Lib Dems routed in local elections

Labour suffered a humiliating defeat in Scotland where a dismal performance let the Scottish National party take control of Holyrood, while the Liberal Democrats suffered devastating losses in the English local elections.

The SNP reached 65 seats in the 129-seat parliament, thanks mainly to a collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote.

The result cast a shadow over Labour’s progress in England, where it gained control of at least 24 councils including Sheffield, Gravesham, Hull, Bolton, Stoke and Telford.

Meanwhile, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, witnessed the wrecking of his party’s local council base in the north, including in Liverpool – where he lost 11 seats to Labour – and his own adoptive city of Sheffield.

Results will continue to come in throughout Friday but they indicate that the Conservatives, although they may lose a number of English seats, have maintained support while the Lib Dems have suffered more of a backlash against the coalition.

Mr Clegg admitted that his party received a “real knock” in the local elections but suggested that the Lib Dems would be a moderating influence on the Tories in government.

“In Scotland, Wales, the great cities of the north…we’re clearly getting the brunt of the blame,” he told Sky News. “There are some very strong memories of what life was like under Thatcherism in the 1980s.” The Lib Dems would redouble their efforts to make sure that the country went “forwards”, not backwards, he added.

In Scotland the SNP gains were at the expense of both the Liberal Democrats and Labour; Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, held on to his East Lothian seat by a majority of just 151 votes over the SNP, but announced he would quit his post in the autumn.

Mr Miliband admitted he was disappointed with the Scottish result, and conceded that his party still had to make further progress in England in the future. But the Labour leader said that across the UK his party had achieved its highest share of the vote for a decade.

Gains in England and Wales were proof that people were uncomfortable with the coalition’s policies, Mr Miliband said: “What you’ve seen is the voters sending a clear message to this government, and Lib Dems in particular, and people have said, ‘Look, this isn’t what we voted for in the last general election’.”

By late afternoon on Friday, with 228 of England’s 279 councils declared, the Conservatives were up four at 123, with Labour up 24 at 53 and the Liberal Democrats down eight at eight. Many of the Labour gains were from towns that had been under no overall control. The Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition managed to retain its grip on Birmingham.

Labour did well in Wales, gaining four seats to reach 30 in the 60-seat assembly, in the process retrieving heartland Blaenau Gwent, seizing Llanelli from Plaid Cymru and taking Cardiff Central and Cardiff North from the Lib Dems and Tories respectively.

Recriminations fly over AV referendum

Fallout continued on Friday after electoral reformers conceded defeat in their fight to change Britain’s voting system, a result that will send a chill through the coalition between the Liberal Democrats and Tories.

Campaigners for the alternative vote privately admitted they had lost a “once in a lifetime” chance for reform. Amid signs of a big No vote, one Lib Dem minister said the Yes campaign had “crashed to an alarming, disastrous end”.

A referendum defeat would be a further blow for Mr Clegg in addition to Lib Dem reversals in the local elections.

In an attempt to deflect the blame for a referendum defeat and the party’s hammering in elections across the country, Lord Ashdown, former Lib Dem leader, accused David Cameron of betraying Mr Clegg.

Lord Ashdown accused the prime minister of sanctioning a “regiment of lies” to secure a No vote. “So far the coalition has been lubricated by a large element of goodwill and trust,” he told the Guardian. “It is not any longer.”

William Hague admitted on the BBC on Friday morning that the AV referendum had been the “most difficult” test of the coalition’s solidity so far. But the Tory foreign secretary insisted that had been no “breach of faith” and said the parties were still working together “very successfully.”

Senior Tory MPs have warned Mr Cameron not to offer new concessions to a weakened Mr Clegg. “We gave them this referendum,” said one. “We don’t have to throw them lollipops.”

Despite the setback, Mr Clegg has told the prime minister he intends to push on with his plan for elections to the Lords, a move likely to meet fierce Tory backbench resistance.

The deputy prime minister is also pushing for tough action to make Britain’s banks safer and subject to more competition as well as demanding big changes to government NHS reforms.

Mr Cameron, whose own party expects big council losses, will claim that he has personally ordered changes to his own health policy. “The key planks of the reforms won’t change, but there will be quite a few fairly big changes,” said one ally to the prime minister.

The results are expected to mark a cooling of relations in the coalition, with the Lib Dems promising to take a more formal, businesslike approach in future to put clear water between themselves and the Conservatives. Lord Ashdown said: “It will never again be ‘glad confident morning’.”

But Danny Alexander, Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, insisted that relations would normalise in due course. “There’s no point denying that the AV issue has been a difficult one between the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives, but I do think any damage that has been done can be repaired,” he said on Friday morning.