Labour has now become the largest party of local government – surpassing the Tories for the first time since 2002 in a historic milestone.

The party was able to overtake the Tories after Rishi Sunak’s party suffered losses across the country, with six switching directly to Labour.

By Friday evening, Labour had won more than 450 seats seats and 19 councils, while the Tories lost over 978 seats and 47 councils.

The Labour wins came in battleground areas the party had been targeting including Medway in Kent and Swindon in the South West – both of which have been run by the Tories for the past 20 years.

In a further boost, the party also won several councils from no overall control including Plymouth, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool, Middlesbrough, Broxtowe, High Peak and North East Derbyshire.

Throughout the day, the party continued to count successes in councils including Dover, East Staffordshire and Bracknell Forest, which it snatched from the Conservatives.

Some of its later gains were in Erewash and South Ribble, which it took from the Conservatives – the latter for the first time since 1999.

The results came in stark contrast to the Conservatives, who witnessed a slate of councils fall from their grip and into no overall control – a theme that has dominated the party’s evening.

On Friday evening, it lost a host of councils including Surrey Heath to the Lib Dems. Wealden, Staffordshire Moorlands and Central Bedfordshire all switched to no overall control.

The party also crashed to defeat in East Suffolk, Broadland, and Newark & Sherwood.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

The losses were preceded by Tamworth, Brentwood, North West Leicestershire, Hertsmere and East Lindsey, which all fell to no overall control overnight.

That pattern continued into Friday after losses across the country including in South Kesteven, South Gloucestershire, Welwyn Hatfield, Maidstone, Bromsgrove, Cannock Chase, West Devon, North Warwickshire and Tewkesbury.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer celebrated the gains as showing that his party was on course to win a majority at the next general election.

Politics live: ‘Alarm bells’ in Tory HQ as party takes ‘hammering by any standards’

Speaking from Medway, the jubilant Labour leader told supporters: “You didn’t just get it over the line, you blew the doors off.

“We’re having fantastic results across the country.

“Make no mistake, we are on course for a Labour majority at the next general election.”

The Liberal Democrats were also celebrating gains throughout the day after they won control of councils in the “Blue Wall” Tory heartlands of Windsor and Maidenhead, Dacorum in Hertfordshire, Stratford-upon-Avon and South Hams.

The party also picked up Mid Devon council which had been in no overall control and South Oxfordshire.

The Green Party’s first major result of the day came when it won its first outright majority in Mid Suffolk, where the council had previously been under no overall control. Overall the party is currently up by more than 150 seats.

Despite the progress enjoyed by Labour in this set of elections, the party still needs to achieve a swing bigger than Sir Tony Blair’s landslide election victory in 1997 to secure a majority at the next election.

Sky News’ election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher said that based on analysis of change in vote share across 1,500 wards, Labour is the most popular party with 36%, with the Conservative share 29%, Lib Dems with 18% and others standing at 17%.

See full local election results here

Assuming a uniform national swing and applying these to the seats decided at the last general election, Labour would be on course to become the largest party at the next election.

It would gain 95 seats – to an improved total of 298 in this projection – the highest number since Labour won the 2005 general election, but 28 short of an overall majority.

And speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge after the scale of the Tory losses became clear, Labour shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said the party was “pretty happy”, but added: “We’ve still got a long way to go.”

She added: “The sort of result that we need will be stupendous. We’ve got a mountain to climb – we know that we do.

“But we have got ourselves into a pretty good basecamp and the view’s alright.”

There was also disappointment for Labour in some areas. In Slough, Labour lost the council to no overall control.

And the party also struggled to replicate its headline successes in the South in some areas of the North East, including Darlington, Stockton and Hartlepool.

Sir Keir’s party did progress in Darlington and Hartlepool, but was unable to take back overall control of either – and in Stockton, the Conservatives took seats to become the biggest group for the first time in many years – although the council remained under no overall control.

‘This is not a verdict on Rishi Sunak’

Asked by Sky News’ Sophy Ridge whether the results showed that Rishi Sunak had failed his first test at the ballot box, former Cabinet minister Liam Fox said: “It’s not a great result for us by any means but… this is not a verdict on Rishi Sunak – Rishi Sunak has actually seen the party’s electoral chances improving.”

Despite the early losses, Mr Sunak was defiant as he spoke to reporters outside the Conservative Party headquarters on Friday morning.

He said it is always “disappointing” to lose “hard-working Conservative councillors” but “in terms of the results, it’s still early”.

“We’re making progress in key election battlegrounds like Peterborough, Bassetlaw and Sandwell,” he said.

“I am not detecting any massive groundswell of movement to the Labour Party or excitement about their agenda.”

However, a Labour source said the Conservatives had only won two seats in Sandwell, where it now has 12 seats compared with Labour’s 60, adding: “If that is all the PM and CCHQ can point to as ‘progress’ they are in enormous trouble.”

Read more: See full elections results as they come in

Labour has shown sound gains when it comes to both seats and vote share in numerous areas, including Thurrock, Rushmoor and Redditch.

‘Hammer blow to Tories’

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey hailed a “historic victory” for the Liberal Democrats’, whom he said had enjoyed its “best result in decades”.

“It’s little wonder Rishi Sunak is running scared of a general election, because he knows the Liberal Democrats are set to take swathes of seats across the Conservative Party’s former heartlands,” he said.

Voters have been deciding who runs services in 230 (out of 317) local authorities in England, with around 8,000 councillors’ seats up for grabs.

Mayors have also been chosen in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and Middlesbrough in what is the biggest round of local elections since 2019.

The seats on offer were last contested in 2019, when Mrs May was weeks away from resigning, and her party lost 1,300 seats.

Labour, led by Jeremy Corbyn at the time, also suffered losses with the Lib Dems, Greens and independents coming off best.

Analysis: Is this a new dawn for Labour?

Here are the benchmarks from Sky News’ elections analyst Professor Michael Thrasher for what would make a good and bad night for the main parties:

Conservatives

• Fewer than 300 losses: This would see the party winning council seats back from Independents, with Labour and the Lib Dems not prospering
• 500 losses: The party could argue “mid-term blues” and will assume Labour could be caught before the general election
• 750 losses: This would indicate a clear swing to Labour, but still less than opinion polls imply
• 1,000 losses: A very bad night, with a third of all seats defended by the Conservatives lost

Labour

• 700 gains: The best local elections for at least a decade. Labour would look on its way to becoming the largest party in Westminster, even if short of a majority
• 450 gains: These results would be better than in 2022, when local elections took place in Greater London
• 250 gains: A disappointing result for Labour in the context of recent opinion polls
• Under 150 gains: A step backwards for Labour

Liberal Democrats

• 150+ gains: Eating into Conservative territory and could put some marginal constituencies in play at the next election
• 50-100 gains: Comfortable enough in their own heartlands but only modest further progress
• Fewer than 50 gains: Fewer than 50 gains: Still struggling to pose a real threat to the Conservatives in the South

Sky News will be bringing you full coverage both on TV and online.