Police and Crime Commissioners. Katherine forster has the latest. Yes, dreadful results for the conservatives so far. Labour are buoyant. Much, much more still to come. But keir starmer, speaking a little bit earlier, saying its a shout from blackpool we want change. Are we heading to a Labour Government later this year . Later this year . Boris johnson was turned away from his local polling station after forgetting to bring an acceptable form of photo id. Did the same happen to anyone you know . So the morning after the night before, tories look like theyre waking up with a bit of a hangover and a bit of a headache. Theres still plenty to come though, but i think they would have known that this was going to be a bad time for them. I mean, its, you know, nobody knows what to do about them. Its very sad, but such is life. Its very sad, but such is life. I tell you what, im looking forward to the london Mayoral Election result, which comes tomorrow night. All eyes on that. And. Yeah lots more coming during the show today. Weve got Dame Andrea Leadsom mp. The great leadsom mp. The great broadcasting legend Alastair Stewart will be with us as well with some top analysis. But before all that, heres your news with sofia. News with sofia. Ben. Thank you. Good morning. Ben. Thank you. Good morning. Its 932. Im sophia wenzler in the gb newsroom. And as youve the gb newsroom. And as youve been hearing, labour has won blackpool south from the conservatives in yet another blow to rishi sunaks leadership, labours chris webb took the seat , beating took the seat, beating conservative david jones in second following a by election caused by the resignation of tory scott benton. Mark butcher was third in a decent showing from the reform party. Labour from the reform party. Labour leader keir starmer called the result seismic. Result seismic. It is, of course, the most important election result in the sense that its a direct message to the Prime Minister because this is a parliamentary seat. Thats a 26 swing, thats a huge swing and its the fifth swing of over 20 in by elections that weve had in recent months. And years. So its not a one off. Its no denying that the mood of the country now is for change. And i think its for the Prime Minister to allow the country to express that change. Now, in a general election, you and labour has made huge gains in local elections across england and wales, winning in key areas such as rushmoor in hampshire for the first time. Its being seen as a major test of Public Opinion ahead of the upcoming general election. Labour also won thurrock one of its top targets, but the tories held harlow. Tory Party Chairman held harlow. Tory Party ChairmanRichard Holden tried to put a positive spin on the results. Positive spin on the results. Meanwhile, 38 police and Crime Commissioners are also being elected across england and wales. Currently conservatives have won and labour have two in the declared results. And for the declared results. And for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Com alerts. Now its back to ben and. Nana. Back to ben and. Nana. Very good morning to you. 930 for you with ben. And ive got my nana with me as well on this on this pivotal morning on in british politics, local elections of course the main story i guess, is that blackpool south seat, a massive swing to laboun south seat, a massive swing to labour, is that a sign of things to come . Well, i mean , youve to come . Well, i mean, youve seen it. The turnout was very low, so it was just over 30 turnout. So if you look at the turnout, then i think a lot of conservative voters stayed at home. But having said that, i think yes, it is. It is the taste of things to come. So in 2019 labour well so yesterday they got 10,825 votes in that blackpool south seat. They are down 1730 on 2019. As you said, the turnout is of course a lot lower. But the conservatives losing 13,000 votes i know in that seat. Unbelievable. But of course unbelievable. But of course thats scotts old seat isnt it. Yes. Scott benson, who of course was ousted after his lobbying scandal but should we get stuck into some top analysis . As i said at the top of the show, weve got broadcasting legend Alastair Stewart with us, Dame Andrea Leadsom, as well. And yeah, its going to be a cracking 2. 5 hours. Well, you heard what sir keir starmer was saying that its time for an election and he says that it was a. Sorry. Thank you a seismic. He said that keir starmer says that the blackpool south by election was a seismic win. Heres the moment. It was announced. I declare that Christopher Paul webb is duly elected as the member of parliament for the blackpool south constituency. So labours chris webb took the seat previously held by scott benson, who stood down following a lobbying scandal. Following a lobbying scandal. Heres how it was decided. So chris webb, labour party, 10,825 votes. David jones , votes. David jones, conservative, 3218 votes. And crucially, this is the interesting point. Mark butcher , interesting point. Mark butcher, reform uk 3101 votes. Just behind the tories. Well, the green party 368 votes and cregan liberal democrats 387 votes. So were joined now by Political Correspondent. Olivia utley. Correspondent. Olivia utley. Olivia. Well, its been a bit of a landslide so far. Is this what was expected . Because it sounds like i mean, most people are thinking, yeah, we thought it would be bad, but do you think this spells the end for rishi sunak . Sunak . I think it was a really catastrophic night for the conservatives. Obviously, all the results of the local elections arent yet in, and we might not have a clear picture until sunday. But from what we know so far, it has been very bad indeed, and certainly in blackpool south. That result for the conservatives couldnt really have been worse. A 26 really have been worse. A 26 point swing away from the conservative to labour. Now, to put that in perspective , that is put that in perspective, that is the third biggest by election swing towards labour since the second world war, and it is now one of six swings over 20 since the 2019 general election. There the 2019 general election. There is no way that rishi sunak can pass this off as sort of mid term blues midterm angst, some sort of anomaly. The pattern over and over again is that labour are winning these by elections with enormous swings. The last time that we saw swings of this magnitude , this of this magnitude, this frequently was in the period between 1992 and 1997. And, of course, that ended with that landslide victory for tony blair. Now what the conservatives are consoling themselves with today is the fact that enthusiasm for labour doesnt actually seem to be that high. Yes, people dont want to vote conservative. But in the local Council Elections, although so, the conservatives have lost a huge number of seats, only about half of those seats, only about half of those seats have been lost to labour, the rest have been lost to independents. So the conservatives are trying to tell themselves that this isnt a 1997 moment, because keir starmer doesnt have the same pull as tony blair. I mean, there is definitely some truth in that. But ultimately for laboun in that. But ultimately for labour, that doesnt really matter. General elections are won on who turns out to vote. Turnout might be low in this by election. It was only just over 32. But if it gets keir starmer into 10 downing street with a huge majority , then with a huge majority, then labour wont really be worrying about that. At least not until the election after this one. Yes, olivia, you mentioned independents doing well. Of course, the greens as well, especially in South Tyneside picking up seats. Two what about reform uk in south blackpool . Theyll be feeling pretty bullish after that result. I suspect. Suspect. I suspect they will be feeling bullish. They wanted to come in second place. They wanted to pip the conservatives to the post. They didnt quite manage to do that. They came third, but there was only 117 votes in it. It was a good showing from reform. But was it good enough in this period before the 2015 general election, ukip , which is a rough election, ukip, which is a rough equivalent to reform, was polling higher and was actually doing much, much better in by elections. So is this actually going to play out for a long time now reform has been on the up. Its felt like theyre about to break through, but they havent got very much time left to break through. And coming third, albeit by only 117 votes in an area where theyve put in a lot of resources and a lot of campaigning time, it might be good, but is it good enough . The i mean, it just looks as though, the labor party are just going to just take everything pretty much , do you think that pretty much, do you think that its more a sign of, if pretty much, do you think that its more a sign of , if you pretty much, do you think that its more a sign of, if you look at it, that people are actually wanting a change or its just the fact that theyre just really turning their backs away from the conservative party after the sort of mess that has ensued. Well, i think, yeah, there is an element of people just wanting to turn away from the conservative party. And this is what i was saying about sort of voter apathy, focus groups are showing that fewer people care. Who runs the country than almost ever before. Turnout is also very low, which is also reflective of that. But does it really matter for labour in the long term if it gets keir starmer into downing street, doesit starmer into downing street, does it matter whether people are voting labour because they love the labour party offering, or if theyre voting labour because they hate the conservatives either way, it turns out with the same resolution and i think thats whats so difficult for rishi sunak at the moment. The whats so difficult for rishi sunak at the moment. The other sunak at the moment. The other question, of course, is when does he call that general election . He and the team around election . He and the team around him are minded to hold off for as long as they possibly can. Theyre hoping that Interest Rates start to go down, peoples mortgage misery is alleviated a bit and of course , that the bit and of course, that the rwanda scheme gets up and running and we see a dip in illegal immigration figures. Thats why hes been holding out for the second half of this yeah for the second half of this year. But if results over this weekend are as catastrophic as is being predicted, and it looks like they probably will be if the conservatives end up losing sort of 500 council seats, then i think we can expect a number of letters of no confidence in rishi sunak coming in from disgruntled backbench mps who think, well, maybe its worth one final roll of the dice before the general election, and if that happens, then it could get to a point where rishi sunak feels that he has no option other than to go to the country a little bit early, perhaps in june or july. Interesting june orjuly. Interesting okay, olivia, thanks very much. Yeah i mean, likely would it be rishi leading the party into a general election . They cant do it again. They cant honestly be looking to try and get another leader. I mean, in my show the other day, we sang that song. Lets go round again. Maybe well turn back. But what have they got to lose . If it is as catastrophic . Everything to lose, nobody will look at them seriously at all. If its like the planes going down and youre thinking, lets get another pilot in to steer it towards the sea, no point. Just get on with, i should say, get on with running the country because people are getting fed up with it. Youve got pretty waiting in the wings, potentially. Suella braverman. Im sure theyll all be lining up, but who would do it anyway . Like if you know the plane is about to, you know, hit the nice analogy. I like that. Yeah, very well put. Oh look, its been a very strong start for labour as results from local Council Elections continue to come in across the country. Its won control of a string of key leave voting councils in england and wales. So joining us now in the studio is our Political CorrespondentKatherine Forster. Good morning to you, catherine, give us your judgement then on whats happened so far. I am i right in saying its only really not even half time yet, but yes, they are down a couple of goals. Weve still got a very, very long way to go with the local Election Results. Most. Of i Election Results. Most. Of i think weve only had about a third, just over a third of councils declare, but but the conservatives think they might lose. Ultimately up to 500 seats at the moment. It does look like they may be on on track for that labour have had a couple of particularly notable big wins. Particularly notable big wins. First of all, theyve got hartlepool back. Of course , when hartlepool back. Of course, when keir starmer lost hartlepool back in 2021, it was the height of the vaccine bounce. Boris johnson was riding high. He seriously thought about resigning. But look. How things resigning. But look. How things have turned around since then. So theyve got hartlepool back, theyve also and theyre very happy about this. Taken rushmoor in hampshire, thats the home of the british army. That is not the british army. That is not the sort of place that you would ordinarily expect labour to be taking. So they are trumpeting that very , very loudly. That very, very loudly. Im not sure if you know the answer to this question. Sorry to interject. Will there be a lot of squaddies living down there . Are there barracks down there . Yeah, there are, there are, which is interesting. Bear in mind sunaks defence. Yes budget bonanza. Yes. And of course, you know, weve had rishi sunak last, last week upping defence spending to 2. 5 by the end of the decade, making a lot of noise about that. And labour traditionally have been seen as less trustworthy on defence. But it looks like that may be changing. A couple of crumbs of comfort for the conservative party, and they are just crumbs because it is not a good picture for them. Theyve managed to hold on to Harlow Council now keir starmer was there yesterday saying yes, this is the sort of place that we need to be taking. The conservatives have kept it, albeit only by one seat and the other little bit of good news for the conservatives is that, labour have lost overall control of Oldham Council and this is largely due to the war in gaza. And we saw labour councillors resigning. A number have stood, resigning. A number have stood, independents have stood on a pro palestine ticket, chipping , pro palestine ticket, chipping, chipping in to the labour vote in areas with high muslim populations where theres a lot of concern about whats going on in the middle east, and also a lot of anger at what they perceive as labours stance. Perceive as labours stance. Its interesting with what were seeing , is there the were seeing, is there the potential for the muslim vote to become almost like the reform vote is to the conservative party, sort of chipping away at that because thats, you know, i think whilst keir starmer seems to have sat back and everything sort of fallen around him nicely, but he shouldnt attend things because the harlow one that he attended, sadly they didnt win. So hes better stepping back. Well certainly George Galloway of course hes back. He won rochdale a labour had to withdraw. Well their own candidate , they took their name candidate, they took their name off it and he stood as an independent. And George Galloway road to victory making a lot of noise saying the conservatives and labour are two sides of the same bottom cheek. Am i allowed to say that . Anyway, ive said it, etc. Etc. Hes got candidates all over the place , candidates all over the place, and there are many, traditional labour voters that are very, very unhappy with the labour leaderships stance. So yes, it is possible. I think sir keir is possible. I think sir keir starmer will be hoping for a meaningful ceasefire so that by the time theres an election, general election, probably towards the end of the year, if not sooner, that this issue will not sooner, that this issue will not have the resonance that it does now. I dont think its going to eat into the labour vote in quite as big a way as the reform party are eating into the reform party are eating into the conservatives. Well, the reform i mean, last night in blackpool, they got 16. 9. Thats their best result ever. And they were within 100 votes of taking second place. Of course, whether they would actually get any seats in a general election in another matter. But theyre potentially going to do massive, massive damage to the conservatives. And thats all they really wanted, really. I mean, of course theyd love seats, but from the vibe ive got from richard tice and ben habib and so on, is that really their main goalis so on, is that really their main goal is just destruction of the conservative party because they feel it needs to be, remodelled in a proper conservative image. Yeah. And this is something that nigel farage has said as well. And of course, if and its a big if and hes keeping us all guessing, isnt he . If nigel farage decided to come back and lead reform , you would expect lead reform, you would expect their vote share to go up even further. Of course, we dont know if that will happen. Weve still got a way to go, but, yeah , and plenty of reform voters when i go out around the country , you know, a lot of gb news viewers are reform supporters. And they will say, if you say to them, well, all youre going to do is help labour to get a bigger majority, theyll be like, well, we dont care because were so cross with the conservatives that they deserve to be okay. Interesting. And of course, richard tice last night ruling out again any sort of electoral pacts with the tories. So catherine, thank you very much. From one political powerhouse to another, catherine to Alyssa Stewart, hes going to join us next in the studio in just a gb news. Good morning. This is britains newsroom just coming up to 51