Labour MP for Glasgow South Tom Harris says the SNP now cannot win a majority in Glasgow.
Here's Gail Sheridan, Solidarity candidate for Glasgow City Council, with her jailbird husband Tommy Sheridan.
12.51 Guto Harri, Boris Johnson's director of external communications, is leaving and is rumoured to have a job with News International, the Evening Staandard is reporting:
The former BBC political journalist said he had not yet “signed up” to any of the offers he has received. However, sources suggested he has been poached by News International to help restore its reputation after the phonehacking scandal and questions over its failed bid for BSkyB.
There have also been suggestions Mr Harri could take a senior media advisory or strategic role at No 10.
Mr Harri confirmed he was considering offers but made it clear he could yet be persuaded to stay.
12.44 SNP chieftain Alex Salmond says he hopes to take Dundee and the party is up 25 councillors so far. The final result will not become clear until the "early hours". But it is clear the Nationalists' hope of looting and pillaging Labour's strongholds is fading.
12.40 Kent Spring: The Conservative leader of Tunbridge Wells council has lost his seat to Ukip, Rowena Mason reports.
12.28 Boris is ahead in the race for London - but when you look at the race for the Assembly things are rather different. The state of the race:
Labour - 39%
Conservative - 33%
Green - 8%
Lib Dem - 7%
UKIP - 5%
BNP - 2%
Christian People's Party - 2%
English Democrats - 1%
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition - 1%
National Front - 0%
The House Party - 0%
Ijaz Hayat (Indy) - 0%
Rathy Alagaratnam (Indy) - 0%
YouGov explained why Labour could win in the Assembly but not the Mayoral race - they call it "Boris Labour".
We looked at people who told us they were certain to vote today, and would vote Labour if today’s contest were a general election. One in ten told us they will vote for Boris. If they voted for Ken, he'd win by 52-48%. Another one-in-ten Labour supporters will withhold their mayoral vote from both men (though most will vote Labour in the Assembly election). If they all backed Ken, he'd win by 54-46%.
To explore why Labour London is likely to re-elect a Tory Mayor, we asked Ken and Boris's supporters for their main reason for backing their candidate.
54% of Boris supporters gave a "personality" reason (they like Boris or dislike Ken), while just 27% gave a "party" reason (they generally vote Tory or dislike Labour).
The process of scanning ballot papers at Alexandra Palace count centre in north London had been due to start at 8.45am, but did not get under way until 10.15am due to a power cut.
The other two counting centres at are the Excel centre in the Docklands and Olympia in West London.
12.23 Elsewhere in Scotland: Jim Leishman, director of football at Dunfermline Athletic, has been elected a Labour councillor in Fife.
The FT's Hannah Kuchler tweets:
Lib Dem vote is in free fall in Edinburgh, where they shared power with SNP. In 1 ward, they got fewer first pref than a penguin. And the penguin was called Professor Pongoo, which has to add insult to injury.
12.18 How Boris Johnson could become Prime Minister
Christopher Hope, senior political correspondent, has it mapped out. He emails:
This is how it would work, according to my recent conversations with Tory MPs, some of whom are in the Government.
Scenario 1
Boris Johnson wins another four years today as Mayor of London, giving him a berth in City Hall until 2016
Boris announces in late 2014 that he wants to be an MP again, to give Londoners better representation in Parliament.
He cites as precedent his old foe Ken Livingstone, who was London Mayor as well as MP for Brent East between 2000 and 2001. Boris starts a high profile search for a seat within the boundary of the M25 around London. He romps home with an enhanced majority in 2015, and becomes a noisy backbencher in a majority Conservative administration.
David Cameron, aware of the danger of hanging on for too long in No 10, announces he wants to quit as party leader and PM in 2018, ahead of the 2020 election.
The way is clear for Boris to have a tilt at the top job, against his old adversary George Osborne.
Scenario 2
Boris loses today. He immediately starts to scout for a safe Tory Parliamentary seat to fight at the next general election.
12.13 Battle for Glasgow: Labour is ahead by seven seats to the SNP's five. Four of the City's 21 multi-member wards have been declared. The Liberal Democrats have one seat and the Tories have held their single seat.
Turnout was low - and the winner will be the party that best mobilised their base.
Why do we care? Because Labour losing Glasgow after three decades would humilate Ed Miliband - and an SNP win will be heralded by Alex Salmond's party as an endorsement of independence.
"Results so far make me cautiously optimistic that the overall result will be favourable to Labour, but there's still a long way to go," said Labour's Bill Butler.
The Sunday Herald's Tom Gordon tweets:
Updated: The Herald's Gerry Braiden tweets:
12.01 Video: David Cameron says the election results reflect the Government dealing with "difficult times and no easy answers."
"Obviously, when your taking difficult decisions to bring the country out of the broken economy that Labour left us, there aren't easy decisions," he says.
Trying to reflect positively on what had been a gruelling night of results with a poor showing for his party, Mr Cameron maintained that there were parts of the country that had been Labour-controlled for decades and still kept their Conservative councils.
11.44 Counting is underway in London. The state of the race so far:
Boris Johnson (Con) - 45 per cent
Ken Livingstone (Lab) - 39 per cent
Jenny Jones (Green) - 4 per cent
Siobhan Benita (Indy) - 4 per cent
Brian Paddick (Lib Dem) - 4 per cent
Half the votes have been counted in Bexley and Bromley, a third in Croydon & Sutton and just over a quarter in Lambeth & Southwark. It's only beginning in Barnet & Camden, North East and Brent & Harrow.
Blogs editor Damian Thompson points out that the race is likely to narrow should it go to a second round, as Ken is likely to scoop up a raft of second preference votes from left-leaning candidates.
Could the Lib Dems really finish in fifth place?
11.40 Battle for Glasgow: first blood to Labour
The SNP are hoping to raid the Labour stronghold on the Clyde - but in the first ward to be declared in the city, two of the three councillors are Labour, with one for the SNP. Turnout in Newlands Auldburn ward is 38 per cent.
11.20 Two bright thoughts from the blogs desk:
Donata Huggins says: The night of the long knives is coming for David Cameron
The gloves are off. The resolve of the Conservative Party has clearly broken when even ministers don't hold their tongues. And you can understand why: the electorate have been brutal to the Tories. Labour is crowing over gains it didn't expect to make – taking control of councils in the South and seats in Dave's backyard. It's a dismal result made comic by Eric Pickles who appeared on Sky News this morning to say the "only way is up" from "rock bottom". A mutiny is brewing.
Daniel Knowles writes: David Cameron and the Conservative Party have far more to fear from a Lib Lab pact than from Ukip
The Conservative party is essentially dead in Scotland, and it is dying in the North of England, but it should at least be romping home in the South. If, however, the Lib Dem losses to Labour in the North translate into gains from the Conservatives in the suburban South, then the possibility of some sort of Lib Lab pact becomes quite real. Labour could stand down their candidates in seats where the Lib Dems are strong in exchange for Lib Dem support in Government. Ed Miliband has spoken frequently about the "progressive majority", and, unlike Tony Blair in 1997, he is in a weak enough position that he might actually have to mean it.
11.03 Has the tide turned for David Cameron? Has Ed Miliband begun the long march to Number 10? The Tories claim not.
Here's William Hague saying: Labour should not get their hopes up - council seats will not translate to MPs at a General Election.
Conservative HQ strategists believe there are four reasons why this is not a Red Dawn:
1. They argue Ed Miliband needs to take 40 per cent of the national vote to be on track to win the next general election. The BBC has them polling 38 per cent - whereas the Tories national share is higher than that of Tony Blair in 2000 and 2004.
2. Turnout is 32 per cent, the BBC says. They point to John Curtice, an elections expert, who told the Beeb this low level of voting shows "a lack of enthusiasm" for Ed Miliband's alternative to the Government's tough decisions.
3. Ed Miliband might take around 750 seats today - but William Hague's Tories took 1,300 seats in 1999. The Tories didn't see power for another 11 years.
4. There have been limited Labour wins in battleground seats in the south where General Elections are won and lost - one seat in Walsall, three in Worcester, nothing in Rochford and Cheltenham.
What do you think of this interpretation? Tell us in the comments or email me at matthew.holehouse@telegraph.co.uk.
10.53 Ed Miliband is in Birmingham, where they took a seat they had not held since 1945.
Surrounded by GMB and Unison banners, he says they won because they put forward "painstakingly-worked out" policies to help people in tough times. Labour is in touch. The Tories are not and "put Britain into recession".
He will go to Worcester next, where Labour gained but did not take the council. The fight to win back trust is an "ongoing battle", he says. Many people did not vote at all because they do believe politics can change people's lives, and Ed wants to reach out to them. "We are determined to prove you wrong."
"We can change Britain for the people whose sons and daughters cannot find work," he says. "The battle to change Britain begins here."
Sky notes Ed is "getting his jubliation in early" - we are still waiting to hear from Glasgow and London.
10.43 Bryony Gordon is at the count in Olympia, west London. Her father, Jack, is the Labour candidate in the rock-solid Tory seat of Hyde Park West. She has been casting an eye over the spoilt ballots. She emails:
Several have had unprintable words scrawled on them. One, for the London Assembly, had 'you got me pregnant you bastard' written next to a candidate I shall not name. Another spoilt ballot paper. 'I have no confidence in any candidate'. Democracy in action!
She adds of her father: "I'm not sure this Labour mouse will roar, but am very proud of him for standing."
10.39 Telegraph columnist Fraser Nelson tells Sky News Boris Johnson "defies this law" that wherever there are tall buildings, Tories cannot win.
His tax-cutting message appeals to working class voters because the poorer you are more you appreciate the government taking its hand out your pocket.
Fraser Nelson's column today is essential reading: Win or lose in London's mayoral elections, the clown prince’s vivacious brand of Conservatism will now set the agenda.
Oddly for a man who behaves as if enacting a never-ending stand-up comedy routine, Boris is seen as being authentic, the very opposite of the homogenised machine politician. And his lesson is that there is still an appetite for Conservatism in the inner cities, if expressed with enough professionalism, commitment and flair.
10.32 Video: Labour celebrates 'incredible' victory in Birmingham
Elation from Labour and dismay from Conservative and Lib Dem councillors in Birmingham as the coalition suffers a series of defeats.
10.30 Nigel Farage of UKIP says the party has been boosted by the defection of former Tory councillors which has helped professionalise the organisation. People are voting against "open door" immigration and green taxes, as well as membership of the European Union.
UKIP has won 7 seats, an increase of one.
The party's strength and weakness is support is relatively uniform across the country, Farage says. A lack of concentrated support means it struggles to convert its growing support into seat.
10.19 Counting is underway in Scotland. In Edinburgh, the BBC says, "There is revenge in the air" for the bungled trams project that has left Scotland's capital with a building site through its centre and a hefty bill. The Lib Dems are bracing for losses, with the SNP set to be the main benefactors. The first results are due within an hour.
Labour's Douglas Alexander tweets Labour has taken the Renfrew seat of Derek MacKay, the SNP's Party Chairman. He is also an MSP and was elected as a councillor aged 21 in 1999. It's a big scalp.
10.16 The Prime Minister has spoken.
David Cameron has apologised to Conservative councillors who lost their seats as his party suffered an electoral backlash from voters.
He said the elections took place against a "difficult national backdrop" but insisted the Government was doing the "right thing for our country". He said:
I am sorry for all the hard-working Conservative councillors who lost their seats, obviously against a difficult national backdrop. These are difficult times and there aren't easy answers. What we have to do is take the difficult decisions to deal with the debt, deficit and broken economy that we've inherited and we will go on making those decisions and we've got to do the right thing for our country.
10.14 Baroness Warsi points to Labour's loss of Bradford to George Galloway in a by-election. The Tories have lost control of 11 town halls.
She adds in 1999 - two years into the Blair era - Labour lost "over 1000" seats, and went on to win two more genearl elections.
10.02 Here's an image of the smart-casual Prime Minister and Baroness Warsi chatting to election staffers at party HQ in Millbank.
Tom Watson, Labour's deputy chairman and election campaigns co-ordinator, tweets this picture of the Labour party media monitoring team. It is, he says, "the axel of the operation."
Technology powerhouse: those grey boxes are like televisions, but older.
09.52 Senior Lib Dem Sarah Teather says the poor results for the Lib Dems are not as bad as they were in local elections last year.
"Voters are starting to see we've achieved a great deal in government and have started to give us the benefit of the doubt," she says.
By the end of the Parliament voters will start to feel the benefits of Lib Dem policies, such as tax cuts for low earners, she says. A lot of people have "very difficult" lives at the moment due to recession and cuts and are voting as such.
Here's a video of Nick Clegg saying he is 'really sad' after taking a local election pounding
09.45 Manchester, Nottingham, Coventry and Bradford have voted against having an elected Mayor. The results from six more great British cities are still to come.
Stuart Drummond, the directly-elected Mayor of Hartlepool, blamed Westminster coalition divisions for the failure to secure support for more such positions.
Mr Drummond was originally voted in in 2002 as part of a publicity stunt campaign for the local football club and its monkey mascot but has since been re-elected twice. He told Radio 4:
I think the Government have approached this in completely haphazard, half-hearted way. If they really did think this was the best way forward then surely they would have imposed it on places rather than leave it to chance. Because the Lib Dems have always been against the mayoral system, there has never been a true coalition policy for it and it just seems to be one of David Cameron's little hobby horses.
Daniel Knowles blogs: David Cameron's last gasp of radical reform is dead
09.41 Harriet Harman promised there would be "no crowing" but it looks like Lord Prescott can't resist (Rowena Mason writes.)
09.38 Former playboy MP Lembit Opik has called for Nick Clegg to resign as leader of the Liberal Democrats.
He told the BBC:
The writing is on the wall here. There is nothing constitutionally to make Clegg have to be leader and Deputy Prime Minister; he needs to split the roles. My empirical view is that we would have done better with a different leader. I don't dislike Clegg as a person but I think you can actually point at specific mistakes he has made.
Who he, you ask. A reminder of the deposed member for Montgomeryshire.
09.35 Here's a video of Liverpool's first elected Mayor saying the city has rejected the coalition government.
09.30 Ed Miliband has addressed the cameras from his doorstep. He said he wanted to thank voters who backed his party "for placing their trust in us" and said he was determined to show that "we can deliver Britain the change it needs".
"We are a party winning back people's trust, regaining ground, but there's more work to do," he said.
He went on:
I also want to say something to those people who voted for other parties and to the many people who did not vote at all. I am determined to work tirelessly in the coming years up to the next general election to show we can change this country so it works for you, so it works for your son or daughter who is looking for a job, so it can deal with the squeeze on living standards, and, above all, so Britain changes from a country that works a few people at the top to a country that works for everybody.
I know that David Cameron promised change and has disappointed people. I am determined that we can deliver Britain the change it needs. People are hurting. People are suffering from this recession, people are suffering from a Government that raises taxes for them and cuts taxes for millionaires. I think that's what we saw last night. I hope that David Cameron takes some notice.
09.02 Tim Ross, Daily Telegraph political correspondent, reports:
The shadow Welsh secretary, Peter Hain, says the result is "a big vote of confidence in Ed Miliband".
How often have we heard that this year? Actually, we haven't.
Until very recently, Mr Miliband had been widely ridiculed as a Nick Park-style plasticine joke who should not be allowed to lead his party into the next general election.
In reality, the results in so far probably aren't yet the breakthrough Labour needs to win outright in 2015.
But they allow the Labour leader some breathing space and will encourage the party's new strategy of "letting Ed be Ed".
In all his campaign speeches recently, Mr Miliband has abandoned the use of a script, notes, or autocue.
The decision - entirely his own, aides claim - has enabled him to appear more spontaneous, relaxed and authentic.
Other Labour figures taking to the airwaves today are trying not to get carried away, describing the results as "encouraging".
These are mid-term polls, with a low turn out and Labour losses are expected later in London and Scotland.
Voters seem at least as cross with the Coalition as they are convinced by Ed.
On the blogs, Miliminor's toughest critic Dan Hodges says: "Ed Miliband's red dawn is rising - sort of."
In many ways this was Ed Miliband’s perfect result. He secured strong enough gains to suppress, for the rest of the week at least, grumblings about his leadership. The elections were framed as a test for him, and it’s a test he has passed. At the same time the wins were not of such a magnitude that Labour is suddenly going to let success go to its head and start casting around for a leader to pull itself those last few yards over the finishing line. This represents steady progress that will give Miliband and his party time to calmly sit back and take stock.
08.54 This year votes in London for the Assembly and the Mayor are being counted electronically.
The organising body, London Elects, has stupendous live updates of how the vote is going - including how many of the votes have been scanned in and verified, and bar charts for the performance of each of the candidates.
The site shows that in very early counting - with the caveat that at most 10 per cent of the vote has been counted in some wards - Boris Johnson is ahead in the race for London Mayor.
08.40 Nick Clegg has said he is "really sad" that so many of his Liberal Democrat councillors have lost their seats, but insisted the party would "continue to play our role" in Government.
Speaking outside his London home he said:
I am really sad that so many colleagues and friends, Liberal Democrat councillors, who have worked so hard, so tirelessly for so many years for communities and families in their local areas have lost their seats and I want to pay tribute to all the great work they have done. I am determined that we will continue to play our role in rescuing, repairing and reforming the British economy. It's not an easy job and it can't be done overnight but our duty is to boost jobs and investment and to restore a sense of hope and optimism to our country.
He said the Coalition was facing "a difficult mid-term period".
If you look at the results overnight, the ones that have come in, Labour has clearly had a good night.
The task for Labour and the question for Labour, frankly, is to move beyond winning votes against two coalition parties who are in government, taking difficult decisions at a difficult mid-term period of this Government, to actually providing answers and solutions to the challenges and dilemmas that we face as a country.
I believe that over time people will come to acknowledge our unique role, the Liberal Democrats, in this Government as the only party in British politics that combines responsibility on the economy with social fairness.
08.15 What Twitter is saying about the results:
08.00 Coming up today:
Scotland: Labour's advance is set to be stopped in its tracks at the border. Votes in Scotland's 1,200 council seats being contested will be counted during the day. In the last election, in 2007, the SNP won 363 seats, Labour 348 and the Liberal Democrats 166. The SNP hope to snatch the Labour stronghold of Glasgow and seize full control of Ediburgh.
London: The result of the vote for the Mayor of London is expected from 6pm, although it may come as late as midnight. Evening Standard polling suggests Boris Johnson is on course to win by a margin of 53% to 47%.
Mayors: We await the results of the referenda for elected mayors in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sheffield and Wakefield. Voters have already said no in Manchester, Nottingham, Coventry and Bradford.
Iain Martin blogs: A good night for Ed Miliband could be ruined in London and Glasgow.
UKIP is taking much encouragement from its results, quite rightly. In the seats where it stood candidates it seems to have averaged a 13% share of the vote. That is 5% up on last time, a statistic that should deeply trouble the Tory leadership. Not all UKIP voters are disillusioned Conservatives, but at this rate the party is on track to add substantially to the 900,000 votes it garnered at the last general election. Only a Cameroon with his or head stuck in the sand could say that this is not a serious problem for the Tories.
07.55 Foreign Secretary William Hague sought to play down the scale of the Conservative losses. He tells the BBC:
These results - while it is never a good feeling to lose councillors - are well within the normal range of mid-term results for governments and I think not so good for the Opposition who are not getting 40% of the vote. You wouldn't look at this and say Labour was on track to win a general election at all.
He hinted at frustration within Conservative ranks over the restraints imposed by the need to work with the Lib Dems.
Of course the Conservatives can't do everything that we would like to do in government because we are in coalition within the Liberal Democrats. Of course it is what we will be fighting for in the next general election in 2015.
07.51 Rowena Mason, political correspondent, says Tories are demanding David Cameron returns to tradition Tory values.
Gary Streeter, a Conservative MP for Devon South West, said many voters did not perceive the Government to be “competent”.
"We've got to be much more small c and big c Conservative on crime, law and order, some of our traditional policies,” he said. “That's what our supporters are waiting, indeed gagging to see.
“The interesting thing for me was that, doing a lot of visits on the doorstep, that people were unhappy, obviously about the last two months of our government, and many of them said we can accept many things from the Conservative party, but we expect them to be competent.
“And that was one of the messages coming across. We have to regain our sure-footedness if we are going to recapture lost trust and confidence.
07.43 Tim Ross, political correspondent, writes:
Lib Dems are putting on their bravest faces for breakfast today as the party drops below 3,000 councillors for the first time in its history.
Mark Ramsbottom, Manchester Liberal Democrat group leader, said the results were "a shame" but added: “I’m still committed to the Liberal Democratic Party and I’m certainly not angry with Nick Clegg."
A party source said: "In the northern councils, there simply aren’t any Conservatives. If you want to give the Government a kicking, we’re the only ones around to kick."
07.36 Lib Dem President Tim Farron has called Howarth's thesis "bonkers".
It was almost amazing that the Tories managed to not win the 2010 general election but the thought that they would somehow build themselves up to a majority by lurching to the right to try and bring back people they think they've lost to Ukip - in so far as anyone in the Tory Party should take political and strategic advice from me, can I just advise them that would be bonkers.
The thought that people who are struggling, worried for their jobs, concerned about the prices of things going up and generally feeling the pinch... have their votes swayed by Lords reform is just madness.
He adds: "At least we've prevented further decline."
07.34 Gerald Howarth, the defence minister, has pointed to the Tories' support for gay marriage and House of Lords reform for the poor performance for the Coalition. He said:
There are issues, for example, like the proposals for gay marriage. A lot of Conservatives have written to me saying 'I am a lifelong Conservative, there is no mandate for this, why is this being proceeded with?'. There is the business of trying to change the House of Lords. Do we need to do this at a time when the nation is preoccupied with restoring the public finances?
07.25 A jubilant John Prescott tweets:
07.21 Tom Chivers looks at Baroness Warsi's controversial decision to link the rising fortunes of UKIP with the decine of the BNP. It's based on some wonky maths, he suggests.
07.16 Bradford Council is under no overall control following the gains by Respect of five of the 12 seats it contested.
Labour increased its councillors from 43 to 45.
But a dawn street party is underway after Respect toppled Ian Greenwood, the Labour council leader and a councillor for 17 years.
He said he thought the key to Respect's success was Mr Galloway coming to the city and energising a mass of youngsters.
"He's made promises that I hope that he can keep but I doubt that he can," he said.
Mr Greenwood said he feared Mr Galloway's energisation would not last and Bradford would be left with a "generation of disenfranchised and alienated young people".
The City has voted against having an elected Mayor.
Mr Galloway told the PA: "We took the head off the rotten fish that is the Bradford City Council.
"We defeated a council leader who sat there, apparently impregnable and utterly complacent, for a decade and a half or more.
He said Respect offered voters a "viable alternative to the tweedledee, tweedledum, tweedledee-and-a-half politics that the three mainstream leaderships are offering them".
Mr Galloway said: "I think that the Labour Party in Bradford will be taken into special measures by the Labour national headquarters."
Respect candidates watch the count in Bradford
07.05 A recap of tonight's results.
With 97 of 181 councils declared, the Labour Party has made sweeping gains. It has won 49 councils, a gain of 21. It has seen 1087 councillors elected, a gain of 457.
Labour are on track to gain more than 700 seats - ahead of the Tories' private briefings of around 500.
The Conservatives have lost 11 councils and held 26, and lost 274 councillors, taking them to 548.
The Liberal Democrats have lost control of one council and lost 127 councillors, with 212 elected.
Turnout is projected to be around 32 per cent, the lowest since 2000.
07.00 Cllr Vivien Pengelly, outgoing Conservative leader of Plymouth City Council, has chastised David Cameron.
"David Cameron will be knowing in the next week or so exactly how I feel," she said, citing the "Jeremy Hunt fiasco".
She said Cameron must listen to how the deficit reduction is "affecting very vulnerable people, especially here in the south west."
06.50 Labour is on course for a strong performance in Wales, where all bar one of the nation's 22 councils have been put to the poll.
Labour will have outright control of six councils, up two.
Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones said: "The momentum is clearly with Welsh Labour tonight. We are taking seats from every party across the country - with impressive gains in Wrexham, Caerphilly, Newport and a total Lib Dem wipe out in Merthyr. We have reconnected with people and our community campaigning has resonated with voters right across Wales."
The Lib Dems who lost a number of seats in Cardiff, Wales' biggest council.
The biggest drama of the night was at the Cardiff Central count in Pentwyn - where Lib Dem council leader Rodney Berman appeared to be desperately trying to cling on to his seat.
A second recount of the Plasnewydd ward, where Mr Berman stands, is due to take place this afternoon - with sources telling the Press Assocation there were "around a dozen votes in it".
A Tory party spokesman said it "may not be an easy night in parts of the country" - after it lost its majority on Monmouthshire and the Vale of Glamorgan.
Plaid Cymru described its fortunes as mixed bag, with some areas "being difficult" and others being "easier".
06.45 A Labour source has told the Press Association: : "These are strong results for Labour. A clear win on national share of the vote - best local election result for Labour since 1997. Taking councils no-one expected us to - Great Yarmouth and Dudley. Winning councils in the South - Southampton and Plymouth. Winning in areas as where there are currently no Labour MPs - Harlow and Thurrock."
05.28 The Bradford Spring rolls on: George Galloway's Respect Party has won the seat of Ian Greenwood, the Labour leader of Bradford Council.
The party has taken four other seats on the council.
Councillor Ian Greenwood lost his Little Horton seat after three re-counts to Respect's Alyas Karmani.
03.45 The Government's proposals for elected Mayors have been rejected in Manchester, Nottingham and Coventry, and it looks likely the idea will be rejected in Birmingham as well.
But in Liverpool the city has elected Joe Anderson, Labour, to be its first elected Mayor. It brings £130m extra government funding to the City. He took 57 per cent of the vote.
See PA story POLL Liverpool. Photo credit should read: Peter Byrne/PA Wire" refid="2210664" version="c" copyright="PA">
Boris of the Mersey: Joe Anderson, Labour, is elected Mayor of Liverpool
The results are embarrassing for the Prime Minister, who had thrown his weight firmly behind the changes in a series of speeches and interviews.
Mr Cameron had attempted to use the example of London Mayor Boris Johnson, saying he wanted a "Boris in every city".
Housing Minister Grant Shapps defended the mayoral referendums, telling Sky News: "People should have the right to decide how they are governed in their local area."
He added: "The whole point is to give people a say. No-one is forcing mayors on anyone."
03.05 Labour has celebrated a rout of its rivals in Birmingham, winning overall control and ousting the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition which has ruled the city since 2004. The comfortable victory, which became clear well before results had been declared in all the 40 seats being contested, saw Labour's share of the vote increase to around 51%.
02.55 Conservative Transport Secretary Justine Greening claims the election was "always going to be a difficult one" for her party - and was unsurprised by Labour's success.
"Realistically there was only one way they could go and that was up," she said.
"We've had a tough couple of months and we were expecting this to be a difficult evening."
02.50 Liberal Democrat foreign minister Jeremy Browne pointed to his party's success in holding Cheltenham and remaining the largest party in Cambridge, even though the authority slipped to no overall control.
He told Sky News: "I have some sort of encouragement for the Lib Dems.
"I'm not saying it's easy for us - it's tough being in government in midterm, making difficult decisions to get the country on its feet again.
"But where we have the longest track record, where we have been running councils or a dominant force on councils we have been remarkably resilient, we've held up very well."
02.40 The Liberal Democrats have lost overall control of Cambridge - a stronghold for more than a decade.
02.15 Police have been forced to break up a late night election fracas.
A row broke out as Liberal Democrats in Labour-controlled St Helen's suffered a series of setbacks, leading to disappointment for the party's leader on the council, Brian Spencer who lost his seat.
According to witnesses at St Helen's Town Hall there was a confrontation between Mr Spencer and Labour candidate Mark Johnson, who fell across a table and landed on his mother.
Lib Dem councillor Michael Haw said Mr Spencer, the council's ex-opposition leader, was upset at losing his seat. There were no arrests.
01.54 Nottingham has rejected the idea of an elected mayor by 57.5 per cent to 42.5 per cent, on a turnout of just 24 per cent.
Nottingham City Council's Labour Leader, Jon Collins, said: "This was a referendum imposed on us by the Coalition Government which the majority of local people clearly did not agree with. I am pleased with this outcome because an elected mayor would have been expensive and unnecessary."
01.47 The Tories have won the council ward of Chertsey South and Rowtown of Runnymede Borough Council by drawing lots after the candidates were found to be tied after three recounts.
John Edwards of the Conservatives, and Independent candidate Gillian Ellis both received 503 votes, so they agreed to draw lots.
Their names were placed in a drum, and returning officer Paul Turrell, the council's chief executive, picked out Mr Edwards's name.
01.25 Cameron has lost seats in his own backyard of West Oxfordshire with Labour making gains in Chipping Norton, Witney Central and Witney East. The Tories retain control of the council.
01.14 Eric Pickles says Labour's gains are to be expected. "When a party is rock bottom there's only one way to go. But I'm not seeking to rain on Labour's parade."
Labour's shadow justice minister Sadiq Khan told Sky: "It has been a good night for Labour because people who have been concerned about some of the decisions of this coalition Government are punishing them by voting for Labour candidates all around the country.
"But we mustn't be complacent or smug about this."
00.45 Tory chairman Baroness Warsi has caused outraged by linking the rise of UKIP to the decline of the BNP.
Lady Warsi appeared to suggest the number of candidates fielded by the eurosceptics had risen in line with a fall in the number standing for the BNP - a link with provoked Ukip's spokesman to brand her "a bitch".
Speaking on the BBC's election night coverage, Lady Warsi said: "Where Ukip is fielding candidates this time that the BNP did last time but they're not this time, I think that will have an impact."
She added: "There are members of Ukip who are from all sorts of political parties, but it is an interesting mix there in terms of the number of candidates."
Ukip spokesman Gawain Towler vented his anger at Lady Warsi's comments on Twitter, calling her a "bitch" to his 1,700 followers, some of whom criticised his "unparliamentary language".
The spokesman quickly deleted the post and and apologised, tweeting: "Deleted, out of order on my part".
He later added: "Shouln't (sic) have said that, apologise."
00.25 Labour has made gains in Basildon, Great Yarmouth and Southampton, while the Liberal Democrats face losses in Sunderland, Lincolnshire and Manchester. It is rumoured Galloway's Respect party has defeated the Labour leader of Bradford council, Ian Greenwood.
00.05 Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the results of the local elections and vote for Mayor of London, which took place yesterday.
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