Liberal Democrat success across the country

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 11th Jun 2004

Liberal Democrats have been making many gains across the country

The Liberal Democrats are today celebrating a night of success in this year's local elections. As well as doing well in Birmingham gaining seats off of both the Labour and the Conservative Parties, the Liberal Democrats have being gaining many seats across the country. According to BBC estimates of national vote share, Charles Kennedy's party have overtaken Labour in share of the national vote for the first time in living memory. Meanwhile the Conservatives appear to have done no better than they did with William Hague as their Leader in 2000.

Liberal Democrat Chief Executive Lord Rennard commented "Thursday night's local election results show the Liberal Democrats continuing to gain support and council seats - and challenging Labour in what were previously Labour heartlands. Labour have suffered a significant setback, falling to just 26% on BBC estimates so far - below the 28% share they had under Michael Foot's leadership in the 1983 General Election. Labour now face a serious threat from the Liberal Democrats in many city seats."

The Liberal Democrats have made significant gains across a number of the Northern Metropolitan Districts including winning control of Newcastle and Pendle gaining 11 seats in Manchester, 7 in Bolton, 5 in Sefton, 3 in Rochdale and 2 in Burnley. The results in Rochdale and Bolton have made the Liberal Democrats the biggest party on those councils.

Lord Rennard further said "The Conservatives have failed in their objective of winning back support in the cities - failing to win a single council seat in Liverpool, Manchester or Oxford. Liberal Democrats believe that our gains in the 2004 local election results are the precursor to substantial gains from Labour at the next General Election - just as their local election gains in the mid 1990s pointed the way to substantial gains from the Conservatives at the 1997 General Election."

An ICM Poll for the BBC has shown Charles Kennedy to be the most trusted of the main party leaders, with voters believing him to be more in touch than Tony Blair and Michael Howard.

The BBC estimated vote share for the 2004 local elections is:

Liberal Democrats 30%

Labour 26%

Conservatives 38%

The 2001 General Election Result was:

Liberal Democrats 19%

Labour 42%

Conservatives 33%

The swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats is 14%. The swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats is 3%.