LABOUR and the Tories suffered big losses across England in elections which seemed to mark the demise of two-party politics.

Hard-right Reform seized control of Essex county council, home to much of the Conservative shadow cabinet, while the Greens seized the mayoralty of the long-time Labour stronghold of Hackney, east London.

Reform leader Nigel Farage crowed that his party had “literally wiped out the Conservative Party in Essex and the leader Kemi Badenoch would not even hold her seat.”

Ms Badenoch, like Labour, is in a two-front war. Her party lost all its 20 seats on Sutton council in London to the Liberal Democrats.

Labour were the biggest losers of the night, haemorrhaging support and seats across the north. It lost control of Tameside council in Manchester, parliamentary home of former deputy premier Angela Rayner. Blackburn, Burnley and Hartlepool went the same way as vote-counting continued.

New Hackney mayor Zoe Garbutt spelt out the Green challenge to the government in her victory speech, having bested Labour by 47 per cent to 35.

She said: “I’ll fight the system that views housing as a way of making money, rather than a universal right for every single person. I’ll get more council houses from development. The people need somewhere affordable to stay.

“And I won’t be silent about the government decisions that are harming Hackney residents like continued austerity. It is both heart-wrenching and outrageous that there’s something like one in two children in Hackney live in poverty.”

With many results still being counted, Labour could console itself with retaining control of Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham and Merton boroughs in London.  

But it was looking at a loss of control in Birmingham and “the worst result in 60 years” in Manchester, according to local MP Graham Stringer.

“This is a problem made in Parliament by Keir Starmer and a cabinet who have ignored the concerns of the traditional Labour voter,” he said.

Polling experts John Curtice and Rob Ford both pointed out that while Labour was losing many seats to Reform, it was losing more votes to the Greens.

The Tories also lost control of Hampshire and Suffolk, but won back its long-time London flagships, Westminster and Wandsworth councils, from Labour.

Reform won their first London borough in Havering, on the capital’s eastern edge, while the Liberal Democrats won every seat in the borough of Richmond.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey was also cheering his party winning Portsmouth, amid criticism from within the party that he is making insufficient impact.

Turnout in England was 43 per cent, up 8 per cent on the last elections, reflecting their unusually high profile.