Conservatives brace for losses as votes counted in local elections

Many English councils will be counting through the night, while results in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not expected until well into Friday. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

The Conservatives are braced for a nerve-shredding 24 hours after voting closed in local elections across the UK, with Labour and the Liberal Democrats expecting to make gains.

Taking place against the backdrop of the cost of living crisis, the first nationwide polls since Partygate will be widely read as a test of whether Boris Johnson has become an electoral liability.