Local elections results – live: Labour win in West Midlands and London as Sunak facing fresh rebellion

Voters have no great love for Keir Starmer and they could yet be won around by the prime minister if his MPs stop their sniping, says veteran MP Sir Liam Fox:

The results of the local and Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England were supposed to follow a clear narrative – that Labour were on course for a massive Parliamentary majority in a general election and Rishi Sunak’s premiership would be on the rocks with rebel factions waiting to displace him.

The fact that this has not happened begs the question, “why not”?

One of the major factors is the analysis of the results themselves.

The last of the 107 English council election results was announced at Salford early on Sunday afternoon, with Labour winning 18 of the seats being contested, gaining one, the Lib Dems one and Conservatives two, losing one.

The Conservatives lost 397 council seats across England in the council elections, with Labour gaining 232, the Lib Dems 98 and Greens 64.

Labour won a total of 1,158 seats, the Lib Dems 522, Conservatives 515, Greens 181, independents 228, ratepayers and residents 48, the Workers Party of Britain four and Reform UK two.

The Conservatives lost control of 10 councils, with Labour gaining eight and the Lib Dems two.

Labour now control 51 of the 107 councils, the Lib Dems 12, Conservatives six and independents one, with 37 under no overall control.

Andy Burnham has vowed to “make big things happen” after he won a third successive term as the mayor of Greater Manchester with more votes than all his opponents combined.

Reform gained 7.46 per cent of the vote, ahead of the Greens with 6.92 per cent and Lib Dems with 4.25 per cent.

Rishi Sunak must change his political course to remain in power as there is no time to change Tory leader, Suella Braverman has said following a bruising set of local election results.

The senior Tory urged the Prime Minister to move to the right in response to the poll defeats, which saw a shock victory for Labour in the West Midlands mayoral contest on Saturday night.

Labour’s Richard Parker seized victory from outgoing Conservative mayor Andy Street by a mere 1,508 votes.

Conservative former minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns has called for Boris Johnson to return to the “front line of politics”.

Dame Andrea submitted a letter of no-confidence in Rishi Sunak in November.

She told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I think now we’ve got to take the fight to Labour, I would like to see real common sense conservatism, honouring our manifesto commitments, I would like to see the return of Boris on the front line of politics, whether that’s going for a seat in the next election and being front and centre of our election campaign.

Asked if she could see Johnson and Sunak campaigning together on joint visits, she said: “I haven’t spoken to Boris, I haven’t spoken to the Prime Minister about this, but I’m an optimist, I’m not sure whether they’d share a stage together, but look how wonderful it is Boris campaigning in these elections.

“He’s still got a pull and he’s still got a pull in my area; still on the doorstep, Trevor, people say to me that they’re saddened that Boris is no longer on the front line of politics.”

Labour took the mayoral election race by a storm, as Sadiq Khan secured a historic third term by winning the capital’s majority.

The Prime Minister’s plan is not working and Rishi Sunak needs to fix it as there is no time to change Tory leader, Suella Braverman has said.

The Conservative former home secretary told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “The plan is not working and I despair at these terrible results.

“There is no spinning these results, there is no disguising the fact that these have been terrible election results for the Conservatives and they suggest that we are heading to a Labour government and that fills me with horror.

“I love my country, I care about my party and I want us to win, and I am urging the Prime Minister to change course, to with humility reflect on what voters are telling us, and change the plan and the way that he is communicating and leading us.”

Asked about whether she wanted to see a change in leader, Ms Braverman said: “I just don’t think that is a feasible prospect right now, we don’t have enough time and it is impossible for anyone new to come and change our fortunes to be honest. There is no superman or superwoman out there who can do it.”

Tory MPs have been warned that they did not get an electoral dubbing because they “were not right wing or extreme enough” as a battle over the party’s future begins.

The defeat of former Tory Mayor Andy Street in the West Midlands late last night has reopened questions over whether the party “is conservative enough” or should change leader from Rishi Sunak.

But Boris Johnson’s former director of communications Guto Harri joined Mr Street in warning against a “drift to the right.”

Our political editor David Maddox has more:

Rishi Sunak needs to own the results of the local elections, Suella Braverman said.

Tory former minister Ms Braverman told the BBC: “Rishi Sunak has been leading us for about 18 months, he has been making these decisions, these are consequences of those decisions. He needs to own this, and therefore he needs to fix it.”

She added: “I think the problem is that our voters are on strike, they are not coming out to support us, we have seen that with turnouts and we have seen that with losing Conservative strongholds.”

The former home secretary called on Rishi Sunak to move rightwards with more tax cuts, and a cap on legal migration among the policies she suggested.

Asked for her evidence of a need to shift further to the right, she said: “The evidence is that people are not voting for what he is doing because they don’t believe that we are serious about some of these issues.”

When asked if she regretted supporting Mr Sunak’s leadership, Ms Braverman said: “Honestly, yes I do.”