Experts , psephologists and those experts, psephologists and those that know perhaps what might happen tomorrow. All that to come after your News Headlines with sam francis. With sam francis. Tom, thank you. And a very good evening to you from the newsroom. Itsjust good evening to you from the newsroom. Its just gone 7 00 and leading the news tonight. Sir keir starmer claims that labours gains in englands local elections are, he says, a direct message to the Prime Minister as he renewed demands for rishi sunak to call a general election. So far general election. So far labours gained more than 140 seats and taken control of seven more councils in england. The labour leader is also hailing what he calls a truly historic moment, as his party won the mayoral race in york and North Yorkshire. In the Prime Ministers own constituency. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has insisted hes focusing on the job at hand after those disappointing local Election Results. The conservatives have lost a number of councils and more than 350 seats across england. However the Party Managed to retain tees valley, with ben houchen being re elected there. Rishi sunak has said that result is evidence that people will, he says stick with the conservatives, come the general election and the liberal democrats have also made some gains, with Party Leader Sir Ed Davey pledging to make the conservative government history. Conservative government history. People from around our great country have had enough of this out of touch conservative government theyve had enough of being taken for granted and being let down. Its time for. Taken for granted and being let down. Its time for. Change. And down. Its time for. Change. And across this country from cheltenham to dorset, from west oxfordshire to here in winchester, so many people, including lifelong conservatives, are switching to the liberal democrats to make that change happen. That change happen. Well, lets take a quick look at those council results from across england as counting continues tonight. So far you can see here if youre watching on television, hopefully we can get those results up for you. Of more than 90 of those 107 councils declared so far by the end of tonight, most results will be in. Do stay with us throughout the course of the evening for those results, and more will then follow into tomorrow, including the West Midlands. And the result for londons mayor. In other news, a schoolboy has been convicted today of murdering another 15 year old boy outside a Primary School in leeds last november. The teenager, who cant be named , was 14 at the time of the attack in horsforth. Hes admitted stabbing alfie lewis with a 13 centimetre long kitchen knife in full view of other pupils, but he has denied murder. Instead, he claimed he was scared for his life when he pulled out the weapon, but that has been disputed by prosecutors. A former solicitor has been sentenced today to more than seven and a half years in jail for running what a judge has described as a deceptive immigration scheme. Flora mendez, from luton, made up fake addresses in Grenfell Tower and charged victims £2,800 to submit fraudulent immigration applications. The 45 year olds also exploited the windrush scheme, providing services to people without being qualified. The Indian National continued providing illegal Services Despite being struck off in 2015, and the judge in the case called her actions truly disgraceful, sentencing her to 90 months behind bars. Disgraceful, sentencing her to 90 months behind bars. And 90 months behind bars. And finally, before we hand back to tom, an update on the Critical Incident in bristol, where a power outage has hit a number of hospitals, the local nhs trust is urging the public not to attend any of those sites until the problem has been fixed. Instead, its asking those who may need Urgent Medical help to call one, one one. Those are the headunes. Call one, one one. Those are the headlines. Ill be back at 8 00 headlines. Ill be back at 8 00 with another update. Until then, you can sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the code there on your screen or go to gb news. Common alerts. News. Common alerts. Good evening. Its coming up to 7 05 now. What a day of results. It has already been. Of results. It has already been. Of course, every adult across england and wales was able to vote in some form of election yesterday. And whether its mayors, local councils or indeed police and crime commissioners, were beginning to see what the final picture will settle down to be. Clearly, the labour party has made strong gains in many areas in the country, although the labour party, the conservative party, is able to point to at least one point of light, expect to hear a lot about mr ben houchen and the tees valley. Lets talk now with tees valley. Lets talk now with the conservative minister for Northern Ireland, steve baker, because steve, whichever way you cut this, its been a difficult night for the conservatives yes, of course, this has been a very tough set of elections. It was always going to be 2021 was a high watermark. That was the vaccine bounce during the covid period. And you know these hard working councillors didnt deserve to suffer from National Political drama, but you know, there we are. It has been a very tough time for them. Of course, were delighted that ben houchen has been re elected in teesside. Thatis has been re elected in teesside. That is a labour stronghold and thatis that is a labour stronghold and that is very, very good news. Of course, ben hawkins vote share is down from the 70 that he achieved in 2021 to just over 50 now. Surely that shows that evenin 50 now. Surely that shows that even in the tees valley, even with a popular local mayor youre going backwards. To be honest, tom, i think if i looked and it was, if i recall correctly, it was 53 of the vote. If i get 53 of the vote at the general election, i should be very pleased indeed. I think its really important to maintain perspective, for i think if that counts as failure, i should be i should be very glad to achieve the same result. Look, its a labour heartland. And still when people faced were faced with the choice of a really powerful mayor, they chose the conservative candidate. And im really pleased about that. And i think when we look at the mayoralties, i think things are going to be at least tighter than people expected. Thats because people recognise that when it really counts, they want conservative in power and not labour. So you know, it is a very, very tough time, but im very pleased that pens come through because he is the best. He was the best candidate. Hes now going to be once again the best mayor. And you know, we look for the other results. Harlow was set up as a key test for labour by keir starmer himself. And of course thats not a resounding victory for us. But equally it is a failure by Keir Starmers own test. So you know, nothing is nailed on yet for the general election. You know we have to really respect the public and what theyve told us. But it is really all to fight for. Its true to say youve held harlow. That was, of course, something that keir starmer wanted to gain. But looking at basildon, basildon was the sort of totemic point of victory for john major in 1992, when sir david amess held that seat against all odds. Thats the moment. On that night people knew the labour party had not won that election. Well, today won that election. Well, today that council has turned from the conservatives to the labour party and the council leader, andrew baggott, had this to say. He said that if Boris Johnson was still Prime Minister, he wouldnt have lost that council. Wouldnt have lost that council. Well, i mean, thats pure speculation and with Great Respect to him, you know, boris ended up in in the position that he did and it was most unfortunate. But, you know, rishi sunak is doing the right things. Theres occasionally its said weve moved to the left. But i dont think that can be said of rishi sunak when you actually look at his policies, cutting taxes, the toughest Immigration Law in a very long time, if not ever. You know, we are doing the right things to stop the boats to lower peoples tax burden and to get this country onto the path that people chose outside the European Union. The announcement by Kemi Badenoch this week on trade figures was very welcome. The plan is working. We need to stick with it. Its been a tough time through covid and afterwards with the inflation that came through, thats now under control. So of course these were going to be a tough set of elections. We recognise that. We hear the public. Weve got a lot more to do. But im hoping if we can stop the boats with the rwanda legislation having just gone through and beginning to look like its going to work, if we can stop the boats , if we can deal with the boats, if we can deal with the boats, if we can deal with the cost of living, we can make the cost of living, we can make the case to the public that they should stick with us to finish the job, get this country going where it needs to. Steve, i noticed something when i was looking at the result declaration in the tees valley. I wonder if we can have a look at this video now we can see the candidates standing there on stage. The liberal democrats clearly there with his big yellow rosette. The labour candidate there with a big red rosette, and ben houchen not wearing any rosette at all. Why was ben houchen not wearing a conservative rosette for the declaration . That is definitely a question which ben would have to answer. I normally make sure that ive always got a rosette on my person for just that purpose, but look, the voters knew they were voting conservative when they voted for ben. Steve, the reason i ask this, of course, is that if you look at a neighbouring mayoralty, nonh at a neighbouring mayoralty, North Yorkshire, that is true blue territory. Its where the Prime Minister voted on thursday. Its, its the Prime Ministers own back yard where there wasnt an incumbent. It there wasnt an incumbent. It was a new mayoralty, that new mayoralty, when there wasnt a personality to vote for, it was just party versus party. And it went to the labour party. Despite the area being full of conservative mps. Does that not say that theres a difference there between the personality vote of someone like ben houchen and perhaps andy street two versus when its just the conservative brand , and which conservative brand, and which may well have become a little toxic . Toxic . Well, well, i dont really accept that argument for two reasons. One is that york itself has been a labour stronghold for some time, and of course, ben has an incumbency effect, and i think it is fair to say that many of us, as incumbents, will to hope attract some votes through our incumbency if they know that weve got a track record of standing up for them, of delivering for them, they stick with us. So i think its that that would be the effect the incumbency that ben has, plus york being a stronghold. But of course, look, its a tough result, i, you know, its a tough result. These were always going to be difficult elections. Just finally, steve, because we dont have that much time , does the conservative time, does the conservative party need to do anything to change after these results . Is sticking on this course a course for losing the general election . The Prime Ministers got a clear plan to turn this country around to stop the boats. Weve deau around to stop the boats. Weve dealt with inflation, were cutting taxes. Were going to need to go forward towards the election and make it really clear what the choice is, sticking with us to finish the job of getting the country onto the right path outside the European Union, which is working, or back to square one with keir starmer and a party that doesnt know how to deal with migration, doesnt really want to have left. The European Union is opposed to much of the good stuff weve done , and i good stuff weve done, and i really think that when push comes to shove and turnout comes up and people have got that pencil in their hand by then, we need to have really given people the strongest reason to vote conservative. I, of course, i believe in our party in the future it can create. Weve got to make that case between now and polling day in the general election. Well, steve baker, Northern Ireland minister, member of parliament for wickham, thank you very much for joining us. And talking through the results there. Lets get some analysis. Now. Joining me in the studio is Martin Baxter, the founder and ceo of electoral calculus. And martin, what is the big takeaway from last night . The big takeaway is what it looks like actually, which is good for labour and bad for the conservatives. But below that there are a few details, so that there are a few details, so that the conservatives held on in the tees valley. The also an important fact is the equivalent National Vote share, which was calculated just a few hours ago, had the labour only ahead by 9, which is a lot less say than the blackpool south by election where they did much better than that and a lot better than the National Opinion polls. And this is when all of the vote, because there are lots of different elections that took place yesterday. And this is some clever maths that sort of pollsters such as yourself put together and try and project what it would have looked like if all of these votes were voting in a general election. Yes, its trying to sort of do it as a on a fair baseline bafis do it as a on a fair baseline basis so that you and the conservatives got 25 in that. Thats right. 25 and 34 to laboun thats right. 25 and 34 to labour. So thats just 9 now thats higher than their polling average, much higher. Yeah. So average, much higher. Yeah. So the question is whether that is completely reflective of where the British Public are. Because i mean the blackpool south was result was much more in line with the National Opinion polls. With the National Opinion polls. But it will certainly be comfort to many conservatives that things might not be as bad as as the opinion polls suggest. Although 25 is not a course for victory. Just one quarter of for victory. Just one quarter of the election backing the party at the next general election could still be a seismic drubbing, a scale its less than john major got in 1997. Well, it would still mean a labour majority of about 100 seats is what it would mean. So it would be. But not a conservative sort of. Its not less than canada. Yes, yes, yes. Whereas yes, a 20 labour leader takes the conservatives below 100 seats or so, which, you know, and if they lost even more votes to reform, it could get even worse. But so were not talking were talking between the difference between an extinction event and something that is just a very bad election result. Yes its disastrous rather than calamitous. Blimey. Well, i mean , im blimey. Well, i mean, im sure there will be many conservative strategists breathing a sigh of relief that that or perhaps not, shall we zoom in to some specifics here . Because whilst its clear the labour party are ahead, there are certain areas where the labour party has gone backwards, particularly wards in the country that have a very high muslim population, there have been some big successes by independent candidates taking seats from the labour party there. Yes, oldham and kirklees were labour lost control of the councils, and, and those are areas, as you say, with a high muslim population. On the other hand labour are gaining in interesting areas for them like essex and hampshire and worcestershire. So that i think its possibly Keir Starmers bargain with himself is that he doesnt mind losing a few muslim voters in areas which, on the whole are probably going to turn labour mps anyway. Okay. If he can pick up, disgruntled conservatives and lib dems in the south of england. And this is perhaps what Jeremy Corbyn got very wrong in 2017, where he got a similar vote share to theresa may, but was about 60 points behind, 60 seats behind, or maybe more than 60 seats behind because he piled up the labour vote in areas where it was a sort of inefficient vote. If keir starmer gets perhaps no seats with 80 vote share, but a lot with 80 vote share, but a lot with over 50 vote share, its a more efficient vote spread across the country. Absolutely. Yes. I think you said it. You said it perfectly. So both labour and to some extent the lib dems are all about concentrate the votes where theyre going to do the most good, so , so its i suppose most good, so, so its i suppose speaks to the peculiarities of our system. Its not a proportional system. It doesnt matter the, the proportion of votes you get. It matters where you get them. It matters where you get them. Yes. And that does encourage i think people parties to try and reach as many people as possible. Net so that and it possible. Net so that and it pushes parties. I think a little bit towards the Centre Rather than going to the extremes. So in that way perhaps thats a good thing. Yes, it is interesting because there is one election that were still waiting. Well, there are a couple of elections were still waiting on. Perhaps the biggest question mark over this set of local elections, which i dont think many people suggested was going to be a question mark. Only a couple of days ago is that of the london mayoralty. Much, much mayoralty. Much, much speculation now that sadiq khan could be in trouble. Well, yeah, its hard to believe , isnt it . I mean, believe, isnt it . I mean, london is getting more and mor