Labour loses out in local polls

The Labour Party has been left wounded by a poor showing in the local elections.

With the party losing over 300 council seats, fresh questions will be asked about the future of Tony Blair.

As the prime minister sought to reassert his authority with a government reshuffle, hundreds of the party's councillors have been turfed out of office.

In the key battleground of London, Labour fared particularly badly.

The Conservatives took control of councils including Bexley, Croydon, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham from Labour.

There was minor respite as Labour gained Lambeth from no overall control.

But Labour lost control in a swathe of other councils including Lewisham, Camden, Plymouth, Warrington, Derby and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

By Friday afternoon Labour had lost a net total of at least 300 council seats and 19 councils.

The projected vote share if the polls were held nationwide shows the Tories on 40 per cent, Lib Dems 27 per cent and Labour 26 per cent.

Turnout is estimated at 36 per cent - down three points from 2004.

Chancellor Gordon Brown said the results were a "warning shot" for the government and that Labour had to "renew" itself to deal with the challenges of the future.

"We have got to show we are listening to people's concerns and we are going to respond to them," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said the government had suffered a bad two weeks leading up to the poll: "We have now got to renew ourselves as a party to deal with the challenges ahead."

But he denied any knowledge of a supposed petition by backbenchers calling for Blair to step down immediately, pledging a "unified and orderly" transition of power.

Constitutional affairs secretary Lord Falconer told Sky News: "We are concerned about areas where we have not been performing as well as we should have done."

But former health secretary Frank Dobson bluntly warned that the reshuffle would be no more than "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic".