Where are we now? The election results so far, explained

I’ve been up all through the night following the results for our election liveblog. If you’re just joining us for the rest of the results throughout today, here’s where we are so far:

England

At the beginning of the night, John McDonnell said that the results of these elections would be “complex”. He was, in a way, proved correct.

Labour is losing council seats across the country, but not as many as had been expected – only 24 at the time of writing – and has so far lost just one council, Dudley, to No Overall Control. There are plenty of councils where Labour had very small majorities that have been clung onto, including Harlow, Crawley and Nuneaton – although that saw an 11 per cent swing to the Tories. Very few places have seen any Labour gains.

The Sheffield Brightside by-election saw a swing to Labour of six per cent, while Ogmore in Wales saw Labour hold with no swing at all.

This is nowhere near good enough to be on course for victory in 2020, but is an improvement on the rock bottom expectations set by election forecasters, as it now seems unlikely Labour’s councillor total will fall by as much as 150. One source told me tonight that “the biggest losers so far tonight are the plotters” who “over sold their case” against Corbyn.

Scotland

This is pretty simple. It has gone badly, as we knew it would. The SNP has got a clean sweep in Glasgow, in a result Shadow Scotland Secretary Ian Murray has described as “cataclysmic”, and Kezia Dugdale is the only leader of a major party not to have won a seat in a First Past The Post election last night.

In fact, Scottish Labour won just three seats in the constituency section – fewer than both the Conservatives and even Lib Dems(!) managed. The Tories look like they may have eked over the line into second place overall, in a hugely symbolic defeat for Labour.

It is a humiliation for the party, but not one that will be made better by kneejerk reactions.

Wales

Things have remained remarkably stable in Wales tonight, with Labour fighting off tough challenges from the Tories in Gower and Plaid in Llanelli. However, Leanne Wood caused an upset by winning in Rhondda. That is the only seat to have changed hands so far in the Welsh election.

No regional results have yet been announced, but Welsh Labour are looking like they could finish with around 27 seats, which they will be happy with.