We've also had our first result from the four mayoral races which took place yesterday. Labour's Chris Cooke has narrowly defeated incumbent Andy Preston, an independent, in Middlesbrough.

Cooke took 10,956 votes, 760 more than Preston, who had a majority of 10,725 in 2019.

This was the first time the first past the post system was used to elect the mayor.

Results for mayoral races in Bedford, Leicester and Mansfield are expected on Friday afternoon.

Let's go back to that result from Plymouth. One of the local factors Conservative government minister Johnny Mercer cited for Labour's victory there in the local election was the row over the council's controversial decision to cut down trees as part of a redevelopment programme.

Contractors felled 110 trees in the city centre in March, before an injunction forced them to stop.

The council went ahead with the project despite a consultation showing "overwhelming objection" to the plans.

The row obtained significant media coverage both locally and nationally, with TV wildlife presenter Chris Packham calling the tree felling "despicable vandalism".

Read more about the row.

Labour making steps forward, but not colossal leapspublished at 04:02 British Summer Time 5 May 2023

04:02 BST 5 May 2023

Chris Mason
Political editor

There are a million and one numbers around tonight. But sentiment, feeling, facial expressions matter too.

And there is little doubt who is in possession of the widest nocturnal smiles: the Liberal Democrats.

“We will exceed the expectations of all the pollsters, this is a great night for us,” a senior source told me.

The Conservatives are having a miserable night, without question.

Labour are making steps forward, but not colossal leaps.

Their party’s senior figures are instead pointing to geography, particular places where they claim they have done well enough to have won the parliamentary seats.

They reckon on the basis of tonight’s results they would have won the constituencies of Hartlepool, Stevenage, Dudley South, Ipswich, West Bromwich East, Great Grimsby, Aldershot.

The latter, Aldershot, has been Conservative for yonks and yonks.

But remember, for Labour to win a general election, they have to do astonishingly well in terms of gains, by any modern comparison, at the next general election.

Our political guests in the BBC elections studio have been giving their take on the results so far, and what they might mean for the next general election.

Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth says his party is making progress in areas of England that will prove key to the result, particularly in traditional Midlands marginals.

He says that if this was a general election, Labour would have won seats like Dudley, West Bromwich, Grimsby and Stevenage - which he describes as the sort of constituencies that decide elections.

Tory deputy chair Nickie Aiken, however, says the results show Conservative voters aren't switching to Labour or the Lib Dems - but rather that those not voting Tory this time round are "staying at home".

Labour will be pleased with Plymouth swingpublished at 03:44 British Summer Time 5 May 2023

03:44 BST 5 May 2023

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

Plymouth is the first Labour gain of the night - a council where it was by no means certain the party would succeed in winning control.

We can anticipate that this is the result upon which Labour spokespersons will focus in the morning. With 90% of the wards counted, the Labour vote in the council was up seven points on 2019, while the Conservative vote was down by 11 points - one of the biggest district-wide swings of the night.

It looks as though in cutting down trees in the city centre, the Conservatives also cut the knees from underneath their election chances.

Labour have retained control of Reading council.

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"It's been a really terrible night for us here in Plymouth."

That's according to Conservative minister Johnny Mercer, who attributes Labour gaining the council to "a number of factors", including "a difficult time" for the local Tory group.

"But we take it on the chin and we keep going forward. There's really important stuff happening on a national level and we need to redouble our efforts and make sure we continue to work hard for the people here in Plymouth," he tells the BBC's election special programme.

Image source, EPA

And just moments after posting about Plymouth, we see that Labour has gained control of the council which was previously hung.

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The city in west Devon is a major target for Labour at this year's local elections, and according to the results we're seeing here in the BBC newsroom, it looks set to take control.

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Tory councillor Chris Mitchell, who lost his seat on Worcester Council to the Greens, says the political backdrop in Westminster was a "key factor" in his party's performance.

He also says there was a "clear strategy" among opposition parties to push anti-Tory tactical voting.

He credits Rishi Sunak with having "steadied the ship" for the Conservatives since entering No 10 in October, but adds: "the turmoil we're in is a big tanker to turn round".

He says councillors explained to voters that the council doesn't have control over issues such as the performance of the NHS, but "residents just kept going back to national issues".

Ben Godfrey
Reporting from Tamworth

Frustrations with the Conservative government and the way it has handled the economy have been blamed in part by Tamworth's Tory leader for their losses locally.

The authority is now under no overall control after the Conservatives lost six seats although they remain the biggest party with 14 councillors.

"Nationally and locally we've had a very difficult 12 months and I think the electorate have responded to that and voted as they see fit today," leader Jeremy Oates said.

"We've had a number of issues to tackle so I did not quite see it coming to this extent but that's the cycle of politics."

While the chair of the Labour group in Tamworth, Chris Bain, said the result was astonishing.

"This will send shockwaves throughout the Conservative Party in the whole of Staffordshire so we are delighted with this result," he said.

"We are a serious party of government and a serious party in councils."

Over now to Greater Manchester, where the results for Salford show that Labour has retained control of the council.

Image source, .

So far it's a miserable night for the Conservativespublished at 02:51 British Summer Time 5 May 2023

02:51 BST 5 May 2023

Chris Mason
Political editor

The word I am obsessed about tonight is EXTENT.

The extent to which Labour is winning and the extent to which the Conservatives are losing.

There are loads of super important reasons to keep an eye on the other parties, and the results everywhere, for they determine who provides your local services that so many of us rely upon.

But the Conservative/Labour story is so fascinating for the insights it offers, up to a point, about the tussle at the next general election.

Take Hartlepool and Redditch. The results in both places, in headline terms, suggests no change.

Hartlepool remains under no overall control. Redditch remains held by the Conservatives.

But Labour gained six seats in Hartlepool. And they gained five in Redditch.

What does that tell us about Labour’s bounce back in two spots where they need to snaffle the Westminster seats at a general election?

It tells us it looks very competitive.

For the Tories, what seems to be happening so far is something of a pincer movement at their expense from at least three other parties: Labour yes, but also a buoyant and smiling collection of Liberal Democrats and in pockets like Worcester the Green Party too.

So far, it is proving to a miserable night for the Conservatives.

In the West Midlands, Labour have retained control of Sandwell council.

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The results from Thurrock are just in, where the Conservatives have held the council in Essex.

However, council leader Mark Coxshall lost his seat to Labour.

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Another result in from the West Midlands - where the Conservatives have retained control in Dudley.

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The Liberal Democrats have retained control of Hull - a council where it had been defending a slender two-seat majority over Labour.

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Labour have also held on to Coventry. That's 30 councils declared, only 200 to go!

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Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

The initial results declared so far indicate that the Conservatives are falling back, but the spoils are being divided between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

As a result, we cannot rule out the possibility that the party will lose the 1,000 seats that some anticipated they might lose.

So far, Labour have made a net gain of 29 seats, but the Liberal Democrats have also gained 15 seats.

In the set of key wards where the BBC is collecting detailed results, we are looking at a swing of around 4% from Conservative to Labour - slightly less (but only slightly) than we might have anticipated from the swing in the opinion polls since May 2019.

However, Labour will be disappointed that it looks as though their vote is simply on a par with their performance in last year's local elections, although the Conservatives are still five points down on 12 months ago.

But if Labour's performance is a little below what was anticipated when the forecast of 1,000 Conservative losses was first made, the Liberal Democrat performance seems to be somewhat better.

So far, the party's vote is up by around 1.5 points on both 2019 and 2022. These may be regarded as slightly better results for the party than might have been anticipated given the outcome in 2019 and 2022 were high points for the Liberal Democrats in recent local elections.

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Another result just in is that Labour has held Lincoln City Council. So far in these local election results, only two councils have changed hands and both have been Conservative losses.

We were expecting there to be little change overnight as most of the councils counting now only had a third of their seats up for election and are also largely in urban council areas.

Image source, .