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

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.”

The Conservatives have seen their worst set of results in 40 years after millions of voters cast their ballots on Thursday to choose their preferred choice of councils and mayors.

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

Here are the results:

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.”

Mark Harper would not be drawn into a debate about whether the Conservative Party should shift rightwards or to the centre to win over voters.

Andy Street, the outgoing Conservative West Midlands Mayor, has urged the Prime Minister not to heed calls from Tory rebels to shift to the right following the local election results.

Asked about Mr Street’s remarks by Sky News, Transport Secretary Mr Harper said: “What he is talking about there is what I just said.

“He is talking about you focus on the priorities of the British people, that is what you do.”

When put to him that Mr Street had suggested more than that, Mr Harper replied: “We are going to stick to focusing on the priorities that the Prime Minister set out, which are the Government’s priorities, the Prime Minister’s priorities but they are also the priorities of the British people.”

Asked about whether it was time to call a general election, Mr Harper said Rishi Sunak was focused on on those priorities, adding: “He wants to continue delivering on those priorities before we go to the country.”

Transport secretary Mark Harper has faced questioning on Sky News, and has insisted his party’s best course is to “focus on delivering on people’s priorities”.

Asked about the poor performance of the governing party in the local elections, the cabinet minister says the “key thing” is to “get behind the prime minister”.

He adds it is always “disappointing” to lose councillors, mayors, and other party representatives in elections.

But Mr Harper insists he and Rishi Sunak are “up for the fight” against the Labour Party to try to win the next general election.

A former top prosecutor has hit out after the Conservatives twice reported Labour candidates to police just days before the local elections.

The double whammy came as Rishi Sunak’s party faced predictions it would lose up to 500 councillors across England and struggle in two crunch mayoral votes.

Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor, warned police forces were “being weaponised as part of the campaign by those who don’t care about the problems facing policing – particularly resourcing”.

Read the full article from Kate Devlin here: