Reform UK sweep to victory in Durham County Council elections
Reform UK took control of a third council when its candidates took more than 50 seats at Durham County Council, where Labour was previously the biggest party.
Nigel Farage has visited County Durham this afternoon - after his Reform UK Party took control of the County Council in the local elections.
Northumberland was the first county council to declare all its results, with Conservatives winning 26 seats, Reform 23, Labour eight, Independents seven, Liberal Democrats three and Greens two.
With the Conservatives and Reform now holding 49 of the 69 seats on the council, it raises the question of whether the parties will have to deal to run it.
The council was previously led by a minority Conservative administration, with the party down seven and Labour down nine, while Reform previously had no seats on the council.
Labour won the North Tyneside mayoral contest in the first full result of the night, but Karen Clark had a majority of just 444 over Reform UK's John Falkenstein.
But in Durham it was a different story - with Reform winning 65 out of the 98 available seats.
They were followed in 2nd place by the Lib Dems - who won 14 seats.
Labour came fourth, with just 4 seats won, which is a loss of 38.
The Green Party doubled their representation - now with 2 seats on the council.
Following the victory Nigel Farage made a speech at Newton Aycliffe Working Men's Club, and said;
said that Reform backers have "cleared a very important hurdle" with the local elections.
Speaking from County Durham where Reform have taken control of the council, Mr Farage said: "We now have the most expensive energy in the world because of lunatic net zero polices that are deindustrialising Britain.
"Let's be clear: we want to produce our own gas, our own oil, make our own steel, make our own copper wire.
"We want to reindustrialise Britain, reindustrialise the north and give men and women well-paid skilled jobs and a sense of pride in their community and what they do.
"We can't do that from Durham County Council, but we can set the markers on how we intend to govern.
"You have cleared a very important hurdle today. And next year we'll clear those hurdles in the Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections and I believe, as I think you believe, we really will make history and win the next general election."
Nigel Farage has said council staff working on diversity or climate change initiatives should be "seeking alternative careers" after Reform UK took control of Durham council.
"I would advise anybody who's working for Durham County Council on climate change initiatives or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or ... things that you go on working from home, I think you all better really be seeking alternative careers very, very quickly," he said in a speech in Durham.
"We want to give council taxpayers better value for money. We want to reduce excessive expenditure. We want to find out who the long-term contracts are signed with and why, and reduce the scale of local government back to what it ought to be."