Labour bruised but not battered

In Scotland, parliamentary elections hung on a knife-edge, with the Scottish National Party taking seats but still far from certain of replacing Labour as the largest single party.

Labour was on the way to remaining the largest party in the Welsh Assembly but looked unlikely to claim overall control, dropping five seats while Conservatives and Plaid Cymru made gains.

In England, the Tories increased their tally of councils by 12 and claimed the scene had been set for general election victory as they won an estimated 41% of the national vote.

David Cameron's Tories won control of England's largest council, Birmingham, for the first time in almost a quarter of a century and claimed they were "back in business in the north" after taking Chester and South Ribble.

But Labour said the much-vaunted "Cameron effect" had failed to deliver the predicted surge in support and insisted the Tories had not made the sort of breakthrough they would need to win the next general election.

Labour's share of the vote was up one point from last year to 27%, according to BBC estimates, while the Liberal Democrats were down a point to 26%.

Labour saw Plymouth and Gravesham - two of its few remaining strongholds in the south - fall to the Tories, and lost overall control of Jack Straw's Blackburn with Darwen, but won North Lincolnshire from Conservatives.

Sir Menzies Campbell's party made some high-profile progress, gaining overall control in Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's fiefdom in Hull, but lost more than 100 councillors and saw key southern councils like Bournemouth and Torbay fall to the Tories.

With results in from 132 local authorities, Tories had gained a net 12 councils and 299 seats, Labour had lost five councils and 151 councillors. Lib Dems were down by 106 councillors.