For the reform party. The labour leader, sir keir starmer, called the result seismic. The result seismic. The counting is also underway as london decides its next mayor, will sadiq khan , make mayor, will sadiq khan, make a third term . Eyes also on key red wall areas in the West Midlands and the tees valley in eight regional battles , with lawless regional battles, with lawless britain dominating the headlines , 38 police and Crime Commissioners are also being elected across england and wales. Currently, the conservatives and labour have one each in the declared results so far , all declared results so far, all results across all elections as we get them throughout the day on gb news today, with quite a bit of wet weather across the country, but the far south should be brighter than yesterday and again, north west scotland doing okay for spring sunshine. The weathers staying pretty mixed as we go into the Long Bank Holiday weekend. Join me later for a full forecast. Also coming up for you going to be looking at the man tipped to be looking at the man tipped to be looking at the man tipped to be scotlands next leader, and we just cant get him out of the news on election day. Find out why former Prime MinisterBoris Johnson was refused entry to vote. Morning to you. Morning to you. Im Stephen Dixon and im Ellie Costello, and this is breakfast on gb news. Now, it has been a very strong start for labour as the results from the local Council Elections have started to come in. Its a bit of a slow process. We wont really know it all until saturday evening , maybe until saturday evening, maybe even sunday morning. Labour has won control of a string of key leave voting councils in england and wales, taking rushmoor in hampshire from the conservatives. Thats a council the tories have run for the last 24 years. Yes, its also won back hartlepool council, the scene of a major by election loss back in 2021, which led sir keir starmer to consider quitting as leader. All right, lets have a look at the overall picture then. As we said strong for labour. So far theyve gained 58 councillors as it currently stands taking control of rushmoor , hartlepool and rushmoor, hartlepool and thurrock. Lib dems are also up four councillors. Theyve got 40. N0 four councillors. Theyve got 40. No i beg your pardon. Theyve got 14 additional councillors up for theyve got four councils, 97 councillors at the moment , the greens also up. The moment, the greens also up. Theyre up 12 at the moment but theyve not gained control of any council results from more than 70 councils. Still to come in. So lots to go through. Joining us now is Political Correspondent for the spectator. James heale good to see you this morning james. Whats your assessment of what weve seen so far . Far . Well, i think whats so striking is that it basically confirms what we saw 12 months ago. The confirms what we saw 12 months ago. The polls really havent moved since the may 2023 local elections, and the public seem to have clearly made up their mind. They want the tories out of office and they want keir starmer to be Prime Minister and they will be heartened that not only are they slightly up on last year, but theyre doing particularly well in marginals places like thurrock and redditch as well. And so thats a good sign. Theyre concentrating their vote well and are on course to win number io. 10. Is there anything we can extrapolate from this in terms of the council numbers. Because i mean what were the tories saying would be a worst Case Scenario for them about losing 500. They were talking about 500 Council Seats. And now we see that were in line with that kind of figure. I think for 5500, as the figure ive seen this morning, there will be some talk. I this morning, there will be some talk. I think the tory spin will be focusing on the mayoralties, which were expecting later today. Were expecting tees valley, which has been hawkins mayoralty around 1230, but i think theyll be talking up things like, you know, Harlow Council where the tories just held on there, rather than talking about places like redditch, which the labour did very well on winning 21 out of 27 Council Seats in a crucial marginal in going into this election. You say that these results so far show us that people have made up their minds. Theyre very similar to the results that we saw 12 months ago. But do you think were seeing the sort of excitement that we saw pre 1997 labour landslide victory . Were not there arent we. I would say perhaps that you know in polling for instance and focus groups keir starmer doesnt perhaps command the excitement that tony blair once did. But i would say that labour really dont care to be honest. You know, they will say, look, theres not much enthusiasm for us, but theres real loathing for the tories and they will think a vote is a vote. And some of the issues, some of the commentary overnight talking about, you know, potential issues about keir starmer, thats all for a kind of second term labour government. I think hell be very happy where they are right now. And he is on course to win a whopping majority. And just to say, i mean, look at these results. If anything, theyre kind of worse than 1997. Back then, the tories lost one and two mps. Some of these polls suggest theyre on course to lose 2 in 3, what is interesting is that you say nothings changed in the last 12 months. Well, rishi sunak mandate was to bring things back for the tories. Hes been in 18 months or so now. The months or so now. The implication from that is that he has not achieved anything. Yeah. And that will be the argument were hearing a lot of over the weekend. I know theres conservative mps meeting to discuss whats going on and well be chatting all about it. But i think that, you know, there is clearly a sense of who else could there be. And i think that its much a much a reflection on the party. It is on the Prime Minister. You know, we look where we were 18 months ago. Liz truss, you look at the polls now, were in a similar position. But i think supporters of the Prime Minister will come out and argue that, you know, no one could really have changed this. And i suspect were going to see six more months of this carrying on the same vein, because i dont see any kind of pubuc because i dont see any kind of public support for an alternative. Well, except that the those on the backbenches who are determined to see rishi sunak go , well, this is the kick sunak go, well, this is the kick they possibly need to get those numbers in. Well, i think theres a lot about expectation management and a lot of this was pnced management and a lot of this was priced in. You know weve just seen the third biggest swing at a by election since the Second World War in blackpool south. And yet, you know, a lot of the Prime Ministers supporters would go out there and say, well, at least we werent beaten by reform. So i think that, you know, obviously theres a lot of theres not much to be taken from a conservative point of view here this morning, but i just dont think that where were at right now, the conservatives are going to probably move against their leader. Just to bring you up to date with the very latest and labour have retained control of lincoln after gaining three seats, leaving the party with 23 out of the 33 seats on the council. Tories lost four seats, lib dems gaining one. Both those parties now have five councillors, so five councillors each. For those to 23 for the labour party. But to 23 for the labour party. But i mean i mean these are big differences and yet you just look at it and go, well, im not surprised. Surprised. Well i think the public has made up their mind really. And i think if you talk to pollsters, you look at things in focus groups. They have what they call news avoidance, where a lot of voters have actually tuned out. And i think theyve tuned out and theyre waiting for each kind of electoral test. And every single one has been pretty bad for the conservatives since rishi sunak took over, other than uxbridge. And thats why i think well be interesting to see what happens to the london mayoralty when it declares later tomorrow. Given the ulez issue there, how do you think this is going down in labour hq . How how will they feel they performed last . I think theyll be theyll be really happy with this. Obviously, no. Complacency is the mantra of people like Morgan Mcsweeney in labour hq, but they will be particularly keen to note the fact that theyre doing really well in those marginal areas. So its all about vote dispersal. And under first past the post, theyre putting the votes exactly where they need to win a big majority, unlike 2019, where they did pretty badly at that, can we talk about the lib dems in all of this lib dems have a reputation for being pretty good when it comes to local elections. Theyre good campaigners. Street to street, i mean theyre up slightly. Was it mean theyre up slightly. Was it 1214 seats up so far. Mean theyre up slightly. Was it 1214 seats up so far. But should they have been doing better in they have been doing better in the run up to a general election . Well, 7 well, i . Well, i think well see that later today. And when the wokingham borough council, for instance, comes in places like dorset where theyve been campaigning really hard and i think thats what theyre trying to do is look around oxfordshire, look around the west country, where, of course that was a big mainstay of the lib dem success in the noughties and early 2010s. And i think that really its about making sure that its concentrating. Their vote is key. Last time, of course, we saw jo swinson saying she was going to be the next Prime Minister. They did terribly. She lost her own seat last time. This time ed davey is basically spending every weekend out in places like oxfordshire and surrey , all around the south and surrey, all around the south of england, to try and eat into the tory seats in the blue wall in the south east of england. Okay. James heale really good to see you this morning. Thank you very much indeed. Well, of course, its not just those locally elections and Mayoral Elections. Sir keir starmer says its win in the by election in blackpool south. Thats a parliamentary by election of course, is the most important result today. Chris webb taking the seat previously held by the conservative scott benton, who stood down following a lobbying scandal. Well, here is how it was all decided. Well, chris webb of the decided. Well, chris webb of the labour party, 10,825 votes, david jones, a conservative party, 3218 votes. And mark butcher , reform party, 3101 butcher, reform party, 3101 votes. Ben thomas, green party, 368 votes Andrew Cregan, liberal democrats , 387 votes. Democrats, 387 votes. I declare that Christopher Paul webb is duly elected as the member of parliament for the blackpool south constituency. Correspondent olivia utley. Very good to see you this morning, olivia. This is a significant blow to rishi sunak. Isnt. And being described as a seismic win for the labour party i it absolutely is both a huge blow for rishi sunak and a spectacular win for the labour party , a swing of 26. That is party, a swing of 26. That is double what labour would need to win a general election. Its also as i think james mentioned earlier, the third biggest by election swing since the Second World War and the sixth biggest swing to labour since 2019. Thats six swings of over 20 since the general election six years ago. That is really , six years ago. That is really, really bad news for rishi sunak. The last time that we saw swings of this magnitude was between 1992 and 1997, and of course, we all know how that ends. You mentioned ellie earlier, which i thought was an interesting point. The idea that although there are big, big, big swings towards labour and people are constantly making the comparison with 1997, there is no evidence that theyre the same kind of groundswell of huge enthusiasm and optimism for keir starmer as there was for blair in 1997, and i think actually this by election sort of bears that out. There was only a turnout of 32. Thats the lowest by election turnout weve seen since the general election. But it as labour people keep saying it as labour people keep saying it doesnt really matter. German it doesnt really matter. German elections are won by who goes out to the polling station to vote. And as were seeing time and again, the people who are turning up are voting very, very clearly for labour. Its a huge swing, olivia, but how much of that is likely to be wanting to punish the tories because of the scott benton scandal . Well, that will that have played into this. That have played into this. There probably is an element of that. Scott benton was stung in a pretty embarrassing lobbying scandal. The Times Newspaper approached him a few months ago, posing as lobbyists from the gambling industry, and scott benton essentially said, yes, ill do whatever you like as long as you pay me enough money. Those are pretty bad conditions under which to have to step down. He was suspended for 35 days from the house of commons, eventually triggering this by election. So certainly there will be some people in blackpool who wanted to show their anger at the conservatives for scott bentons behaviour. But this isnt a one off. This isnt some sort of anomaly. Time and time again , we are seeing and time again, we are seeing these huge, huge swings towards these huge, huge swings towards the labor party. Blackpool, of course, isnt a kind of tory stronghold. It was a labour seat stronghold. It was a labour seat between 1997 and 2019, when the conservatives managed to win it with a majority of just over 3000. When the red wall came crumbling down. But the fact that labour won it with such a huge majority this time round shows just how bad things are for the conservatives. I think one other important thing to mention is how reform did this time round. They wanted to beat the conservatives to second place, and they almost managed to do just that. They ended up losing to the conservatives by just 117 votes. Reform now say that they are the big contenders. They are the big opposition in those red wall seats. And i think polling does bear that out. That said, in 2014, 2013, 2014, ukip were polling far, far better than reform is doing now. And if they are really planning to win some seats in the general election, theyre going to have to up their game coming third place in a constituency where they have been campaigning really, really hard and put a lot of their resources isnt really good enough, and its the one thing that the conservatives will be able to go home with today. They can say to their supporters, well, at least we didnt come third place to reform. Third place to reform. How do you think this is going to be going down in cchq this morning, olivia . Because we heard remarks, didnt we, from the new blackpool south mp, chris webb, in the early hours , chris webb, in the early hours, he called on rishi sunak to do the decent thing to admit that hes failed and call a general election. Do you think theyll election. Do you think theyll heed that advice . Heed that advice . I have always said that. I think its very unlikely that rishi sunak will, if he has any choice in the matter , call choice in the matter, call a general election any time soon. The policies which hes been putting in place over the past few months, the rwanda policy , few months, the rwanda policy, his policies on reducing inflation and trying to get those Interest Rates down, he hopes, and the figures sort of bear him out, that later in the yean bear him out, that later in the year, some of the fruits of those policies will begin to show. Hopefully there will be a drop in migrants coming across the channel and eventually we should see inflation coming down to an extent where Interest Rates start to fall. I think it is unlikely that rishi sunak would choose to go to the polls before he is able to, to see some of the dividends from those policies that said, it might not be up to him. Cchq conservative backbenchers will not be pleased with the results of this by election. Yes, it was expected that they were going to lose this seat to labour, but the size of the swing is really, really bad news coupled , of really bad news coupled, of course, with what looks like a very bad night in the local elections around the country. It could be that in the coming days and weeks, conservative backbench mps start to send their letters of no confidence in to rishi sunak. It seems unlikely that they would reach the numbers that would be required to actually to actually depose him in a vote of no confidence. But if they start getting near that number, to even trigger that vote of no confidence, it could be that rishi sunak decides he has no choice. But to call a general election. I still think that is quite unlikely. There doesnt quite unlikely. There doesnt seem to be that much appetite from conservative mps. Ive spoken to yet to remove their leader this close to the general election, but i think a lot will happenin election, but i think a lot will happen in the coming hours, really in the coming hours and days in those local Election Results, which could change all that. Okay, olivia , stay with us. Okay, olivia, stay with us. As we hear from the new mp for blackpool south, chris webb, the people of blackpool south have spoken for britain. They have said to rishi sunak and to the conservatives, theyve had enough. Theyve had enough for 14 years of the conservatives being in power. They have lost trust of the british people and blackpool has had enough of this failed government, which has crashed the economy and destroyed our pubuc the economy and destroyed our Public Services and put up taxes i yeah, i mean, its just whether that sentiment, as we keep saying , will will carry keep saying, will will carry through the country in the run up to the general election. And where does it leave keir starmer in all of this . Because as as in all of this . Because as as weve been saying throughout, its , you know, its very its, you know, its very positive news for the labour party , but theyre winning it party, but theyre winning it because people arent l