Labour gained 186 councillors and eight councils, while the Conservatives lost 474 councillors and 10 councils in last week’s local elections.
The Liberal Democrats and the Greens gained 104 and 74 councillors respectively, while there were also increases for independents (+93) and residents associations (+11).
Labour's Sadiq Khan secured an unprecedented third term in London and Richard Parker defeated the Tory incumbent Andy Street in the West Midlands.
Steve Rotheram won the Liverpool mayoral election for Labour. Andy Burnham was also re-elected in Greater Manchester and Tracy Brabin won a second term as mayor of West Yorkshire.
Conservative Ben Houchen was re-elected as Tees Valley mayor – the Conservative’s only mayoral win out of 11 contests in England.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Conservatives would ‘continue working as hard as ever to take the fight to Labour and deliver a brighter future for our country’.
Sir Keir Starmer said voters ‘across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline and voted for change with Labour’.
Labour’s position on the conflict in Gaza cost the party a number of seats. According to an analysis by the BBC, Labour candidates were defeated by candidates running on a pro-Palestinian platform in at least 12 town halls.
Elsewhere, former Conservative PM Boris Johnson was turned away from his local polling station after forgetting to bring valid ID, and the veterans minister apologised to a former soldier who said he was unable to vote using his veteran card as photo identification.
