Jeremy Corbyn: Vote for Labour will help tackle inequality

The number of councillors was reduced during this election from 62 to 57 but this did not stop the Conservatives from gaining 10 extra seats at the expense of Labour, who lost 12.

Labour tried to play down the significance of a bruising set of results which saw it forfeit nearly 300 council seats, lose control of Glasgow for the first time in around 40 years and suffer reverses in Welsh strongholds.

Sky News is projecting that Theresa May could win a Commons majority of 48 in the General Election based on an analysis of local election results. "We knew it was going to be a hard night".

'But we, the whole Labour movement and the British people, can't afford not to seize our moment'. "Party members say about how you've got to improve is quite right, that's why we've got to do". "I need support from across the United Kingdom to strengthen my hand, and only a vote for me and my team will ensure that Britain has the strong and stable leadership we need in order to ensure we get the best deal for Britain from Brexit". The party looked set on Friday night emerge with fewer council seats than before the election.

Losing seats to Tories was "a price Ukip is prepared to pay" for the prize of leaving the European Union, he said.

The results prompted a furious response from former donor Arron Banks, who said Ukip was "finished as an electoral force" under its current leadership and needed "a strategic bullet to the back of the head".

But Jeremy Corbyn's party did win mayoral contests in Liverpool and in Greater Manchester - where former health secretary Andy Burnham was elected with more than 60% of the votes.

The party, led by Paul Nuttall, has already lost every seat it was trying to defend with little hope of winning any new ones.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said that Labour's vote "held up" in areas of Wales where Jeremy Corbyn had campaigned, and said there were signs that voters were developing more confidence in the party leader as he had the chance to get his message across.

".as the local elections showed, they are. are on course for the type of victory last seen by (Labour's) Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher when they were at their peaks", said Adrian Drummond of pollsters Opinium.

The weekend will probably be much more bearable for these two than the rest of the party leaders.

Labour performed better in Wales, retaining control in Cardiff and other cities and losing seats to Independents rather than the Conservatives. The Daily Mail reveals that fully fledged Labour Party supporters have stated that the reason they will not vote for their own party indeed lies with the 67-year-old.

At the time of writing, the Tories had gained an extra 560 councillors.

Yesterday's results put the Tories on a projected vote share of 38 per cent, Labour on 27 per cent, the Lib Dems on 18 per cent and UKIP, who endured a disastrous campaign, on five per cent, according to professor John Curtice for the BBC.