The Conservatives have lost more than 450 council seats and Labour grabbed a close win in the West Midlands mayoral election
Richard Parker beat the Tory incumbent Andy Street - by 1,508 votes, a victory that Sir Keir Starmer described as "beyond our expectations"
Rishi Sunak has said he was disappointed but determined to press ahead with his plan to deliver a brighter future
Earlier today, former home secretary Suella Braverman blamed the PM for the "dismal" results and said he needs to "own" it and "change course"
Labour's Sadiq Khan won a third term as London mayor, increasing his share of the vote
Final results in the last remaining races for local elections are expected to be declared by the end of day
We were expecting Liverpool City Region to be the first mayoral result today. In fact, we're hearing it might be the race in South Yorkshire.
The turnout for the election has been 27.6%, with 275,668 votes cast.
The incumbent is Labour's Oliver Coppard, who has served as mayor since 2022.
Claire Hamilton
BBC political reporter in Liverpool
This is one of the safest mayoralties for Labour. Steve Rotheram’s expected to very comfortably win a third term.
He’s promising a “London-style transport network”, new train stations in St Helens and Daresbury and also bringing a film studios to Liverpool with the regeneration of Liverpool’s iconic Littlewoods building.
But turn out tells us there’s a lack of appetite and engagement among the electorate – just 23.7% of people voted – suggesting people across the city region don’t know enough about, or don’t care about it to participate.
Turn out in St Helens, one of the six councils which make up the Liverpool City Region, is just 19%.
What interests me is who comes second. In 2021 it was the Conservatives – this year both the Greens and the Liberal Democrats think they’ve nudged the Tories into fourth.
But Steve Rotheram’s majority is likely to be huge. In Knowsley it could be up to 70% of the vote.
Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockSteve Rotheram, former Liverpool Walton MP, is widely expected to win a third term as mayor of the Liverpool City Region.
He has been in the post since 2017 when the role was created.
The area covers the five Merseyside metropolitan boroughs of Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral, plus Halton in Cheshire.
He has campaigned on issues relating to the Hillsborough disaster, wants an integrated transport network by 2028, and a fully franchised bus network before the end of 2027.
He has also pledged to attract 25% more foreign direct investment into the city region by 2030.
You can read more about Steve Rotheram here.
The next result we're expecting is for the Liverpool City Region mayoral race, which is due very soon.
The turnout for the election has been 23.7%, with 272,721 votes cast.
The incumbent, Labour's Steve Rotheram, is widely expected to keep his job for a third term.
Much of the chatter at the count is now about who will come second - with both the Greens and the Liberal Democrats fancying their chances.
Here's Labour leader Keir Starmer speaking in Mansfield this morning, alongside the new Labour mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward.
Ward won yesterday, beating the Conservatives' Ben Bradley.
Labour election wins will make the history books - Starmer
Tim Donovan
BBC London, Political Editor
Trying to work out how long a London mayoral count takes is not easy.
There's a history of delays (and fatigue!). But at 12 of the 14 constituency counts for the mayoral contest, they're more than half-way through.
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
There is a trite catchphrase in some parts of that “London is a Labour city”.
At mayoral elections — of which there have only been six before this one — that’s not really true.
Ken Livingstone won the first mayoral election in 2000 having quit Labour, with the Labour candidate beaten into third.
In 2008, Livingstone - now back in the Labour fold - was defeated on a far higher turnout by the Conservative, a certain Boris Johnson.
And most crucially, Khan did not win by an especially convincing margin last time round, at least in the first round (the election system used has since changed).
Khan’s vote was down a fair bit on his first contest in 2016. Some attributed this to the election taking place in a year of real Conservative strength, though it may also have shown political brittleness on Khan’s part.
Not a single person I’ve spoken to in either party thinks Hall will win today. If she does, they will be shocked. Not long to wait now.
Sean Seddon
Live reporter
In addition to the remaining mayoral races we're watching, we're also still waiting for five councils to finish counting. This is what we're still looking out for and when we're expecting results:
We're not expecting any surprises in North Tyneside or Warrington, where Labour has very large majorities it expects it will hold onto.
The picture is more complicated in Stroud, where a coalition of Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents control the council.
Labour want to make inroads in this part of the world ahead of a general election and only have four councillors in Stroud at the moment.
The Conservatives have had a majority in Epping Forest since 2007, but there is strong support for local independents, too.
Early ward-level results suggest those independents are doing well so we'll be looking to see whether the Tories retain control over the council.
Results for Salford aren't expected till Sunday.
Image source, .Starmer has also been asked about the London mayoral election.
Labour's Sadiq Khan is facing a challenge from the Conservative's Susan Hall - in a vote where turnout has fallen by 1.5% compared to 2021.
The Labour leader says "Sadiq Khan was absolutely the right candidate".
"He has got two terms of delivery behind him and I am confident that he has got another term of delivery in front of him," Starmer adds.
Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent
Counting is already under way this morning in the London mayoral election.
Not a single vote was counted yesterday - not that that stopped an intense flurry of rumours that the Conservative candidate, Susan Hall, could be about to defeat the two-term Labour incumbent, Sadiq Khan.
Speculation grew louder still when turnout figures were released in the evening suggesting there might have been stronger turnout in more Conservative-leaning parts of London.
Responding to those rumours yesterday, officials from both parties were seriously sceptical: not just because of the obvious reason that no votes had been counted, but also because a Hall victory would be way out of line with public and private polling as well as canvass returns from door-knocking efforts during the campaign.
Yet both parties have always insisted that the contest was closer than many imagined.
Image source, .We've just heard from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in Mansfield - where the party is celebrating winning the East Midlands mayoral race.
Claire Ward was elected as the region's first ever mayor. The role covers Derby, Nottingham, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
Starmer says the region is "a really, really important area" for Labour.
"When the history books are written about this period of our political history in the United Kingdom, this will be part of that story", he added.
The Labour leader continues: "It now is upon us to deliver that change to each of those people that put their faith in us in the vote here in the East Midlands and we will do so with a positive case for the country."
Image source, .We're hearing from Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who is in the East Midlands.
Former vice-chair of the Conservative party Ben Bradley lost his bid to become the first mayor of the East Midlands. Labour's Claire Ward, the former MP for Watford, won the election with a 52,000 vote majority.
As a reminder, you can watch the coverage by pressing Play at the top of this page.
It's now just past 10:00 and counting has also just begun for the West Midlands mayoral election at the ICC in Birmingham.
As a reminder, the candidates in that race include:
You can follow all the results on our West Midlands live election page here.
In the last hour, votes cast in the London mayoral and assembly elections have started to be counted.
In a first for this election, the ballot papers are being counted by hand, with a result due later.
We're not expecting a result until at least 17:00 BST but it could be hours later than that, especially if it is a close race.
We already know voter turnout was 40.5% in the mayoral election, down 1.5% overall from 2021.
Professor Sir John Curtice
Professor of politics at University of Strathclyde
Conservative mayor Ben Houchen was re-elected in Tees Valley on Friday, and the party will hope to see similar success in the West Midlands and London today.
However, these mayoral elections are basically a comfort blanket of consolation and not really something on which to base a realistic assessment of how the Tories might perform in a general election.
These metro mayor contests were designed to people didn't necessarily vote for the same party they usually would in a national election.
The truth is that we know from polling in Teesside and the West Midlands that many voters were willing to vote for a Tory mayor but don't back the party nationally.
For that reason, these contests don't necessarily provide a good guide as to what will happen when the country goes to the polls.
Image source, PA MediaSpeculation about results for the remaining mayoral elections in England is causing some unease for Labour, more specifically within the capital, Eleanor Langford says.
"There’s a lot of anxiety over the Mayoral race in London. Partly because of backlash to Labour’s response to the situation in Gaza but also changes to the electoral system," the political correspondent for the i Newspaper tells BBC's 5 Live this morning, highlighting how this is the first time the race has used the first past the post system.
She adds that the "anxieties" for Labour stems from a fear that Tory candidate Susan Hall could win - but not because of her policies, "but more by accident because lots of these other issues have come up".
Langford believes that we're tucking in for a "very close" contest between the two candidates and says she's "sure Sadiq Kahn has been losing sleep over it".
Image source, PA MediaAs a reminder for those not familiar with the Mayor of London's remit, the role represents the 8.9 million people living across the capital and has a budget of £20.4bn and is responsible for Transport for London (TfL) and has some control over roads, policing and housing in the capital.
Londoners also went to the polls on Thursday to vote for one of 14 local representatives on the London Assembly and 11-London wide Assembly members to help keep the mayor accountable - we will find out those results later today too.
Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter
We won't know the outcome of the Mayor of London race until later on this evening, but we know turnout for the election was 40.5% - slightly down compared to the last election in 2021.
As always, votes were verified first, on Friday, and the count starts today with results expected later on.
Sadiq Khan is chasing an historic third term as mayor of London, having won previous elections in 2016 and 2021. He ran a campaign that promised to continue with free school lunches for older primary school children for four more years.
His Tory opponent, Susan Hall, has focused on issues affecting drivers, in particular promising to axe the extension of the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) to outer London, which charges the most polluting vehicles to travel.
Other candidates include Zoe Garbett for the Green Party and Rob Blackie for the Liberal Democrats.
Image source, ReutersWhile we wait to hear back about some of today's mayoral results and the last remaining councils, it's worth looking back to see what some of the main political party leaders have had to say about the results so far:
Harry Farley
Political correspondent
Rishi Sunak looks to have avoided the all-out insurrection that some of his supporters feared could come after a dire set of local election results.
Conservative MPs are not - at the moment - agitating for a change in leader. A victory for Andy Street as West Midlands mayor today would give the prime minister another ray of hope in an otherwise bleak picture.
Labour on the other hand are jubilant. Not just at how many council seats they have won but where - areas they need to win in a general election.
The party is expected to hold onto its regional mayors in Manchester, Liverpool, and West and South Yorkshire when the results are declared later.
There are some indications the race for London mayor could be closer than expected. But anything other than a win for Labour's incumbent Sadiq Khan would be a major upset.
The Liberal Democrats had a boost last night too - overturning a Conservative majority in the Tory heartland of Dorset to win control of the council there, as well as in Tunbridge Wells earlier in the day.