Election Nightmare For Gordon Brown

Election Nightmare For Gordon Brown By Sky News SkyNews - 55 minutes ago

Gordon Brown has led the Labour Party to its worst election result for 30 years.

"It is a massive rebuff to Gordon Brown on his first test at thepolls as Prime Minister,"says Sky Political Editor Adam Boulton on hisblog.

The Conservatives are the biggest gainers with 140 newseats and significant wins around the country including Bury,Southampton and Harlow.

If the figures were to be reflected in a general election, the Tories would win a Commons majority of more than 150.

To check the current state of play go to our interactive results checker.

Sky's chief political correspondent Jon Craig says the result is not just mid-term blues.

"Even in Labour's heartlands they are doing very badly.

"IfKen Livingstone can cling on in London there would be relief in DowningStreet, but if Boris Johnson has won, as the bookies seem to think hehas, David Cameron will be a happy man."

Bury was one of the Tories' principal targets, victory gives the party control of an area in the north of the country.

The victory in Harlow is significant too, since it is regarded as a seat which closely matches results in general elections.

Theparty also did well in Birmingham. Even though it failed to takeoverall control, it took six seats from Labour to strengthen itsposition as the city's largest party.

The Tories missed one of its targets by failing to gain overall control of Worcester.

However,Conservative Party chairman Caroline Spelman told Sky News: "The pointis that Conservatives are winning all across Britain."

LocalGovernment Secretary Hazel Blears said that national trends could notbe extrapolated with any confidence from local results.

But she told Sky News: "What we hear tonight we will, of course, take extremely seriously."

Notall councils tallied their results during the night, while the resultof the London Mayoral election will also not be revealed until later inthe day.