Local election results suggest Theresa May will win historic landslide in next vote

Theresa May looks set for a huge landslide in the general election next month.

Early results from the local polls show the Tories making huge gains at the expense of nearly every other party – wiping out Ukip and taking seats from both Labour and the Lib Dems.

Political analyst Lewis Baston suggested that the results were "extremely ominous" for Labour, which could suffer the worst defeat that any opposition party has ever had.

Elections expert John Curtice said that the results were coming in exactly in line with expectations and polling, which has suggested the Conservatives will win a huge landslide next month.

The pollster previously said the Labour Party's position in the polls had weakened in the past year and it could result in a 12-point swing in favour of the Tories.

He said he expected the broad picture to remain the same come the end of counting across the country on Friday evening.

Ukip voters in particular appeared to switch back to the Conservatives in a move that will boost Theresa May's confidence ahead of the vote she called to strengthen her grip on power over the UK.

But the party has also taken voters from Labour in a move that will worry the party ahead of the vote.

Labour's election co-ordinator Andrew Gwynne acknowledged there were "challenges" for the party as it struggled in some of its Welsh heartlands and failed to resist Tory advances in England.

He added that the Ukip vote had seemingly collapsed and transferred to the Conservatives, which was where Labour was being squeezed.

"There are challenges for the Labour Party around the country, I'm not going to hide from that," he said.

"But I think the one thing we've really got to look at here is how we now take forward the Labour campaign going into June 8 and the General Election."

But some Conservatives at least publicly cautioned being too excited about the results.

Tory minister Brandon Lewis said Mrs May would "take the view that the results thus far are encouraging but there are still a lot of councils to declare".

"We can't assume that what happens in local elections will automatically be replicated in general elections," he told the BBC.

"There's a long way to go, there's a lot of work to do, we have got to work for every vote out there to make sure that we return Theresa May with a clear mandate on June 8."