Local elections - as it happened: Corbyn insists Labour ‘ready for an election', despite missing top London targets
All the latest updates, as they happened
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Your support makes all the difference.Labour has urged the government to scrap controversial ID pilots, which saw some voters turned away during local elections in England.
Parties faced mixed results at the polls, although Jeremy Corbyn insisted Labour was "absolutely ready" for a general election, despite failing to deliver on its pledge to snatch key councils from the Tory clutches.
While Labour made gains in areas like Plymouth and Trafford, it was unable to win the Tory "crown jewels" in London, such as Wandsworth and Westminster.
The party had hoped to seize Kensington and Chelsea from the Tories in the wake of public outcry over the Grenfell Tower tragedy but failed to do so, while its chances in Barnet - which has a large Jewish population - may have been damaged by the recent antisemitism row.
The Conservatives capitalised on the near-collapse of Ukip, and gained control of councils in Peterborough, Southend and Basildon, with a small swing in their favour outside London.
Elsewhere, the Liberal Democrats won several councils - including target seats of Richmond-upon-Thames and Kingston-upon-Thames - while the Greens elected a string of new councillors.
The Liberal Democrats are jubilant over their results so far. Former cabinet minister Sir Ed Davey said advances in areas like Richmond were "a sign of things to come".
He told Today: "People are desperate for a voice that isn't a right-wing Brexit Tory voice or a left-wing Corbynista voice.
"Under Vince Cable, Liberal Democrats can become that and last night's results show we are becoming that.
"The polls are showing that more and more people are disappointed by the mess the Tories are making of Brexit and they want to hear an alternative and they want, above all, to have a final say on the deal."
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is in Plymouth, where Labour wrested control of the city council from the Tories.
Mr Corbyn told activists: "Today, winning Plymouth is a sign Labour is back in this part of Britain. Labour is back to gain parliamentary seats.
"The mission of Labour is always to stand for a decent society and stand up against poverty in Britain, and that means local government must be properly funded by central government, and local councils that want to deal with the housing crisis and the social care crisis, and want a cleaner, better environment, are the ones that they should be supporting."
He said he was "absolutely proud" of all the work done there by Labour.
Shadow local government secretary Andrew Gwynne admits there have been "disappointing" results, after the party failed to deliver on its hopes to topple several long-held Tory councils.
"It was an election of consolidation. It was always going to be a limited number of gains that we could make within some of those councils," he told the Today programme.
"Politics is now very polarised. It has been since the general election on June 8 last year.
"What appears to have happened last night is that the Ukip vote has absolutely collapsed and in parts of the country that Ukip vote has come to Labour but in other parts of the country it has gone to the Conservatives.
"In a number of those London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs outside London, the Labour Party was already defending very substantial seats so in terms of numbers of extra gains it is very difficult to make the big numbers that you might expect."
Tories come out swinging over their performance so far.
Gavin Barwell, Theresa May's chief of staff and a former Tory MP, tweets:
More from Andrew Gwynne's Today interview. He was asked about the impact of the antisemitism row on results.
He said: "It disappoints me. We have got a job to do to rebuild trust and confidence with the Jewish community across the country."
Asked if the row had an impact in Barnet, where the party failed to take the council, he said: "I'm sure that that is the case. I see it as my job as Labour's shadow communities secretary to rebuild that trust... because there are so many Jewish people who share Labour's values."
Labour MP Jess Phillips conveys frustration at the reaction to the results so far.
Jeremy Corbyn has denied that last night's results show Labour has passed the point of "peak Corbyn".
Speaking to Sky News, he said: "No, no, there is much more to come and it's going to get even better."
The Labour leader said: "We were defending seats that were last won in 2014, which was a particularly good year for Labour in local government.
"Obviously, I am disappointed at any places where we lost a bit of ground, but if you look at the overall picture, Labour gained a lot of seats across the whole country, we gained a lot of votes in places we never had those votes before."
He added: "We are ready for a general election whenever it comes. A year ago, a general election was surprisingly called and we had the biggest swing to Labour for decades."
Earlier, Tory party chairman Brandon Lewis said Labour had "taken London for granted", pointing to Sadiq Khan's pledge to target Wandsworth and Westminster councils.
He told Today that the Tories have focused hard on local issues and has made gains in London councils, as well as across the country.
People on the doorstep have been talking about Theresa May's strong leadership, he adds.
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