Jubilant Tories: We're no longer nasty party

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Councillor Bob Bibby also branded Gordon Brown "our 'pennies from heaven'" as the Conservatives cemented their grip on the South-East and made key breakthroughs around the country.

After the Tories won Bury council in Greater Manchester for the first time in 22 years, Mr Bibby said: "The way that David Cameron has turned the party around has made a huge difference - to be able to knock on doors and be welcomed in, be more approachable, be more human."

Admitting that the "nasty party" label had resonated, he added: "I remember when it was very, very difficult to canvass and knock on doors and now that has all changed round. And of course we've had our 'pennies from heaven' in the form of Gordon Brown, God bless him he has really helped us tremendously. I hope he continues to the next general election."

Councils in the South East
Council	Result	Change
Adur	Con	Hold
Basildon	Con	Hold
B'stoke & Deane	Con	Was NOC
Brentwood	Con	Hol
Broxbourne	Con	Hold
Castle Point	Con	Hold
Colchester	NOC	Was Con
Crawley	Con	Hold
Eastleigh	Lib Dem	Hold
Elmbridge	Con	Was NOC
Epping Forest	Con	No change
Fareham	Con	Hold
Gosport	NOC	No change
Harlow	Con	Was NOC
Hart	NOC	No change
Hastings	NOC	No change
Havant	Con	Hold
Hertsmere	Con	Hold
Maidstone	Con	Was NOC
Mole Valley	Con	Hold
North Herts	Con	Hold
Oxford	NOC	No change
Portsmouth	NOC	No change
Reading	NOC	Was Lab
Reigate & Banstead	Con	Hold
Rochford	Con	Hold
Runnymede	Con	Hold
Rushmoor	Con	Hold
Slough	Lab	Was NOC
Southampton	Con	Was NOC
Southend	Con	Hold
St Albans	Lib Dem	Was NOC
Stevenage	Lab	Hold
Swale	Con	Hold
Tandridge	Con	Hold
Three Rivers	Lib Dem	Hold
Thurrock	NOC	No change
Tunbridge Wells	Con	Hold
Watford	Lib Dem	Hold
Welwyn Hatfield	Con	Hold
Winchester	Con	Hold
Woking	Con	Hold
Wokingham	Con	Hold
Worthing	Con	Hold

England and Wales results
	Councils		Councillors
	+/-	Total	+/-	Total
Conservative	195	2,451	12	55
Labour	-226	1,884	-9	15
:Lib Dem	24	1,445	0	10
Plaid Cymru	10	61	0	0
Others	-3	541	0	0
No overall control	-	-	-3	48
125 out of 159 councils declared

The Conservatives had clinched five councils in the South-East by midday including Southampton, Basingstoke and Deane, Maidstone, Elmbridge and Harlow.

They had won 49 more local authority seats, with Labour down 33 and the Liberal Democrats down five.

Labour lost Reading to no overall control but held onto Stevenage. Arguing-that Stevenage is in the eastern region, Tory group leader in Reading councillor Andrew Cumpsty said: "This was the last authority in the South-East, outside London, under Labour control and now it's gone."

The Tories lost Colchester to no overall control. The BNP won a seat on Thurrock council which remained under no overall control.

Portsmouth remained under no overall control but the Tories increased their number of councillors by four to match the Liberal Democrats as the largest party with 19 seats.

Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of the council and the Lib-Dems, said: "It has been a disaster for Labour. We are down one but we have survived the Tory Party onslaught."

Labour was defending fewer than 100 seats in the South-East and was being cast further into the political wilderness.

Cabinet minister John Denham, MP for Southampton Itchen, said the partymust listen to the concerns of voters in the south of England to restore its fortunes.

The Liberal Democrats held Eastleigh and gained St Albans from no overall control.

Around 750 seats were up for grabs in the South-East region stretching from Oxford to Colchester and Southampton.

The Tories also stepped up their march in the rest of the country.

In the North, they won Bury and North Tyneside, the latter they had never held since the council was formed in the Seventies.

In the Midlands, they seized control of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's local authority of Redditch, as well as Nuneaton & Bedworth from Labour, and Wyre Forest, but they lost Coventry.

In Wales they were swept to power in the Vale of Glamorgan, and won West Lindsey in Lincolnshire from the Lib-Dems.

More worrying for Gordon Brown were shock losses in Labour heartlands including in Merthyr Tydfil, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Wolverhampton and Hartlepool.