Local elections - the big three

It's clearly been a very bad night for Labour. While we wait for the London result, here's what happened in Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester...and what it might mean for the leadership of those big three cities.

In Birmingham, Tory leader Mike Whitby is a very happy man today, having won 6 seats from Labour. Across the Greater Birmingham area, the Tories still hold Walsall and Dudley - but they surprisingly lost overall control of Coventry. After an unsteady first term, Whitby will now be able to entrench his position - and resist any push by Hazel Blears for more elected mayors in councils like Birmingham. He should now use his stronger hand to accelerate the development of the wider Greater Birmingham city-region.

As I predicted last month, Lib Dem leader Warren Bradley just managed to hold on in Liverpool - but now faces a leadership challenge from two fellow councillors, Richard Kemp and Paul Clein. The LibDems officially lost overall control, but disgruntled former Labour councillor, Nadia Stewart, was last night persuaded to join the LibDem Group - denying Joe Anderson and the Labour Group their chance to retake power after 10 years. Just as Liverpool 08 gets into its stride, the city will now have to endure more political instability. This could well lead to increased calls for an elected mayor in Liverpool.

Labour lost 25 seats across Greater Manchester - losing overall control of Oldham, while the Tories gained Bury. Labour now controls 4 of the 10 Greater Manchester councils, and the Tories and LibDems have 2 each. Labour will probably continue to run Bolton, but Oldham could end up with a LibDem-Tory coalition. Overall, this weakens Labour's grip on the city-regional governance of Greater Manchester - and could delay the development of the "federal senate" proposed by Steve Broomhead last month.

Meanwhile, Salford councillor Roger Jones lost his seat - he's the leading champion of Greater Manchester's congestion-charge plans, and will now have to resign as chair of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority. This is a major blow for advocates of the congestion charge plan. Bury, Trafford and Stockport are  currently opposed to the plan - if a fourth council breaks ranks, then a referendum will be required in all 10 Greater Manchester councils.   

For all the results, see this rather good BBC map.