Labour has won key councils and regional mayors in England, with the Conservatives losing 10 councils and more than 400 councillors
It also picked up the new regional mayor for York and North Yorkshire - which covers Rishi Sunak's constituency
Ben Houchen's win in the Tees Valley mayoral race was a bright spot on what has been a bad set of results for the Tories
Rishi Sunak said losses were "disappointing" but mayoral contests like Tees Valley were a "key battleground"
Labour made gains, winning councils in Redditch, Thurrock, Hartlepool, and Rushmoor in Hampshire - but lost Oldham to no overall control
Labour also won the Blackpool South by-election, taking the seat from the Tories, with a 26% swing
Sir Keir Starmer said the result "sends a message" to Rishi Sunak, and called on the prime minister to "make way"
It's been a long night and a busy morning with lots of results coming in - and plenty more still to come.
Here's a quick video roundup of key election results, have a watch.
Watch: Key election results... in 90 seconds
Image source, SHARIQUA AHMED/BBCDaisy Creedon-Blakemore was cheered by proud family members at the count, including her mum (right)
Over to Peterborough now, where among the new councillors is 18-year-old Daisy Creedon-Blakemore.
She won the seat for Labour, and says she is "pretty much overwhelmed at the moment, but we've worked the ward really hard".
Creedon-Blakemore believes she is now the youngest councillor in the country.
And it's one test to the next for the teenager, who sits her A-levels next week.
Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden who we heard from earlier has also been speaking to BBC Breakfast.
He says his "heart goes out" to Tory colleagues who have lost their seats overnight.
"Overall a disappointing night for us but that's what you expect from parties in mid-term of government," he adds.
Local elections: Tory chairman describes a 'disappointing night'
Starmer is also asked by the BBC if he is concerned over the impact his position on the war in Gaza could be having on the results in some parts of the country.
"Obviously I'm concerned wherever we lose votes, and we intend to win any votes we've lost back", he says, adding there is "no denying" Labour is "winning votes across the country" and that reflects a "changed Labour Party" with a positive case.
But he does not directly address the point on Gaza.
"I'm very pleased with the results," he says, adding "we're picking up seats where we need them in other parts of the country as well."
After his speech to Labour supporters, Starmer comes to speak to the BBC.
He says he wants a general election and is confident his party can win it.
The Labour leader says the Blackpool South by-election shows the country wants change, saying there is a "clear divide now" and people want to "turn the page" on the Conservatives' time in office.
"This was a direct message to the prime minister, which is: make way, let's have a general election, let's allow our country now to go forward," he says.
After deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner urges Rishi Sunak to "call a general election and let the country move forward", Keir Starmer takes the mic in Blackpool.
He says "a message has been sent directly to the prime minister... we're fed up with your decline, your chaos, and division, and we want change".
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner are speaking after the party's win in the Blackpool South by-election.
You can watch by clicking the Play button above.
Pat McFadden, Labour's national campaign co-ordinator, tells the Today programme he is "very grateful to voters", especially those who haven't voted for Labour before, or haven't for a long time.
He says the Blackpool by-election saw a "stunning swing" to his party.
In the coming days, his party will be looking at results in the key marginal constituencies. He says based on the current results, the party is "doing well" in these areas.
"There is a mood and a desire for change in the country right now," he adds.
Asked why he thinks Labour lost control of the council in Oldham, he says there has been "difficulty" for Labour in the area for a few years. And that particular local factors meant Oldham's verdict was "out of line" with Labour's overall trajectory.
Asked whether Labour's stance on the conflict has been damaging in Oldham, McFadden says there's "no denying" that this is a factor in some parts of the country.
He says the party will "work hard" to win back any voters who have left Labour over its position on the war in Gaza.
Image source, PA MediaYesterday was the first real test of the country's new voter ID rules for elections. Former PM Boris Johnson managed to forget his when he arrived at the polls.
But Electoral Commission chief executive Vijay Rangarajan says "it doesn't seem like there were very many" people who made the same mistake.
He tells the Today programme that campaigns to raise awareness of voter ID rules were largely successful, and that any issues people experienced were just "teething problems".
Asked about veterans whose Veteran Cards weren't accepted - since they're not on the list of accepted IDs - Rangarajan says the government should look to expand the list of ID cards accepted for elections.
On Thursday, a Downing Street spokesman said: "It is our intention for the new Veteran Card, which was rolled out in January, to be added to the official list."
We can give you an update now on the police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections also taking place across England and Wales.
The latest result is from Avon and Somerset, where Labour's Clare Moody has defeated the Conservative incumbent Mark Shelford, winning a majority of 4,976.
The Greens came in third, with the Lib Dems fourth.
Two other PCC races have already declared, with Labour also winning Cumbria from the Conservatives, and the Tories holding on in Lincolnshire - with 34 other counts still ongoing.
It has already been a busy day, with Labour winning the Blackpool South by-election and results in 35 English councils.
But there's plenty more to come...
Oscar Bentley
BBC Political Research Unit
At 16.9% of the vote, Reform UK’s performance in Blackpool South is the party’s best ever performance in a Westminster by-election.
It bests their previous high of 10.4%, which they achieved in Kingswood earlier this year. They also got 13% in Wellingborough, and a lower 6.3% in Rochdale.
However in their previous Brexit Party guise they did manage to achieve 28.9% in Peterborough in 2019.
But it’s also how the Conservative vote share changed in Blackpool South that shows why they’re worried about Reform.
The Tories’ vote was down 32.1%, while Labour’s was up 20.6% and Reform up 10.7%. So while roughly two-thirds of the Conservative vote may have gone to Labour – a third of it has gone to Reform.
This is a similar pattern we’ve seen in previous recent by-elections, with Reform gaining a sizeable chunk of the Tory vote from last time. Replicated across the country, that could deprive the Conservatives of many seats.
Lee Anderson, Reform UK's only MP, is combative on the Today programme.
He sounds irritated with host Nick Robinson - particularly when he points out Anderson's previous post as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.
He does sound pleased with Reform's election results, though - especially with what he calls a "tremendous" showing in the Blackpool by-election, where his party finished a close third.
"We're here to stay. We're making in-roads," he says. "Our trajectory is going up and up and up and the Tory party is going down and down and down."
Asked if Reform standing may have harmed the Conservatives' result, he says Labour is winning "50-60% of the vote" in a lot of areas, meaning Labour still would have won even if Reform didn't stand.
He adds: "It was a good night for Labour, let's be honest. It was a very, very poor night for the Conservative Party."
Image source, PA MediaEllis Palmer
Reporting from Blackpool South
David Jones, the defeated Conservative candidate in the Blackpool South by-election, has been talking about narrowly edging Reform UK out of second place.
I asked him whether he was "relieved" to finish second ahead of Reform. "I don't think relief is the word", he told me shortly after the count had finished.
"We wanted to win this by-election. We put a campaign together and hoped that the people of Blackpool South would rally around that. They didn't".
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
If you’ll forgive the cliché, it’s cold, grey and raining in Downing Street this morning and that feels about right given the mood in the Conservative Party.
Conservative MPs were braced for bad local election results. Those we’ve had so far are at the lowest end of possible expectations. Mix in the enormous swing to Labour in the Blackpool South by-election and you get a really bitter cocktail for the Conservatives.
Sure, things don’t seem to be much bleaker than they were at last year’s local elections. But this was meant to be the year that the polls narrowed from that low ebb. Conservative MPs thought an improving economy would chip away at Labour’s lead.
That simply has not happened.
What about Rishi Sunak’s leadership? The prevailing mood among Conservative MPs has been that, however bad their electoral predicament, changing leader again would only make that worse.
It’s too early to say whether many, if any, have changed their minds following these results.
Some I’ve spoken to this morning are still waiting to see what happens in the mayoral contests in the Tees Valley (result due this afternoon) and the West Midlands (result due tomorrow) before forming a view.
Speak to elections experts and they find this bemusing. These are contests with two incumbent Conservatives with strong personal brands who won at a canter last time round and have been busily distancing themselves from Sunak in recent months. The Conservatives could hold both while still suffering ominously large swings.
Yet Conservative MPs are in the market for psychological boost — something to hold on to. And they’re looking to the mayoral elections to find it.
The stakes for those mayoral contests, which were already high. They are now even higher.
Oscar Bentley
BBC Political Research Unit
Independent candidates have won eight seats in Oldham. Of those eight, five were candidates who stood on a pro-Gaza, anti-Labour platform.
All five of those won their seats directly from Labour.
Labour are four short of a majority on the council now, putting it into No Overall Control. So it's fair to say Labour lost Oldham due to their stance on Israel-Gaza.
Labour is still by far the largest party on the council with 27 seats, so will likely continue to run it, either as a minority administration or in coalition.
We now have an update from Arooj Shah, Labour leader in Oldham, where Labour lost overall control of the council.
Speaking to the Today programme, she says "really divisive, toxic politics" for the past five years played a part in today's results, and she's proud of her party's candidates despite losing five councillors.
Asked if Keir Starmer's stance on Gaza - a major sticking point in Oldham - contributed to the loss, Shah says that this isn't a "fair statement" to make, and that economic factors, stemming from "years of austerity" have hamstrung the Labour council.
Host Amol Rajan says blaming the result on the Tories is an "extraordinary" argument, but Shah maintains that Labour did "everything we could here on the ground".
It's worth noting that Labour is still the largest party in Oldham, and that independent candidates made the most gains in the area.
Arooj Shah, pictured in 2021
Image source, ReutersConservative Party chairman Richard Holden has just been speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live.
He says it's "early doors", but concedes it has been a "tough night" for Conservatives who have lost their seats.
“We have lost some good councillors across the country. But these are from a very high water mark of local elections in 2021," he says.
He refuses to speculate on what the results may mean for a general election, noting many results are still to be announced. But he says that, despite predictions of many Tory losses, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak "could definitely" lead them to victory in a national poll.
Image source, .
Chris Mason
Political editor
First things first - it's early days.
When there's a general election, we are used to waking up on Friday morning and knowing the result.
That's far from the case in this patchwork of local and regional elections.
There are shedloads of results still to come later today, throughout tomorrow and beyond.
But here's what we can tease out so far.
The Conservatives are having a very, very rough time. They have lost around half of the seats they are defending.
If this rate of loss continues across all the seats being fought, it would be in line with their worst performance in a set of local elections when looked at as a proportion of their seats lost - which was back in 1995.
And we know what happened two years later in 1997 - they lost the general election by a landslide.
These are the kind of numbers that will well and truly give Conservative MPs the heebie-jeebies.