Labour braced for local losses

Labour was today braced for heavy losses in the local elections.

A results began to come from the council elections in England and Wales on Friday morning, Gordon Brown's party was expecting to be punished by voters over the government's woes.

Labour was expecting to record around a 25 per cent share of the vote, with the Conservatives looking to achieve at least 40 per cent.

That would be worse for Labour than in Tony Blair's worst year in 2004, when the same seats were contested.

In contrast the Conservatives were having a good night, gaining control of councils including Bury, Southampton and Harlow, key swing seats in any general election, and looking on course to gain around 200 more councillors.

The picture was more mixed for the Liberal Democrats on around 25 per cent support nationally and struggling to improve upon their 2004 performance.

After polls closed on Thursday night some websites also predicted a victory for Tory candidate Boris Johnson in the London mayoral contest.

In total, there were 3,920 seats up for grabs, spread across 159 local authorities, including 22 in Wales.

One third of the seats, 1,262, were being fought in Wales.

Almost all of England's councils are electing one-third of their members, and every seat in Wales is up for grabs in what is being seen as a key test of Gordon Brown's leadership.

The English seats were being contested in 36 metropolitan councils, 78 districts and 23 unitary councils.

This includes four new unitary authorities in Chester City and Cheshire West, Durham, East Cheshire and Northumberland, where full councils were being elected.

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