner, adding that she has a "big responsibility" along with Sir Keir to "lead the party to victory at the next general election".

He says it is "time to take a cold hard look at ourselves to make sure we are changing Labour for the good".

"We've got to show we've changed. We've got to show, not tell - show how we're changing."

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Results were worse than internal party polling was telling them it would be.

Labour has not been making the kind of progress it should be making in some of the areas they were contesting.

Some people are suggesting that Angela Rayner's sacking is counterproductive for Keir Starmer, as it may well rally those from the left of the party around her.

But this is likely to be a curtain raiser for what will be a much bigger reshuffle of responsibilities for the top Labour team.

She remains very popular among many party members, and Keir Starmer is receiving conflicting advice on what to do next. Some want to see him head more to the left, and some want to see further distance from the Corbyn era.

Image source, PA Media

First Round

• Labour: Dan Norris - 84,434
• Conservatives: Samuel Williams - 72,415
• Greens: Jerome Thomas - 54,919
• Liberal Democrats: Stephen Williams - 41,193

Labour improved on its 2017 performance by 11.2%, while the Greens increased their vote share by 10.5%

Second round

• Labour: Dan Norris - 41,048
• Conservatives: Samuel Williams - 12,974

The West of England region is made up of Bath and North East somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

Counting continued in England's local elections throughout the day. So far, 128 councils have declared their results, of 143 to have held polls this time around.

The main winners are the Conservatives, who have gained control of 12 more councils - taking them to 55 in these elections.

They now have 2,056 councillors, 250 more than before.

And it's been a good election for the Greens, who have gained 68 councillors - taking them to 118.

But it's bad news for Labour, who have lost control of six councils, and now hold 44 of those up for election.

The party has lost 294 councillors, leaving them with 1,243.

You can find all the council results here.

The BBC's polling expert Prof Sir John Curtice projects that Labour will remain the largest party on the London Assembly, with 11 seats - down by one from the result five years ago.

The remaining parties are expected to get:

• Conservatives - 9
• Greens - 3
• Lib Dems - 2

It would mean all three of these parties increase their seats by one from the previous election, because UKIP has not defended its two seats.

"London Labour support has edged down a bit," says Prof Curtice.

"Perhaps the party who will be most pleased will be the Greens, a party who have been gaining ground across the capital and whose profile has been growing."

Analysis: Green gainspublished at 20:12 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

20:12 BST 8 May 2021

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

The joy of a buffet of elections like these is being able to graze on the details that emerge beyond the main headlines.

The political afters while most people are gorging on the main course, the main headlines.

So let's take a look at the performance of the Green Party of England and Wales.

As things stand, on late Saturday afternoon, the party has won 116 council seats, gaining 73 and losing five.

The party's co-leader Sian Berry has told the BBC the Greens would have "a record number of Green councillors on a record number of councils"

The BBC's elections supremo Professor Sir John Curtice says "these local elections appear to confirm that the Greens are now able to win a non-trivial proportion of the vote".

Professor Curtice adds: "It suggests the party is now clearly England's fourth largest party."

So what's going on?

I'm going to keep an eye on this as the remainder of the results come in, and will write a longer piece for the BBC website tomorrow.

Disillusionment with Labour seems to account for some of the party's progress.

But there are gains from the Conservatives too.

Climate change becoming a mainstream political issue is another factor, something the Greens have talked about for longer than most.

Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has been sacked from her role as chairman of the party, Labour sources have told the BBC, following their poor showing in the elections.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has called the decision to remove Ms Rayner a "cowardly avoidance of responsibility".

Rayner will continue to play senior role - Labour sourcepublished at 19:52 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

19:52 BST 8 May 2021

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

Labour is understood not to be planning to make any more announcements about its reshuffle tonight.

Angela Rayner is expected to be offered another shadow cabinet role.

A Labour source said: “Keir said he was taking full responsibility for the result of the elections - and he said we need to change.

"That means change how we run our campaigns in the future. Angela will continue to play a senior role in Keir’s team.”

Sadiq Khan set for London mayor re-election - BBC forecastpublished at 19:37 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

19:37 BST 8 May 2021Breaking

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

On the basis of the 11 constituency mayoral results declared so far, the BBC is projecting that the results of the London mayoral election will be in the first round:

• Khan (Labour) 41
• Bailey (Conservative) 35
• Porritt (Liberal Democrat) 4
• Berry (Green) 8
• Others 12

On the basis of these figures it looks as though Sadiq Khan should be comfortably elected as London mayor once the second preferences have been distributed.

Image source, PA Media

Labour sources have confirmed that the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Angela Rayner, has been removed from her roles as party chair and campaign co-ordinator.

This isn't expected to affect her role as deputy leader of the party, which is an elected position.

Andy Burnham thanks his family for their support as he is re-elected as Greater Manchester Mayor.

How does the Supplementary Vote work and what happens if you vote for the same person twice?published at 19:08 British Summer Time 8 May 2021

19:08 BST 8 May 2021

Question from Charlotte in London

Image source, European Photopress Agency

The supplementary vote system allows voters to express preferences for different candidates – by marking their first choice and second choice. It’s being used for the Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections.

You don’t have to mark a second choice – and if you mark the same person for both first and second choice, it only counts as one vote.

On counting, if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates go through to a second round – the one with the most votes in that round wins.

Image source, PA Media

Newly re-elected West Midlands mayor Andy Street has been speaking to the BBC.

He says he won because he had "delivered" during his time in office and voters had "bought into" his plans for the next four years.

The former John Lewis boss says he will use his second term as mayor to reopen rail lines, extend the metro system, reduce fares and get more people walking and cycling.

He also describes himself as "a proud Conservative" but adds that he is "not particularly partisan".

"First and foremost I've been a champion for the place, not a servant for my party."

London's next mayor will be declared at about 8.30pm, officials at City Hall have confirmed, with London Assembly results to follow shortly afterwards.

There had been a possibility that the result wouldn't come until tomorrow.