Conservatives suffer huge blow in local elections as Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn vow to break Brexit deadlock
With the results from all 248 councils in, the already significant losses suffered by both the Conservatives and Labour worsened and resulted in respective leaders Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn reaffirming their commitment to break the Brexit deadlock.
The Tory party lost more than 1,334 councillor seats, as well as the control of 49 councils throughout the UK.
It was the worst performance from the governing party in a local election for 24 years.
Read more: Theresa May heckled at Tory party conference
Labour also suffered, losing six councils and 86 seats, in what has been suggested is frustration at both parties for their lack of progress on Brexit.
Theresa May described it as a "very difficult" situation at a party conference in Wales on Friday afternoon, and was heckled by a Tory activist before she could even begin her speech.
The 71-year-old party member and former councillor, Stuart Davies, said: "We don't you resign? We don't want you here."
In the wake of the losses the Prime Minister has accepted that her failure to deliver Brexit has played a part in it.
"I'm sorry that good councillors have lost their seats through no fault of their own," she told Sky News.
"These were always going to be difficult elections for us, nine years into a government, and there's the added dimension of having not got the Brexit deal over the line."
May and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt both alluded to Labour's losses as well, suggesting frustration was aimed at both main parties.
Corbyn defended the losses claiming there was a number of possible reasons for losing seats in traditional heartlands.
"Some of them were local factors and some of them were people probably disagreeing with both parties on attitudes towards the EU," he said.
Read more: Brexit bites: Tories and Labour suffer local election backlash
"Our policy is that we are the only party that seeks to appeal to people however they voted in 2016 and to ensure that we try to defend jobs and working conditions in this country."
The winners of all of this were the Liberal Democrats, winning a total of 704 seats as well as 12 councils.
The Green Party also had its biggest ever success at the local elections.