Blair Should Go

Labour suffers local poll losses

Tony Blair has suffered a poor night in England's local elections as Labour lost 210 councillors.

The main gainers were the Tories, who had their best results since 1992. The Lib Dems failed to make much headway.

Elsewhere the British National Party doubled its councillors, including winning 11 seats off Labour in Barking. The Greens also made gains.

The prime minister will reshuffle his Cabinet on Friday as he seeks to regain momentum after days of bad headlines.

The projected vote share if the polls were held nationwide shows the Tories on 40%, Lib Dems 27% and Labour 26%. Turnout is estimated at 36% - down three points from 2004.

The British electorate gave Labour and Blair a bloody nose but not a knockout blow.