LIVE: Latest updates from across Yorkshire and beyond as local election results roll in

The Labour Party is getting more confident in the West Midlands. The Tories have reportedly asked for a bundle check, which is not the same as a recount, although the result has still been delayed. There’s been a swing to Labour in Solihull, and Richard Parker has beaten Andy Street by almost 8,000 votes in Wolverhampton. This was a city, which Street won in 2021.

The Tories have lost control of Stroud, with the Greens taking nine councillors.

Commenting on the local election results, Greenpeace UK’s climate head, Mel Evans, said Khan’s win in London confirmed that bold climate and environmental action was “a vote winner”.

“Anti-green populism has largely backfired at the ballot box,” she continued. “Many of the local and mayoral candidates that stood on bold green policy platforms won resounding victories. The people of London, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and the North East, all elected mayors and councillors who have committed to boosting public transport, delivering green growth and cutting emissions. As Labour continues its resurgence to power, the gains made in these local elections demonstrate, once again, that the British public overwhelmingly support climate action.”

This weekend’s results were evidence that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pursuit of more oil and gas licences and “attempts to make net zero a culture war issue” had failed miserably, she added.

“Susan Hall pitched an anti-green agenda to Londoners, and she failed to win them over, but Sadiq Khan’s commitment to clean air and climate action won their support.”

Sadiq Khan’s victory speech was interrupted by boos from the Britain First candidate and his supporters. The returning officer threatened to turf them out if they didn’t stay quiet. It’s worth noting that Count Binface received more votes than Britain First.

When Sadiq Khan was able to give his victory speech, he hit out at the “non-stop negativity” of his opponent Susan Hall. While he was speaking, some of Hall’s activists heckled with “crime, crime”, while Hall stared at Khan from behind.

He said his campaign had "answered fear-mongering with facts", and accused Hall of “right-wing populism”. Khan referenced the death threats he had received, when paying tribute to his wife.

The mayor claimed voters had given him a mandate for pushing forward climate policies in London, and also mentioned his policy of free school meals.

If you thought we’d had all the results, then think again - the West Midlands is going to a recount. This should take a couple of hours, so we’re hoping to get a result around half six.

The winner of this will really set the tone for the debate going forward. If Labour are victorious, then Keir Starmer’s party can rightly say they’ve had an excellent set of local election results. However, if Andy Street holds on, a bruised Rishi Sunak will be able to hold the plotters in his own party at bay for the time being.

Susan Hall returned fire on Sadiq Khan in her speech. She said he should stop “patronising” people who care about London. She said: “I’d like to congratulate all my fellow mayoral candidates and congratulate Sadiq on his victory. Spending a year campaigning for this election has been an honour and a privilege. I have loved speaking to Londoners about the things that matter to them.

“The thing that matters the most, and to me, is reforming the Met and making London safe again. I hope Sadiq makes this his top priority. He owes it to the families of those thousands of people who have lost lives to knife crime under his mayoralty. And I hope too that he stops patronising people, like me, who care. This isn’t an episode of The Wire, this is real life on his watch.”

Certainly no love lost between the pair.

Outside City Hall, I spoke to LondonWorld editor Andre Langlois about Sadiq Khan’s victory over Susan Hall.

On Friday night, a ripple went around social media that Sadiq Khan might be in trouble in London. Labour had been pumping out messages to activists that the race between the current mayor and Tory challenger Susan Hall was “so close”.

Then, when the turnout figures came in, some commentators rushed to condemn the Labour mayor, while Tories briefed that Hall could oust Khan. Despite this, I still gave the Conservative candidate a 1% chance of overturning the huge deficit - and thankfully for my reputation this proved correct.

As soon as the results started coming in on Saturday, it was clear that Khan was going to retain the mayoralty. Boris Johnson’s ultra-low emission zone, which Khan had put into practice, had been touted by the Tories as an “anti-car” policy which would bring him down. 

This, however, appears to have had little impact on the race, with outer London boroughs, which have been more affected by the ULEZ, still swinging towards Labour. And in a way, this is little more than the Tories deserve. 

Senior Conservative politicians have spent years criticising the capital, deriding it as a city of latte-drinking liberals which is simultaneously afflicted by crime and immigrants. Hall embarked on a campaign in which the only tactic was to attack Khan. 

She had previously liked tweets praising Donald Trump and referring to the capital as “Londonistan”, and was caught out by LBC’s Nick Ferrari embellishing losing her wallet to make a political point about theft on the Tube. As former Tory minister for London, Paul Scully, pointed out this was in contrast to victorious Ben Houchen in the Tees Valley, who continually professed his love for his area.

In his victory, Khan hit out at the “non-stop negativity” of his opponent, accusing her of “right-wing populism”. While the mayor was speaking, Hall’s outriders heckled him with “crime, crime”.

There should be an inquest in Conservative HQ as to why the party didn’t mount a more competitive campaign. After all, no London mayor has won a third term before, and Khan has been under pressure over knife crime.

But in the end, the social media whispers were a mirage of Conservative hope, on a bad few days for Rishi Sunak’s party across the country. The Tories have lost Thurrock Council in Essex, Rushmoor in Hampshire and Redditch in the Midlands to Labour - all key bellwethers for the general election. 

The only blot on Labour’s copybook was the ongoing issues with Gaza votes, which saw the party lose control of Oldham Council and leak councillors to the Greens and independent parties. However, Keir Starmer will be pretty happy with his work, when he assesses the elections. 

While Labour’s support has waivered in strongholds like the North East and North West, its votes are now more concentrated in swing seats - a good sign ahead of a general election. If Richard Parker defeats Andy Street in the West Midlands, which has gone to a recount at the time of writing, the pressure on Sunak will continue to ramp up.

Labour are confident that Richard Parker has won the West Midlands mayoralty. This would be a huge blow for Rishi Sunak, who pinned his hopes on Andy Street getting re-elected. We’re still waiting for the confirmation, but Labour figures at the count sound confident they’ve won.