Which ares of London had the highest turnout?

More from Keir Starmer speaking at a rally in Mansfield this morning.

The Labour leader said: “It now is upon us to deliver that change to each of those people that put their faith in us in the vote here in the East Midlands and we will do so with a positive case for the country.”

He listed Labour’s plans to “pick up the NHS”, make sure the streets are safe, build affordable homes, and provide secure jobs.

Starmer said: “That falls to us, because today is the day that we celebrate the beginning of the turning of the page, one of the last milestones now as we go into that general election.”

He added: “Let’s turn the page on decline and usher in national renewal with Labour.”

Keir Starmer says he’s still confident Sadiq Khan can win a third term as London mayor

For those in the comments expressing concern about Larry the cat in all of this local election chaos, rest assured that he* has been sharing updates on X. In particular, Larry shared this important message on Thursday:

*may not be actual Larry the cat tweeting.

Just in case you’re wondering what’s on the cards today, here is an explainer of the key mayoral and local election results still to come:

Keir Starmer is at a rally in Mansfield where he has congratulated Labour’s Claire Ward for her victory yesterday. Ward was elected the first mayor of the East Midlands, beating the Conservative Ben Bradley by more than 50,000 votes.

Starmer told the crowd: “Claire and the whole team here – this is a fantastic victory. A really important victory. You fought for this with a very, very positive campaign. I came here myself to campaign with you. I was struck by the positivity of the case that you were making, and you were rewarded with the trust and confidence of the voters in the East Midlands.”

Starmer called the East Midlands “a really, really important area for us”. He said:

The underlying constituncies, the voters across the whole of the East Midlands came out and voted Labour and that is a very significant moment in our history.

And when the history books are written about this period of our political history in the UK, this will be part of that story; the day you were able to persuade people that we are a changed Labour party with a positive plan to take to the country and they can safely out their vote agianst the Labour cross.”

He repeated that it was a “very, very significant and important victory” and one he said “vindicates the hard work of the last few years changing the Labour party”.

“I think the message here is very, very clear and I think across the East Midlands there’s been a sending of that message to the government, which is ‘we’re fed up with your division, your chaos, your failure’.”

Starmer said the Conservatives “do not deserve to be in government for a moment longer”. He described the East Midlands result as a “vote for Claire, the East Midlands, for the country and it was a vote for change”.

Local election results so far demonstrate Rishi Sunak has “very little to show” for his efforts to recover the Conservative brand following Liz Truss’s premiership, John Curtice said, reports the Press Association (PA).

The election expert told the BBC:

There is nothing in these results to suggest contrary to the opinion polls that the Conservatives are actually beginning to narrow the gap on Labour, and that so far at least, Rishi Sunak’s project which has tried to recover from the disaster – from the Conservatives’ point of view – of the Liz Truss fiscal event, that project has still got very little to show for it. That in a sense is the big takeaway.

Now the Conservatives, as when all parties do badly in elections, they always want you to focus on the exception rather than the rule, and Tees Valley and probably the West Midlands are the exceptions not the rule.”

On Labour losses over its stance on Gaza, Curtice said:

At the moment I think what we would find if we had a general election is that Labour might well fall back in some of these seats, but because the Labour party is already so strong, they would probably still succeed in winning the parliamentary election.

But yep, this is a big message to Labour from these local elections, is that you are indeed now in trouble with some of your Muslim former supporters.”

In an opinion piece for the Guardian, columnist Jonathan Freedland writes:

It was not an opinion poll. These were local elections about local issues. The results tell you only about where we are now, not where we might be come the autumn, or whenever it is that Rishi Sunak finally submits himself to the judgment of the country.

You know all the caveats, to which we can add one more: some of the biggest results, namely the mayoral contests in London, Manchester and the West Midlands, won’t come until Saturday. And yet, taken together, the votes cast on Thursday form an increasingly clear picture. It is a bleak one for the Conservatives – while for Labour it contains both cheer and a perhaps unexpected warning.

Make no mistake, the core story contained in these numbers is yet more confirmation of the disastrous standing of the Conservative party. As loudly and clearly as they can, voters are telling the Tories that their time is up. Nowhere was that message more deafening than in the Blackpool South byelection, where – yet again – the Conservatives suffered a colossal swing to Labour: at 26%, the third biggest such swing in history. (The second biggest came less than three months ago, in Wellingborough.) Those results can’t be written off as midterm blips or one-off protest votes. These are tremblings of the seismograph, saying an earthquake is coming.

You can read Freedland’s full opinion piece here:

My colleagues Alex Clark and Ashley Kirk have put together a visual analysis of what the local election 2024 results may signal for a general election.

You can take a look at the maps, charts, data and analysis here:

My colleague, Eleni Courea, previously detailed the England local and mayoral election results to look out for, and this is what she had to say about this weekend:

Saturday afternoon
The West Midlands metro mayoralty – perhaps the most closely fought major contest in this set of elections – is expected to declare its result on Saturday around 3pm. Andy Street is seeking re-election for a third term but faces a challenge from Labour’s Richard Parker, with polls suggesting the pair have been neck and neck.

The results of the London mayoral contest and London assembly elections are also due on Saturday. Labour’s Sadiq Khan is seeking a third term and polls have put him comfortably ahead of Tory Susan Hall, despite jitters in Khan’s campaign team. The Greater Manchester contest, which Andy Burnham is all but certain to win, is also due.

This last set of results, which will include some councils and police and crime commissioners declaring on Saturday and Sunday, will complete the picture of these local elections and determine just how much trouble the Conservatives are in.

As mentioned earlier, the Liberal Democrats’ victory in Dorset yesterday was a significant result for the party.

Commenting last night on the result, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said:

The Liberal Democrats are back in the West Country. This is a historic result.

After our stunning parliamentary byelection wins in Tiverton and Honiton, and Somerton and Frome, and our fantastic local election victories in the last two years in Somerset and Devon, and now Dorset, the Liberal Democrats are truly on the up in the West Country.”

Labour also won inaugural mayoral contests in the East Midlands and the north-east, and gained nine police and crime commissioner posts from the Tories, including in Cumbria, Avon and Somerset, and Norfolk.

It also took a Tory scalp by winning the Blackpool South byelection.

But in a smattering of councils, the opposition party lost seats to independents and George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain, all apparently over the party’s stance on Gaza.

Overall, Labour won control of eight councils as it saw a net gain of 204 seats, while the Liberal Democrats gained 92 seats and the Greens 58.

The Liberal Democrats’ most significant victory was winning control of Dorset council from the Conservatives, where it now has 42 of the 82 seats after gaining 15.

The Greens fell narrowly short of taking overall control of Bristol, one of their top targets, despite gaining 10 seats.

Closing out the first day of results, Sunak suggested there was still hope for his party despite already suffering bruising defeats in the final test of voters before a general election.

He wrote in the Telegraph newspaper:

Thursday’s results showed that voters are frustrated and wondering why they should vote. The fact Labour is not winning in places that they admit themselves they need for a majority, shows that Keir Starmer’s lack of plan and vision is hurting them.

We Conservatives have everything to fight for – and we will because we are fighting for our values and our country’s future.”

Sunak pointed to his party’s recent commitment to increase defence spending, and measures to grasp migration as clear dividing lines with Labour.

Starmer meanwhile hailed his party’s victory in the York and North Yorkshire mayoral race on Friday afternoon as “truly historic”.

The region, which covers Sunak’s Richmond constituency, is somewhere Labour has historically struggled to compete in parliamentary elections.