The Latest Breaking News from Ben Houchen

Exclusive: Ben Houchen, Britain’s only senior Tory left in power, says his party can turn things around in five years but should have listened to Rishi Sunak to avoid calamity

It came after the former home secretary said the party could do better than being ‘a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks’.

One of the least spoken about shifts in English politics over the last decade is the move towards mayors. Starting with the establishment of the Mayor of London by Tony Blair in 2000, successive Conservative governments have created 11 mayoral combined authorities, each with its own directly elected mayor, since…

The PM has danced to their tune and the dreadful election results were the inevitable outcome. The solution can’t be more of the same, says the former Conservative MP Justine Greening

In today’s newsletter: Rishi Sunak’s party were expecting a difficult contest – but the results were even more dire than predicted, as political correspondent Kiran Stacey explains

PM and allies seemingly intent on staying the course in face of conflicting calls on how to avoid wipeout when country goes to polls

Rishi Sunak’s government tries to limit the damage as the Conservatives’ worst fears prove correct in the English local elections

Rob Ford was part of the BBC team analysing the local election results as they poured in over the past 48 hours. Here he tells how a dramatic set of results for the government unfolded

Keir Starmer says the prime minister has no option but to call a general election