Local election results: Labour loses control of Dudley as Walsall remains in the balance

The Conservatives gained five seats in Dudley while the Labour Party lost three, leaving Labour two short of a majority in the borough.

In Wollaston and Stourbridge the Tories pipped Labour by just three votes to win, while UKIP gained Wordsley from Labour by 121 votes. A staggering five recounts were needed to confirm the Wollaston result.

The swing means the council is made up of 35 Labour, 29 Conservative and eight UKIP councillors.

A total of 37 seats are needed for a majority, meaning if either the Tories or Labour joined forces with UKIP they would have enough councillors to take control.

However the local Conservative Party has ruled out working with UKIP, who in turn have previously ruled out a coalition with Labour.

• See the full Dudley results ward by ward here

• FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES AND REACTION HERE

In Walsall Labour won 10 seats and the Conservatives seven, leaving Labour with the most councillors but seeing both parties short of an overall majority.

The council's 60 seats are now taken up by 28 Labour, 25 Conservative, three UKIP, two independent and two Liberal Democrat councillors.

Walsall Labour Leader Sean Coughlan said the party has arranged to meet the Liberal Democrats this morning to discuss joining forces to run the council and replacing Mike Bird's minority Conservative group.

Meanwhile veteran Walsall MP David Winnick said Jeremy Corbyn was not helping Labour and should consider stepping down.

"Although there is speculation about a possible coup in the Parliamentary Labour Party, I don't think that is the best option," the backbencher said.

"The party faces a crisis and the onus is on Jeremy himself. He should decide whether his leadership is helping or hindering the party.

"I think all the evidence shows that it is not helping."

• See the full Walsall results ward by ward here

Meanwhile in Sandwell Labour remains dominant with 71 of the authority's 72 councillors after holding all 24 seats up for grabs yesterday. UKIP has one councillor.

The vote came after the shock death of council leader Darren Cooper who had been a councillor for 25 years and led the council since 2009.

Labour held Mr Cooper's Soho and Victoria seat, which was won by a huge margin by Farut Shaeen.

• See the full Sandwell results ward by ward here

In Wolverhampton, the Conservatives won the two Tettenhall wards up for grabs, while Labour won the 18 other seats available - including gaining Spring Vale from the Liberal Democrat's last city councillor.

This leaves the authority's 60 councillors made up of 49 Labour, 10 Conservative and one UKIP representative.

In Tettenhall Regis, where two Tories were on the ballot paper after an 'administrative error', official candidate Udey Singh won with 1,045 votes while outgoing candidate Mark Evans won 415.

Labour Wolverhampton MP Emma Reynolds described her party's performance nationally as 'not good enough' in the face of a Conservative party in 'disarray'.

• See the full Wolverhampton results ward by ward here

Labour also held control in Cannock Chase, despite losing one seat. Of the authority's 41 councillors, 21 are now Labour, 13 Tory, four UKIP, one independent, one Green and one Liberal Democrat.

• See the full Cannock results ward by ward here

The Conservative dominance of Wyre Forest continued, despite a one-seat swing in favour of Labour.

There were 11 seats up for grabs of which five went to the Conservatives, three to Labour and one each to the Lib Dems, an independent and the Independent Community and Health Concern Party.

The only UKIP councillor in Wyre Forest lost his seat.

The result leaves the Conservatives with 22 out of the 33 seats and Labour with four seats. The Lib Dems and Independent Community and Health Concern Party have two seats each and there are three independent councillors.

• See the full Wyre Forest results ward by ward here

Further afield Labour suffered a drubbing in Scotland as Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson made clear she expected to head the main opposition party at Holyrood.

Labour slumped into third place in Scottish Parliament polls, losing more than nine points in its share of the vote.

In highly symbolic results, Labour lost the totemic Rhondda seat in the Welsh Assembly to Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood and saw the Scottish National Party pull off a clean sweep of seats in its one-time stronghold of Glasgow.

While Labour held on to two safe seats in Westminster by-elections and losses in English councils were less deep than some predicted, frustrations with Mr Corbyn's leadership bubbled to the surface.

Backbench MP Neil Coyle warned the party was "moving away from government" under the veteran left-winger, while the leader of the Labour group on Portsmouth Council, John Ferret, denounced him on BBC Radio as "incompetent" and "incapable of giving the leadership we need". Bassetlaw MP John Mann said third place in Scotland would be "cataclysmic" for Labour.

Meanwhile, shadow cabinet minister Andy Burnham revealed he was considering running for mayor of Greater Manchester, in an apparent sign that pessimism about Labour's prospects of regaining power at Westminster reaches into the party's highest echelons.

With counting yet to begin in elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, London mayoralty and Police and Crime Commissioners, highlights from the overnight results included:

• Labour losing 13 Scottish Parliament seats, including 11 to the SNP and two to Conservatives.

• Ms Davidson securing a seat at Holyrood by winning Edinburgh Central from the SNP, while Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale was left relying on the top-up system for a seat as she failed to take Edinburgh Eastern.

• A bounceback by Liberal Democrats north of the border saw leader Willie Rennie return to Holyrood in North East Fife, while the party also took Edinburgh Western from the SNP and held on to the Orkney and Shetland islands.

• Labour lost control of Dudley council, but held on to major cities including Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sunderland, as well as key southern outposts like Exeter, Southampton, Crawley and Slough. With results in from 76 out of 124 councils, Labour was down by 10 seats, Ukip up 21, Conservatives up 15 and Lib Dems up six.

• Conservatives lost overall control of Worcester but secured an absolute majority in Peterborough.

• Ukip gained seats in Thurrock, Tamworth and Bolton and looked set to secure its first representation on the Welsh Assembly.