Ukip is achieving significant gains in the local elections, as votes continue to be counted across the country.
Despite a campaign blighted by controversy, Nigel Farage’s party won seats in major party heartlands while scoring significant successes in Essex.
With 76 councils declared, Labour had gained 132 seats, Ukip 91 seats. The Liberal Democrats had lost 116 and the Conservatives have lost 118.
Labour achieved a significant overnight win in Hammersmith and Fulham, taking the former Conservative seat once a favourite of prime minister David Cameron.
Ed Miliband’s party also took Merton and Cambridge. However, Labour's attempts to take Swindon were thwarted by a growing Conservative majority.
The Conservatives have lost control in at least eight councils, leaving town halls including Basildon and Southend-on-Sea in no overall control. Communities secretary Eric Pickles’ constituency Brentwood also fell to NOC.
While a huge surge of support in Essex saw Ukip achieve more than a third of the votes in some wards, indications suggest the party has failed to make similar inroads in London.
The Liberal Democrats lost former stronghold Portsmouth City to no overall control, with Ukip gaining six seats at the local authority.
Farage said there were areas of the country where his party now had ‘an imprint in local government’.
Conservative education secretary, Michael Gove, told Good Morning Britain: ‘We know that a number of people have voted for the United Kingdom Independence Party in order to send a very clear message.
‘We appreciate and understand why people have voted Ukip and in government we will make sure that we deliver on the priorities that people have clearly set out.’
Labour's shadow foreign secretary and election strategist Douglas Alexander told the BBC: ‘We recognise the alienation and the anger that has found expression in a lot of people voting for Ukip last night but we still believe that we are well placed if we do the right things and we take the right steps in the coming 12 months to win that general election.’
LocalGov will be updating our interactive election map as the results are announced.
