Boris Johnson faces backlash from Tory councillors after losses – follow live

The Conservatives are increasingly pessimistic about the situation in Westminster, a council they have run since its creation in 1964.

“We will lose it,” a senior Tory source said.

In a major defeat, the Conservatives have lost control of south London’s Wandsworth to Labour.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party gained 5 seats from the Tories, which had held power in the council since 1978.

“Boris Johnson losing Wandsworth is monumental. This was the Tories’ jewel in the crown,” a Labour source said as the results were set to be confirmed.

It turned blue in 1978, a year before Margaret Thatcher’s election as prime minister and was reputedly her favourite council, renowned for its low taxes.

Salford’s Labour mayor Paul Dennet said that his party requires “real clarity on what national policy is to enable us to bolster what we are trying to do locally”.

“Disappointed” after Labour lost three seats in the city council elections, he said: “What we need to do is learn from residents and communities about what issues and concerns they have.

“There is a lot going on, we have years and years of austerity and we’re facing a cost-of-living crisis.

“When we’re doorknocking we see people are really frustrated at the moment with the political system.”

Labour remains in overall control of the council, which had a third of its seats up for election this year.

The Conservatives have suffered another major loss in Worcester, with no party managing to hold a majority of the council.

After the Conservatives lost three seats, they are now set to have a similar number to Labour. Greens leader Louis Stephen, whose party has six seats, has offered to work with the two major parties.

Early results show the Conservative Party have suffered a net loss of 53 council seats so far, while Labour gained 1 seat and the Liberal Democrats 27 seats.

The ballot, the first major electoral test for Boris Johnson since he became the prime minister, will offer the most important snapshot of public opinion since the Conservative Party won its biggest majority in more than 30 years in the 2019 general election.

“These results are confirming that the Conservatives have suffered something of a rebuff from the electorate,” said polling guru John Curtice, a professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde.

The Conservative leader of Carlisle City Council, John Mallinson, has said the prime minister should go following the defeat suffered in Cumberland.

He told the BBC that he “lost some very good colleagues” in the election for Cumberland, a newly created council, and found it “difficult to drag the debate back to local issues” while campaigning because of Partygate and the cost-of-living crisis.

“I don’t think it was helping to get comments from people like George Eustice talking about people using value brands to ease their shopping bills. That just seems to have come over very patronising,” he said.

Asked if he thought Conservative MPs should oust the prime minister, Mr Mallinson said: “That would be my preference, yes.”

One local Tory has called on Boris Johnson to “take a good, strong look in the mirror” amid the council seat losses in his area.

Leader of Portsmouth City Council’s Conservative group Simon Bosher told the BBC: “I have to say the results have been extremely disappointing, not totally unexpected I have to say. We have actually lost some very good working community councillors this evening.

“Personally I think those in power in Westminster really do need to take a good, hard look in the mirror because it is the rank and file grassroots members they rely on that are actually losing their seats tonight and it is pretty disappointing across the board.”

Labour has won a convincing majority on the newly created council of Cumberland.

The party was “surpassing all expectations” with the result in a place where, as ITV’s Tom Sheldrick points out, all three local MPs are Conservatives.

BBC correspondent Robert Cooper calls it “devastating” for the Tories here.