A very, very easy-to-understand look at the local election results - and what they mean

After a relatively low-key campaign, the results are now trickling in from yesterday’s English local elections. But listening to complex analysis on the news and being bombarded with numbers turns a lot of people off, so we’ve broken down some of the most important results – and explained what they mean.

There are still around 50 councils to declare and we’ll update once the full numbers are in.

1. No landslide for Labour

It seems many Labour voters weren’t particularly motivated to get out to the polls, with Jeremy Corbyn’s party only making very small gains.

Labour failed to take some of its target councils such as Wandsworth in London and lost control of Derby and Nuneaton & Bedworth.

But it did win back Plymouth and became the largest party in Trafford. And Labour did technically win the night, by winning the most council seats.

So overall a pretty mixed bag.

What does this mean?

Labour failing to make big gains in London could mean the anti-semitism scandal is still causing trouble for the party.

And Corbyn really needs to be doing better if he’s going to capitalise on his relative success at last year’s general election and have any chance of forming a Labour government.

In fact, Sky’s election analyst and respected pollster Michael Thrasher forecast that if there were a general election based on these results, Labour would end up with a similar number of seats to the 262 it won in 2017.

2. UKIP were totally wiped out – and the Tories did better than expected

At the time of writing, UKIP have lost 92 seats, losing almost all the seats they were defending. And the BBC’s election expert John Curtice thinks this ended up helping the Tories to have a relatively satisfactory night. The Conservative party ended up taking control of Peterborough, Basildon and Barnet.

What does this mean?

For a government struggling to come up with any way through the Brexit mess and battling scandals like Windrush, the Tories seem to have held their ground. They still need to be doing better if they want to win a majority in the general election but overall, they’ll be happy with the night’s results.

And on UKIP, hopefully they’ll just give up soon. No need to bother any more lads.

Read more: Could the ‘Vote Leave’ data scandal lead to Brexit being cancelled?

3. A glimmer of hope for the Lib Dems

The Lib Dems will be pleased after taking Richmond-upon-Thames from the Conservatives and gaining more than 40 councillors across England.

What does this mean?

Not a great deal - they’re still a tiny party on a national scale. But if they can convert this into a revival in the next general election, it could put them in a strong position in a hung parliament scenario.

4. The Greens are over the moon

The Green Party are celebrating this morning, after gaining 11 seats and winning 22 overall, as the results stand, according to the BBC.

Co-leader Caroline Lucas said: “The Green Party has taken a significant step forward with just a fraction of the resources of the bigger parties.

“We are now established as one of the four major English parties - and an electoral force right across the nation.”

What does this mean?

YAY GREENS BEING ALL GREEN AND HAPPY! GOOD FOR YOU GUYS! 

(Images: Getty)