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ne Labour MP likened the local election battering to a "John Major moment" while the Prime Minister pledged to "listen and lead" after what he admitted had been a bad night for his party.

In Yorkshire, all three parties were happy with the results, the Tories making inroads in key areas, the Liberal Democrats winning important victories in Sheffield and Hull, and Labour not collapsing as badly as elsewhere in the country.

The elections saw Labour lose 331 councillors and the Tories win 256, taking control of several key councils such as Bury and North Tyneside – and to make matters worse Boris Johnson was apparently destined to become London Mayor.

Tory leader David Cameron hailed a "big moment" for the Tories as they exceeded expectations to win a projected 44 per cent of the vote, condemning Labour into third on 24 per cent, one point behind the Liberal Democrats.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg celebrated taking control of Hull and his own city of Sheffield as his party gained 31 seats.

Last night as Ministers rallied to defend the Government Mr Brown faced the wrath of his own MPs, with backbencher Derek Wyatt likening it to the defeat inflicted on John Major by Tony Blair in the 1995 elections, two years before Labour swept to power in the General Election.

"Gordon has committed spectacular own-goals and the public is punishing him for it," he said, while fellow backbencher Ian Gibson gave Mr Brown six months to transform the party's fortunes.

The Tories won control of an extra 12 councils, the Lib Dems were one up and Labour lost eight, amid fury over the scrapping of the 10p tax band and the soaring cost of living.

Mr Brown said it was "a disappointing night, indeed a bad night, for Labour" and added: "I said I was going to listen and lead. We are in difficult economic circumstances. I think people accept that we're going through some of the most challenging times we've seen in many years."

Mr Cameron said: "I think this is a very big moment for the Conservative Party, but I don't want anyone to think that we would deserve to win an election just on the back of a failing Government.

"I want us to really prove to people that we can make the changes they want to see."

Meanwhile Mr Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, made the most of victory in his home city yesterday, where his team converted a one-seat Labour lead into a six-seat Lib Dem majority.

He told the Yorkshire Post: "I am absolutely overjoyed. We worked incredibly hard for this.

Sheffield has been taken for granted by Labour.

"We didn't just win, we won absolutely comprehensively. It is really confirmation that if we work hard we can win everywhere. Hull, Newcastle, Grimsby, Sheffield, Liverpool, Burnley, the list goes on. These are the cities where the decades of the iron grip of Labour has been broken by us."

The Tories made "little incursions" but the grip was being broken by the Lib Dems, he said.

The party had overtaken Labour in its share of the national vote for only the second time in the history of his party.

Conservative high command also claimed it was happy with its performance in Yorkshire, despite not winning any council – even Craven where it only needed to take two seats.

Richmond MP William Hague, shadow Foreign Secretary and the man charged with reviving the Tories in the North, said that even in Labour strongholds his party was making "big steps" forward.

He said: "We have won seats in the Labour heartlands of Wakefield, Rotherham and Barnsley, we have won seats in both Kirklees and Calderdale to become the largest party, we have won seats in Bradford, Harrogate and Craven.

"It's clear Yorkshire, like Britain, is ready for change."

He added: "With more than 100 tax rises, the doubling of violent crime, and cuts to key NHS services, people across Yorkshire have had enough of Gordon Brown and Labour."

But Rotherham MP Denis MacShane, the former Europe Minister and now leading Labour backbencher, said he did not expect the "kicking" meted out on his party to be repeated in a future General Election, even though three seats in his town switched to the Tories and two to the BNP.

He said: "The 10p tax rate was clearly an issue, and on the doorstep I also picked up in places a real hatred of the Polish people coming into the area, but in places like this there's still an ingrained fear of the Conservatives and it's just silly to think they stand a chance here in the General Election.

"This set of results tells us that we've got to work harder, both as Labour councillors and as MPs."