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 last of the overnight councils have now declared, giving us a little breather until the next wave starts later this morning.
State of parties after 98 of 150 councils declare
Conservatives: 30 councils; 878 seats (-31)
Labour: 50 councils (-1); 1,424 seats (+57)
LibDems: 4 councils (+1); 324 seats (+41)
Green: 21 seats (+6)
UKIP: 2 seats (-44)
Independent: 61 seats (-49)
Liberal: 1 seat (-1)
Ratepayers and Residents: 37 seats (-4)
No overall control: 14 councils
Here's the picture in London at the moment:
State of parties after 20 of 32 London councils
Conservatives: 6 councils; 400 seats (-68)
Labour: 11 councils; 629 seats (+51)
LibDems: 2 councils (+1); 94 seats (+14)
Green: 4 seats (+4)
UKIP: lost nine seats
Independent: 5 seats (-10)
Ratepayers and Residents: 26 seats
No Overall Control: 1 council (-1)
There has been plenty of speculation about whether Labour's real problem was failing to manage expectations.
Dr Matthew Mokhefi-Ashton, a politics expert at Nottingham Trent University, said: “One thing the results underscore is the problems with trying to manage expectations in the run up to an election.
"In order to motivate its voters to turnout, Labour overemphasised its chances of winning in some fairly unlikely areas.
"Their failure to win, combined with high expectations, now makes their result look significantly worse than it is.
"Equally the Conservatives have been talking about it being a bloodbath for over a month, making last night’s results a clear victory.”
Former Corbyn aide Matt Zarb-Cousin tweets about Labour's expectation management last night.
Damage caused by Labour’s antisemitism scandal has been laid bare after the party lost seats to the Conservatives in areas with a strong Jewish community.
Jeremy Corbyn’s party failed to take control of Barnet in London as expected and lost Kersal in Salford, where almost half the population is Jewish.
More here:
Ukip's general secretary has compared his party to the "Black Death" after it was nearly wiped out in the local elections.
Paul Oakley insisted they were "dormant" rather than "finished" after losing 90 out of their 92 seats up for grabs.
Story here:
Theresa May has tweeted her congratulations to victorious Tory councils, particularly those in London.
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