It has been a Conservative collapse. They have lost the Blackpool South by-election, and more than half of the council seats and councils that they were defending.
If results continue like this it could be the party's worst-ever local elections.
All of today's expected mayoral election results have been called, with seven more to come over the weekend - including the London Mayor result.
So far, Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has been re-elected, while Labour have won the inaugural North East; York and North Yorkshire; and East Midlands mayoral races.
Labour has made gains in local councils although there have also been losses in some areas, and many Conservative losses have been falling to smaller parties and independents.
The Greens have made gains in terms of councillors, but no councils.
The Lib Dems have taken control of Tunbridge Wells council and maintained control of nine others, including Eastleigh, Hampshire, and Hull, showing they can threaten the Conservatives in certain areas - but have failed to make significant gains.
With now more than two million votes counted, we can estimate the national estimated share of the vote and compare it to the 2019 general election.
The Conservatives have plummeted to just 26% of the estimated share, one of their worst local election performances on record.
But the fall for the Conservatives has not entirely gone to Labour, who are only marginally up on the 2019 general election result by two points on these figures - it's the other parties that have benefitted because of that.
So what would this mean at a general election?
Labour would still fall short of an overall majority.
When we take those numbers and assume that the voter swing is uniform across all constituencies, we see that although Labour has made gains and Conservatives would lose seats, Labour is still short of the 326 seats it needs to form a majority Labour government.
Of course, in reality not all constituencies will behave in exactly the same way, as seen in the different ward level swings.
But it does tell us the scale of Labour's challenge as we approach another general election. Because of a poor performance in 2019, they have a lot of ground to make up to win even a small majority.
They have made some important gains, however.
Labour has gained control of ten councils in total, including Redditch in the West Midlands, and Rushmoor in Hampshire - the home of the British Army, which they took directly from the Conservatives.
Rushmoor had never previously been under Labour control in the 50-year history of the council, and had been under Conservative majority control since 2000. Even Tony Blair failed to ever win there.
Labour did however lose Oldham, and Kirklees, which are now under no overall control. They also failed to win key target seats like Harlow in Essex.
The Conservatives are at their lowest number of seats ever recorded in Portsmouth - Tory minister Penny Mordaunt's backyard, and also in Peterborough.
They lost 13 seats in Peterborough but Labour only made four gains, with seven seats going to independents, and one each to the Greens and Lib Dems.
Tories lose Blackpool South with third highest swing since war
The Conservatives lost the Blackpool South by-election, with a swing to Labour of 26.3%.
It's the seventh by-election loss direct to Labour since the last time these same council seats were up in 2021. Six of those losses have seen swings among the 10 highest recorded since the Second World War.
Reform recorded their highest ever vote share, of 16.9%. They had only been above 10% once, in Kingswood earlier this year. They are currently polling 12.4% nationally according to the Sky News poll tracker.
The result in Blackpool South is consistent with this national polling, and similar to how UKIP performed in the seat in 2015. But a better result may have been expected given the circ*mstances of the election - an MP from the governing party forced to resign over corruption issues.
Unwinding the Conservatives' 2019 electoral coalition
The Conservatives are performing worst - and Labour best - in areas that voted most strongly to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.
Labour is also performing stronger in areas with fewer graduates and with more people in working-class occupations.
This points to Labour perhaps being able to translate their votes more efficiently to seats in a general election, where it needs to win back many working class, leave voting areas that turned to the Conservatives last time around.
Labour's progress looks significant when compared with the last time these seats were up in 2021, as would be expected with the party 20 points ahead in the polls, but if we compare with last year's local elections it is more limited.
Among the wards we have results for so far their vote is up almost six percentage points compared with 2021, but down compared with 2023.
They are also currently losing votes from last year in areas with higher Muslim populations.
Mayoral elections
As well as council elections, electors have been voting for London mayor, nine Combined Authority mayors and for Salford City mayor.
Today we have had results from Tees Valley, the North East, York and North Yorkshire and East Midlands, with Labour taking all but Tees Valley.
Conservative Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen was re-elected with a healthy majority of 18,789 (12.3%).
The Conservatives will be relieved with this result, but there is some cause for caution when looking at Westminster constituencies in the area.
Houchen's majority has shrunk by nearly three quarters, from 46% in 2021 (based on first preference votes received under the former Supplementary Vote system) to 12% today.
This was a swing of 16 points towards Labour compared to 2021. Other Conservative members of parliament elected in 2019 to represent constituencies in the Tees Valley area had much smaller majorities than Houchen achieved in 2021, and would not survive a similar level of voter swing to Labour if replicated at the next election.
Meanwhile, Labour have won the inaugural North East Mayor and York and North Yorkshire mayoral races.
There are several council results still to come, as well as the rest of the mayors (and don't forget the police and crime commissioners), so keep checking back on this page which we'll be keeping updated throughout the course of the weekend.
Charts, analysis and reporting by Prof Will Jennings, Daniel Dunford, Joely Santa Cruz and Conor O'Neill.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
