Conservatives hail election gains

With only a handful of results still to come in, the Tories have made a net gain of 875 seats and have seized control of councils across England.

Labour has suffered a net loss of more than 485 council seats and the Liberal Democrats have lost about 242 seats.

Tony Blair said Labour recovered from worse results to win the last election.

BBC projections based on the English council results put the Conservative share of the vote at 40%, the same as last year, with Labour on 27%, one point up, and the Lib Dems down one point at 26%.

'Dreadful results'

Party sources claim the Conservatives gained more than 100 new councillors in the north of England, although they again failed to win any seats on Manchester City Council.

However, in Blackpool, the Labour leader, deputy leader and mayor all lost their seats to Conservatives.

David Cameron lauded the Conservative win in Chester

Tory leader David Cameron said: "We took control of South Ribble with stunning results on one side of the Pennines.

"We took control of the East Riding of Yorkshire on the other side with also stunning results."

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "For the Liberal Democrats I think it's been a dreadful set of results and the Tories have not broken through, particularly in the northern cities, in the way they wanted to.

"I think people will understand that if we could come from worse results in 2004 to win a general election, we can do that now."

The Lib Dems have suffered heavy losses, losing councils such as South Norfolk and Uttlesford on big swings to the Tories.

But they recorded gains in Hull, Rochdale, Eastbourne and Hinckley and Bosworth. And Labour lost overall control of Sheffield after Lib Dem gains.

Party leader Sir Menzies Campbell admitted the elections had delivered a "mixed bag", but said there had been some results to be cheerful about.

In the Midlands, the Tories took control of Oswestry Borough Council for the first time in the council's history and South Derbyshire went their way after 33 years as a Labour stronghold.

They also became the largest party in Birmingham for the first time in 24 years.

Toss of coin

It did not all go the Tories' way - their candidate in Tony Blair's home ward in County Durham failed to poll a single vote.

In Lincolnshire, Conservative Christopher Underwood-Frost only held on by winning on the toss of a coin after he tied with his Lib Dem rival on 781 votes.

Elsewhere in the county, Boston Bypass independents, campaigning for a bypass for the town, won control of the borough council.

Electronic counting

Across England 32.8m people were eligible to vote and about 10,500 councillors will be elected.

Five English councils trialling new ways of electronic voting have been forced to hold recounts after a series of glitches.

The votes will be counted by hand, delaying the declarations in Warwick and Stratford district councils, Warwick Town Council, South Buckinghamshire and Breckland.

Almost half of the counts started straight after polls closed, but other authorities delayed their counts until later on Friday because of a new postal voting system.

Election officers must compare signatures accompanying ballot papers with those on the original applications for a postal vote.