Election results 2021 live: Latest local council, Scottish and London mayor election updates

Many across the UK are already watching the dramatic scenes within Labour unfold as the party reels from its disastrous election results – but now, a picture of Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner is drawing comparisons to hit crime drama Broadchurch too.

Can you see the resemblance?

Labour has gained five seats in Worthing, with the Conservatives only narrowly retaining control of the council in their Sussex heartlands.

The Conservatives lost four seats, and now have 19, with Labour on 15 and the Liberal Democrats three.

Legislation for a referendum on Scottish independence could be put before the country’s parliament by early next year, Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, Ms Sturgeon said she “wouldn’t rule that out”.

“The people of Scotland re-elected me as First Minister with the first task of continuing to steer us through this pandemic, getting us into recovery,” she said.

“Then, of course, there is a question about what kind of recovery do we want? What kind of country are we rebuilding to?

“That brings into sharp focus where do decisions lie. I am not sure the kind of recovery Boris Johnson envisages is one that the majority of people in Scotland would support.”

She said the SNP would “lay out frankly the challenges an independent Scotland would face” in advance of any referendum.

Ms Sturgeon acknowledged that the road to independence would not be “challenge-free”, but she said “it is absolutely the right thing for Scotland because it puts control over our future and the kind of country we become into our own hands.”

Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said he hopes to see “intimate contact” between friends and family restored come 17 May, when coronavirus restrictions are eased.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday May 9 Mr Gove said: “All being well the prime minister will confirm tomorrow that there will be a relaxation”.

“Friendly contact, intimate contact between friends and family is something that we want to see restored,” he said.

Prime minister Boris Johnson will announce details of the UK’s roadmap out of lockdown tomorrow.

Watch Mr Gove’s comments:

Welsh Labour would welcome a Union summit called by Boris Johnson if it is “real”, a minister has said.

Mr Johnson has invited Welsh Labour leader mark Drakeford and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon to talks following their victories in the Welsh and Scottish parliaments.

The prime minister called for the meeting after Ms Sturgeon maintained that a Scottish independence referendum was the “will” of the people.

In his letter, however, Mr Johnson said the UK was “best served when we work together”.

On Sunday, Welsh Labour housing minister Julie James said she backed the call for a “Team UK” summit, so long as it is “real”.

“I hope very much that it’s real. We would welcome it if it was,” she said.

“We’ve been calling for many, many years for a proper constitutional summit, where we talk properly about the role of devolution across the UK, in a United Kingdom,” she said. “We very much welcome that. You’ve heard party leaders from us for many, many years saying how necessary that is.”

Ms James said that in devolved nations, there is a “clear appetite for it”.

Ms James also noted that the Welsh Cabinet would be meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss “the next set of measures” as Wales waits for an announcement on any further easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions to be made on Friday.

She said she was “absolutely not able to say” whether the easing of restrictions could move forward, at least until ministers had received the latest advice from scientific advisers.

However, she said foreign holidays are “very much part of the package of discussion for Monday”.

A social care reform plan should be “heading for the statute books” by the end of the year, Michael Gove has said.

Asked whether social care reform would be part of this week’s Queen’s Speech, Mr Gove told Times Radio: “We’re working to make sure that we have an effective social care plan at the moment. That work is going on.”

“So, by the end of the year you will have a specific social care plan that is heading for the statute books at the very least,” he said. “We want to make sure that we can get cross-party support for it. That is critical.

“That’s the point the Prime Minister has always made. The more support we can get for it across parties, and I hope we do, the quicker we can be,” he said.

The prime minister has been mocked online after he wrote to leaders of the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish governments describing the vaccine rollout across the country as “Team UK in action”.

In the letters to the first ministers, Boris Johnson also called for a summit to discuss the UK’s recovery from coronavirus on the same weekend that Mark Drakeford was re-elected as leader in Wales and Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP came one seat short of an outright majority in Holyrood.

Ms Sturgeon has threatened the British PM with court action if he refuses to allow a referendum on Scottish independence.

In case you missed Sadiq Khan’s victory speech, you can watch it here.

The Labour candidate won a second term as Mayor of London on Saturday, taking just over 55 per cent of votes, following an anxious wait for results.

Mr Khan entered a run-off with Conservative Shaun Bailey when neither managed to secure a majority in the first round, but it was the current mayor who eventually came out on top.

Former actor and self-proclaimed “anti-woke” campaigner Laurence Fox has lost his deposit in the London mayoral election after receiving less than 2 per cent of votes.

Mr Fox, who set up his Reclaim Party to run in the race and campaigned on a platform of scrapping the coronavirus lockdown, won 47,634 ballot papers – 1.9 per cent of votes – in Thursday’s election.

Candidates must secure 5 per cent of votes or higher to retain their deposit.

Her name has been plastered over the press and social media since it was announced yesterday she had been sacked as chair of the Labour Party, but who exactly is Angela Rayner?

Rayner, 41, has held a number of high-profile positions in her relatively short time on the green benches. Less than a year after taking the Ashton-Under-Lyne seat she was made shadow minister for pensions in January 2016, before moving to the women and equalities brief that June.

By July 2016, she was shadow secretary of state for education, a role that she would hold until Sir Keir Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in April 2020.

Ms Rayner did not stand for the party leadership in 2020, instead supporting her close friend Rebecca Long-Bailey for the top job, while she successfully went for the deputy role. Her appointments to the roles of chair and shadow first secretary of state followed quickly after the election results.

She left school at 16 when she was pregnant with her first child and later qualified as a care worker after attending college. She now has three children and became a grandmother in 2017.

Sir Keir sacked Ms Rayner her role as Labour’s chairman and national campaign co-ordinator on Saturday, following the party’s disappointing electoral performance. Many have suggested the move was an attempt by Sir Keir to use Ms Rayner as a scapegoat for his failings.