Lib Dems beat Labour into third place in local election poll

12.00.00am GMT Fri 5th May 2006

Liberal Democrats have achieved a higher vote share than in the General Election a year ago - coming ahead of the Labour Party for only the second time. The BBC projected national share of the vote is:

-Conservatives: 40%

• Lib Dems: 27%

• Labour: 26%

Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell has welcomed the results, saying:

"In London, the Liberal Democrats have won Richmond from the Conservatives. We have taken large numbers of council seats from Labour in their traditional strongholds such as Camden, Haringey, Brent and Lewisham.

"Nationally, we won a much higher vote share than in last year's General Election. We have pushed Labour into third place. The Conservatives performed even worse in the major northern cities than they did under Iain Duncan Smith or Michael Howard. Three-party politics is clearly a permanent feature of the British political landscape."

The Lib Dems have gained:

• South Lakeland, from NOC, with a gain of 9 seats

• St. Albans, from NOC, with a gain of 2 seats

• Richmond upon Thames, from Conservative, with a gain of 17 seats

...and retained control in Kingston upon Thames, Sutton, Watford, Three Rivers, Cambridge, Pendle, Liverpool, Newcastle, Eastleigh and Stockport.

The Lib Dems lost overall control of Islington but are the largest party with 50% of the seats (and will effectively retain control with the casting vote of the Mayor),and also lost Milton Keynes, but we are still the largest party there.

The Lib Dems also won half the seats in Rochdale and became the largest party on other councils such as Oxford, Brent, Camden and Woking (where we missed overall control by two votes). Liberal Democrat Mayor of Watford (Dorothy Thornhill) was re-elected with 51% of the vote. Liberal Democrats now have overall control of 31 principal local authorities.

We gained around 350 seats over the last four years - and we made a slight increase on this total yesterday (+13 according to the BBC at 1.30 pm Friday, with results from 169 out of 176 councils), taking our total number of Councillors to around 4,800.

The Lib Dems became largest party with most councillors in Camden 20 (+13), Brent 27 (+16), Kingston upon Hull 26 (+4), Woking 18 (+3), Rochdale 30 (+3), West Lindsey 18 (+2), North East Lincolnshire 17 (+2) and Oxford 19 (+2).

Other significant Lib Dem advances were in councillor numbers were Haringey 27 (+11), Lewisham 17 (+10), Warrington 25 (+4), Waltham Forest 19 (+4), Oldham 28 (+3), Worthing 14 (+3).

The Conservatives failed to win a single seat in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Cambridge, Oxford , Newcastle or Gateshead.

Liberal Democrats believe that the Conservatives remain irrelevant in many city areas. In these areas the challenge to Labour comes from the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservatives lost Richmond-upon-Thames to the Lib Dems, and Liberal Democrat gains from Conservatives resulted in the Conservatives losing control of:

• Gosport

• Harrogate

• West Lindsey