Rishi Sunak has told his Chinese counterpart of his ‘significant concerns’ about Beijing‘s interference in British democracy amid claims of spying in Parliament.

The Prime Minister confronted Chinese premier Li Qiang during an informal discussion at the G20 summit in India.

It comes after two men were arrested under the Official Secrets Act amid allegations that a parliamentary researcher spied for China.

The researcher reportedly had links to several senior Tory MPs, including security minister Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, the chair of the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee.

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister met Premier Li Qiang and conveyed his significant concerns about Chinese interference in the UK’s parliamentary democracy.’ 

The Briton was arrested along with another man by officers on March 13 on suspicion of spying for Beijing, it was revealed by the Sunday Times.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, which oversees espionage-related offences, are investigating.

One of the men, in his 30s, was detained in Oxfordshire on March 13, while the other, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh, Scotland Yard said.

Both were held on suspicion of offences under section one of the Official Secrets Act 1911, which punishes offences that are said to be ‘prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state’.

‘Searches were also carried out at both the residential properties, as well as at a third address in east London,’ a statement from the Met Police said.

Both men were held at a south London police station until being bailed until early October.

Mr Tugendhat is said not to have had any contact with the researcher since before he became security minister in September last year.

Ms Kearns declined to comment, adding: ‘While I recognise the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardised.’

According to the newspaper, the researcher held a parliamentary pass and worked with MPs on international policy, including relations with Beijing, for several years. 

Mr Sunak has been under pressure from Tory MPs to take a tougher stance on China after he stopped short of formally declaring Beijing a ‘threat’.

The PM has instead referred to China as an ‘epoch-defining challenge’ to the West.

Earlier this year, Parliament’s intelligence watchdog warned that Chinese spies are targeting Britain ‘prolifically and aggressively’ with Beijing managing to penetrate ‘every sector of the economy’.

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) warned the UK is of ‘significant interest to China when it comes to espionage and interference’, placing the country ‘just below China’s top priority targets’.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk this morning warned that China had to be taken ‘extremely seriously’ but insisted the UK had to ‘engage’ with Beijing.

Risking a slip-up over Mr Sunak’s preferred choice of language when referring to China, Mr Chalk told Sky News: ‘The PM has been very clear when it comes to China, it’s an epoch-defining threat… challenge, forgive me.

‘So of course we’ve got to take it extremely seriously and I know the police and, no doubt, other agencies will take it seriously as well and let’s learn whatever lessons need to be learned.’

He added: ‘You can’t wish China away, China is the world’s second-biggest economy.

‘If we are going to meet the challenge of climate change, we can’t do it without China.

‘They’re responsible for about 27 or 28 per cent of emissions, we’re about one per cent.

‘So we have to engage but we do so with our eyes open.

‘That’s why we take steps such as ensuring Huawei is out of our 5G network, at the same time recognising there’s a sensible engagment to have and that’s the position we’re in.’

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, an outspoken critic of China who has been sanctioned by Beijing, said there were ‘big questions to be asked about parliamentary security’.

He also warned Britain had been ‘deeply penetrated by the Chinese because of our ambivalent attitude towards them’, as he demanded a ‘change in position’ from the Government towards Beijing.

Sir Iain told Times Radio: ‘It is a significant breach in security. It’s a significant breach in security in parliamentary terms.

‘So there are big questions to be asked about parliamentary security, about the vetting of people who work for different groups that are made up of parliamentarians.’

He added: ‘I think we are deeply penetrated by the Chinese because of our ambivalent attitude towards them. Therefore, people tend to turn a blind eye. 

‘You know, people like me get criticised because we make too much of this and then you see this happening.

‘If you can penetrate parliament like this over such a long period of time…  then how many other institutions with less levels of security are being penetrated on a daily basis?’

• UK to rejoin £85bn EU science scheme Horizon as PM allows deal to be finalised
• Britain has been out the group for two years since Brexit a 

By David Churchill Chief Political Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Updated: 17:45 EDT, 6 September 2023

Rishi Sunak was heckled as he told victims of the infected blood scandal their decades-long wait for compensation would have to continue.

The Prime Minister came face to face with protesters and campaigners at the inquiry into what happened, and what recompense they should receive.

But angry audience members accused him of ‘not listening’ and laughed sarcastically en masse when he said work to settle the issue was continuing ‘at pace’.

The spectacle of shouting down a sitting Prime Minister giving evidence prompted a rebuke from inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff, who urged them to abide by the ‘tradition of respecting the witness’.

One woman walked out in tears as the Prime Minister said he could only speak about ‘the Government I’m responsible for’.

It followed a series of questions from inquiry lawyer Jenni Richards KC about a lack of compensation for victims since former Paymaster General Penny Mordaunt wrote to then-Chancellor Mr Sunak in early 2020, urging him to organise payouts as soon as possible.

Mr Sunak said he was not aware of her letters at the time, as they were dealt with by officials.

At least 2,900 NHS patients – including young children – died from being infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. Many others continue to live with serious medical conditions caused by tainted blood products.

It has been described as the worst treatment scandal in the history of the health service, yet those infected and affected by it have been forced to fight for a compensation body to recognise their suffering and loss.

Sir Brian announced in April he was taking the unusual step of publishing the recommendation that bereaved parents and children of victims should receive immediate £100,000 interim compensation payments ahead of the publication of the full report into the scandal so that victims would not face any more delays.

The inquiry has also recommended that the Government establishes an arms-length compensation body soon.

An independent report by Sir Robert Francis recommended victims should eventually be compensated for physical and social injury, the stigma of the disease, the impact on family and work life, and the cost of care, while the parents, siblings and children of victims who have now died should also receive payouts, he said,

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian’s final report is expected later in the year.

Giving evidence to the inquiry in central London this afternoon, in front of an audience of around nearly 500 people infected and affected by the scandal, Mr Sunak accepted people had to wait decades for compensation.

But he said it would not be appropriate to settle compensation fully until the final report was completed.

He said: ‘Before making final decisions there is the context in which those decisions need to be made, so understanding the full context of the inquiry’s findings about what has happened over the preceding decades is important for a variety of policy reasons.

‘That’s why the Government would ordinarily wait to have the final report, so it has a full set of findings to make decisions on.

‘There is good legal precedent and reasons for that and rational decision-making would suggest that is the right thing to do.’

He said he was unable to put a timescale on when compensation would be sorted.

Mr Sunak said: ‘I do not want to add to what I believe to be a litany of broken promises and dashed expectations of everyone in this room and everyone watching (online) has had to endure for years, if not decades.

‘It is hard for me to give a precise time frame on exactly when and how these things will be resolved.’

But he said the interim £100,000 payouts and the acceptance of a moral case for compensation was an example of his Government’s ‘desire to see this through’.

Mr Sunak described the scandal as ‘a tragedy which should not have happened and we must right the wrong’.

In his witness statement to the inquiry, he said: ‘The Government is committed in responding to this inquiry’s final report when it is published and I understand that work is underway across government to ensure that a substantial response on a full compensation scheme can be included.

‘I am aware of the complexities of preparing an adequate compensation scheme, including the likely need for primary legislation.

‘As is the usual process for managing policy decisions, this work is being led by other ministers and I will be sighted in relation to the scope of the scheme and intended response at the appropriate stage when they have a formal set of recommendations to make based on their expertise.’

The Government agreed last summer to make the first interim compensation payments of £100,000 each to about 4,000 surviving victims, and bereaved widows.

But while some victims have received financial support, not all have been fully compensated.

Campaigners fear the Government is dragging its feet over the issue by not yet establishing a full compensation framework for all those affected.

Both Jeremy Quin, the current lead minister sponsoring the inquiry, and Penny Mordaunt, one of his predecessors as Paymaster General, this week told the inquiry the Government was determined to resolve the issue.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is due to give evidence on Friday.

Mr Sunak’s appearance comes ahead of an anticipated grilling at the Covid Inquiry in the autumn, at which his time as Chancellor during the pandemic will be scrutinised.

MARTIN BEARD: No wonder Rishi Sunak was jeered, when tainted blood victims like me have had to wait decades for justice

There were two telling moments at today’s Infected Blood Inquiry at which the Prime Minister was giving evidence when Rishi Sunak was jeered by the audience.

Once when he prevaricated on whether it was good enough that there were still no plans to give compensation to the 30,000 people and their grieving families whose lives were, like mine, ruined by tainted blood.

And secondly when the Prime Minister insisted the Government’s work on this issue was moving ‘at pace’.

Thirty-seven years after I was told, as a teenager, that I had been infected with HIV from contaminated blood products issued by the NHS, it remains enormously frustrating to see yet another Prime Minister insist that we are a priority, that what happened to us was an ‘appalling scandal’ — and yet at the same time failing to make any real progress.

Every four days someone affected by this dies — a tragedy Sunak acknowledged.

And the longer the Government delays making a decision on compensation — for which it has already accepted there is a moral case — the fewer individuals and their families will see justice in their lifetimes. That only compounds the agony.

Here, again, Sunak has failed to give us any answers. Not that an official wall of silence is any surprise to us.

It was in 1986, when I was 17, that I learned that I’d been infected with HIV three years previously.

A doctor at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary bluntly told my Mum and I: ‘I see you have HIV.’ It was a hammer blow. I was predicted to live just two years.

Doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where I’d been previously treated for haemophilia, had failed to tell me that the blood clotting agent, Factor VIII, with which I had been injected, was contaminated with the virus.

Another cousin — like me, infected with HIV from contaminated blood — died, aged 34, from AIDS. At his funeral, I felt as if all eyes were on me, wondering if I would be next.

In the Eighties, medical professionals treated me like a leper; I lost my job on an electronics-assembly line when colleagues found out my status; and I haven’t been able to have relationships.

The only real one I ever had ended because I knew she wanted to have children and I couldn’t risk infecting her.

Of course, an HIV diagnosis these days is very different, as many people living with the virus have long and normal lives because of effective treatment, and they cannot pass the virus on.

I know I’m fortunate to still be here, aged 54, when so many are not.

Some died very young, without a life of any kind.

And that is, by anyone’s measure, wrong.

I understand that the Government can scarcely afford the billions it may cost to put this scandal right and I’m grateful for the work done to date (I received £100,000 as an interim compensation payment last year).

But I fear that an election — which could come next year — could only kick the can further down the road. Only survivors, and those who lost spouses, have received any money to date. People whose children died — who have never received any payments — need to be given the compensation they deserve, too.

And a genuine apology would go a long way, with an acknowledgement of the cover-up by politicians and NHS staff.

Perhaps then the community which has suffered for so long can get on with what remains of their lives.

Martin Beard is a campaigner and speaker for tainted blood victims

There were two telling moments at today’s Infected Blood Inquiry at which the Prime Minister was giving evidence when Rishi Sunak was jeered by the audience.

Once when he prevaricated on whether it was good enough that there were still no plans to give compensation to the 30,000 people and their grieving families whose lives were, like mine, ruined by tainted blood.

And secondly when the Prime Minister insisted the Government’s work on this issue was moving ‘at pace’.

Thirty-seven years after I was told, as a teenager, that I had been infected with HIV from contaminated blood products issued by the NHS, it remains enormously frustrating to see yet another Prime Minister insist that we are a priority, that what happened to us was an ‘appalling scandal’ — and yet at the same time failing to make any real progress.

Every four days someone affected by this dies — a tragedy Sunak acknowledged.

And the longer the Government delays making a decision on compensation — for which it has already accepted there is a moral case — the fewer individuals and their families will see justice in their lifetimes. That only compounds the agony.

Here, again, Sunak has failed to give us any answers. Not that an official wall of silence is any surprise to us.

It was in 1986, when I was 17, that I learned that I’d been infected with HIV three years previously.

A doctor at North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary bluntly told my Mum and I: ‘I see you have HIV.’ It was a hammer blow. I was predicted to live just two years.

Doctors at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, where I’d been previously treated for haemophilia, had failed to tell me that the blood clotting agent, Factor VIII, with which I had been injected, was contaminated with the virus.

Another cousin — like me, infected with HIV from contaminated blood — died, aged 34, from AIDS. At his funeral, I felt as if all eyes were on me, wondering if I would be next.

In the Eighties, medical professionals treated me like a leper; I lost my job on an electronics-assembly line when colleagues found out my status; and I haven’t been able to have relationships.

The only real one I ever had ended because I knew she wanted to have children and I couldn’t risk infecting her.

Of course, an HIV diagnosis these days is very different, as many people living with the virus have long and normal lives because of effective treatment, and they cannot pass the virus on.

I know I’m fortunate to still be here, aged 54, when so many are not.

Some died very young, without a life of any kind.

And that is, by anyone’s measure, wrong.

I understand that the Government can scarcely afford the billions it may cost to put this scandal right and I’m grateful for the work done to date (I received £100,000 as an interim compensation payment last year).

But I fear that an election — which could come next year — could only kick the can further down the road. Only survivors, and those who lost spouses, have received any money to date. People whose children died — who have never received any payments — need to be given the compensation they deserve, too.

And a genuine apology would go a long way, with an acknowledgement of the cover-up by politicians and NHS staff.

Perhaps then the community which has suffered for so long can get on with what remains of their lives.

Martin Beard is a campaigner and speaker for tainted blood victims

Tens of thousands more NHS patients could receive ‘game-changing’ weight-loss drug, Rishi Sunak announces

• The NHS is launching a £40 million two-year pilot scheme to try to tackle obesity

By Harriet Line Deputy Political Editor For The Daily Mail

Updated: 20:38 EDT, 6 June 2023

The Kremlin issued a chilling warning of ‘retaliatory actions’ today as Rishi Sunak pledged more support for Ukraine during talks with Volodymyr Zelensky at Chequers.

Moscow lashed out after the PM committed to supplying air defence missiles and drones, and vowed to push for more international aid when he attends the G7 gathering in Japan and Council of Europe in Reykjavik this week.

Mr Zelensky and Mr Sunak greeted each other with a hug after the president arrived at the PM’s country retreat in Chinook helicopters for his surprise visit this morning.

As the teams sat down in the historic Hawtrey Room, Mr Sunak pointed out that Winston Churchill had made many of his inspirational wartime speeches from that spot.

Last week it emerged the UK had become the first country to provide long-range precision missiles to Ukraine.

The Storm Shadow cruise missiles, accurate to beyond 150 miles, are expected to be at the heart of the much anticipated counter-offensive against Russian occupiers.

But the prospect of the UK supplying fighter jet has effectively disappeared, despite Mr Zelensky visiting in February and presenting Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle with a pilot’s helmet in a not-so-subtle hint of what he wanted from the UK.

Instead the RAF will help train Ukrainian forces to use Western jets, with No10 insisting Kyiv has ‘decided’ to focus on F-16s – which Britain does not use. Mr Sunak is expected to urge other countries to provide the airframes that Ukraine wants.

Mr Zelensky said his people are grateful ‘from our hearts’ for the support the UK had provided.  

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said of the latest pledge from the UK: ‘We feel extremely negative about this.’

Peskov raised the prospect of ‘retaliatory actions’ and said Ukraine was making the situation ‘more difficult’. 

‘We repeat once again, this cannot have any significant and fundamental impact on the course of the special military operation, but, of course, it leads to further destructions, it leads to further retaliatory actions. That is, it makes this story much more difficult for Ukraine,’ he said.

Mr Zelensky was in Paris for talks with Emmanuel Macron yesterday following a summit with EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Aachen over the weekend.

Mr Sunak told the Ukrainian president today: ‘You are actually the first foreign leader I have had the privilege of welcoming here as Prime Minister and there’s a lot of great history here.

‘In fact this room that we are standing in, Winston Churchill made many of his famous speeches in World War Two from this room.

‘And the same way today, your leadership, your country’s bravery and fortitude are an inspiration to us all.’

Mr Zelensky said he discussed western fighter jets with Mr Sunak and that he was anticipating ‘very important decisions’ being made soon.

He said: ‘Today we spoke about the jets. Very important topic for us because we can’t control the sky.’

He stressed that Ukraine and the UK were ‘real partners’, with Mr Sunak aware of details of developments on the battlefield.

‘We want to create this jets coalition and I’m very positive with it.

‘We spoke about it and I see that in the closest time you will hear some, I think very important decisions but we have to work a little bit more on it.’

Mr Sunak vowed to send a ‘message of solidarity’ as Ukraine tries to kick out Vladimir Putin’s invading forces, saying it is in ‘all our interests’ that Mr Zelensky succeeds. 

He said the talks covered the ‘security arrangements we should put in place among allied countries for Ukraine for the long term to ensure it can defend itself and provide effective deterrence against future Russian aggression’.

The UK confirmed today that it will supply hundreds of air defence missiles and new long-range attack drones with a range of over 125 miles. 

Mr Zelensky last came to the UK in February, when he addressed both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.

Mr Zelensky tweeted: ‘Today – London. The UK is a leader when it comes to expanding our capabilities on the ground and in the air.

‘This cooperation will continue today. I will meet my friend Rishi. We will conduct substantive negotiations face-to-face and in delegations.’

Mr Sunak said the UK will be ‘sustaining our support’ for Ukraine.

The PM said: ‘This is a crucial moment in Ukraine’s resistance to a terrible war of aggression they did not choose or provoke.

‘They need the sustained support of the international community to defend against the barrage of unrelenting and indiscriminate attacks that have been their daily reality for over a year.

‘We must not let them down.

‘The frontlines of Putin’s war of aggression may be in Ukraine but the fault lines stretch all over the world. It is in all our interest to ensure Ukraine succeeds and Putin’s barbarism is not rewarded.

‘That is why the UK is sustaining our support to Ukraine – from tanks to training, ammunition to armoured vehicles. And this message of solidarity will ring loud in all my meetings with fellow world leaders in the days ahead.’

Rishi Sunak today revealed he was inspired to expand the role of pharmacies after watching his mother form a ‘powerful connection’ with patients in the family shop.

The Prime Minister, who worked as a boy in his mother’s pharmacy in Southampton, today unveiled plans to allow pharmacists to issue prescriptions for a string of common ailments.

The plans, designed to take pressure off GP appointments, is backed with funding of £645million.

Speaking to the Daily Mail today, Mr Sunak revealed that his own experience as someone with a pharmacist mother and GP father had persuaded him the plan could work.

He said the issue was ‘personal to me’, adding: ‘My dad was a GP, my mum was a pharmacist. I grew up working for my mum – I worked in her pharmacy for years. And so I saw first-hand how powerful the connection that she had with her patients was, how much they trusted their trusted her but more generally how much people trust their local pharmacist.

‘So it’s really personal to me, and that’s why what we’re announcing today empowers patients so that they can get more services from pharmacists, but it also is a massive vote of confidence in our community pharmacies.’

The PM took a trip down memory lane today, returning to the pharmacy run by his mother Usha until 2014, where he helped measure out and deliver medicines as a boy.

He said that today’s prescribing plans, which are due to be in place by the winter, would make life easier for patients with minor complaints, as well as freeing up 15million GP appointments a year.

‘Imagine you’ve got kids with an earache or sore throat? You won’t have to call the doctor. You won’t have to wait for an appointment. You can just go to your pharmacist and get those medicines. If you’re someone needing contraception or indeed blood pressure checks, all those things. We’re now going to say you can do it your pharmacy.

‘And it’s great for patients because it means they can get the care they need quicker.’

Mr Sunak appeared to acknowledge that the Government is likely to miss a target to increase the number of GPs by 6,000 next year.

But a new workforce plan in the coming months is expected to boost training places by up to 50 per cent.

And the PM insisted that the pressure on GPs could be eased by directing patients to other medical practitioners.

Speaking during a visit to a GP practice in Southampton, he said: ‘You don’t always need to see your GP. Talking to the patients here, there’s someone seeing a physiotherapist, someone else seeing a nurse for managing their asthma, someone else seeing a nurse for their diabetes treatment.

‘That’s great. They don’t need to see the GP, they can see those people, get the care they need. They can get it faster, and it frees up the GP to focus on the things that only the GP can do. And that’s why we’ve hired 25,000 more people like that since 2019. And that is what modern general practice looks like.’

Mr Sunak outlined the plans as industry groups warned that more pharmacies will close unless ministers provide more funding to the ‘struggling’ sector.

On average, one pharmacy is closing every five days, with owners warning that NHS payments are failing to keep up with the soaring price of medicines.

Mr Sunak said pharmacies are now receiving ‘record’ funding, with additional help for those in rural areas. And he said he was committed to helping the sector thrive.

‘Eighty per cent of the country lives about 20 minutes’ walk from a pharmacy, and for many people they are an easier place to access than their surgery,’ he said.

‘That’s why we’re investing more in them and allowing them to do more, and it’s not just more medicines that people will be able to get there.’

Dejected Tories are pinning the blame on a year of turmoil at Westminster as Rishi Sunak faces a bleak set of local election results this morning.

The Conservatives have lost control of five councils – Brentwood, Tamworth, North West Leicestershire, Hertsmere and East Lindsey – and shed more than 130 councillors.

In more body blows, Labour could end 23 years of blue rule in Medway and the Lib Dems look set to seize Windsor & Maidenhead as Mr Sunak’s party is squeezed on all fronts.  

Although many more results are to come, polling experts said the Tories could yet face the ‘calamity’ of losing more than 1,000 seats overall.

Labour celebrated victories in Plymouth, where the Conservatives had been running a minority administration, and Stoke-on-Trent – a key ‘Red Wall’ battleground ahead of next year’s general election. They were also jubilant about a mayoral win in Middlesbrough.

Party sources boasting that their local elections performance, if replicated at a parliamentary contest, would see Sir Keir in No10.

The swing so far looks to be close to the double-digits that Sir Keir needs to overturn Tory majority.

In both Tamworth and North West Leicestershire there were signs that recent Westminster sleaze scandals had damaged the Tories as they lost control of both councils.

Tamworth’s local MP is Chris Pincher, the former Conservative whip who faced groping claims last summer in a scandal that ultimately led to Boris Johnson’s downfall as PM.

The North West Leicestershire MP is Andrew Bridgen, who was kicked out the Conservative Party last month following his claim that Covid vaccines were ‘the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust’.

As well as their gains in Plymouth and Stoke-on-Trent, Labour held on to councils in Sunderland, Chorley, Halton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, South Tyneside, Sefton, Exeter, Stevenage, Ipswich, Lincoln, Coventry, Salford, Sandwell, Reading and Bassetlaw.

But they failed to gain Hartlepool despite high hopes they could win control two years on from suffering a devastating by-election loss in the ‘Red Wall’ area.

The Tories held on to a series of councils across England – including Broxbourne, Harlow, Redditch, Basildon, Havant, Rushmoor, North East Lincolnshire, Thurrock and Dudley – but were braced for more losses as ballots continued to be counted on Friday morning.

‘The Conservatives are in a little bit of trouble,’ polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice told the BBC. 

He suggested the ‘calamity’ of more than 1,000 seat losses for the Conservatives – which some senior ministers had forecast but was widely seen as Tory expectation management ahead of polling day – could yet become reality.

A Labour source claimed, if their performance was repeated at the next general election, they would win a slew of Westminster constituencies from the Tories.

This included Aldershot – a seat that has been held by the Conservatives for the past century.

‘Tory MPs will be very worried,’ the source said. ‘This is supposed to be Rishi Sunak’s political honeymoon.

‘But on these results they would have lost a bunch of seats — including one they’ve held for over 100 years.’

The Liberal Democrats held on to Eastleigh, Hull, Cotswold, and Bath and North East Somerset councils and had gained more than 20 councillors by 4am.

Party sources were also confident they had taken control of Windsor and Maidenhead.

From 7am to 10pm yesterday, voters across England visited polling stations to choose around 8,000 councillors in 230 councils.

Results from all four corners of the country began to arrive around midnight, with the major parties on tenterhooks to discover whether they had a good or bad night.

The full results will provide a key indicator as to whether Mr Sunak can stage a revival in Conservative fortunes against Labour.

But Sir Keir’s party seized on their gain of Plymouth City Council as evidence they will be able take seats off the Conservatives at the general election.

‘It’s been a really terrible night for us here in Plymouth,’ said Plymouth Moor View MP Johnny Mercer, who is also a Government minister.

Pointing to a local row over tree-felling by the council, he added: ‘There’s a number of factors at play – locally it’s been very difficult, the Conservative group here has been through a very difficult time.’

Labour MP Luke Pollard, whose Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport constituency neighbours Mr Mercer’s seat, said Mr Mercer was ‘toast’ at the next general election.

As well as their success in the South West, Labour were also celebrating the election of their candidate Chris Cooke as the new mayor of Middlesbrough, after he defeated independent incumbent Andy Preston.

A party spokesperson said: ‘This is an huge result and beyond our expectations. 

‘Taking this back from independents who won it with 59% of the vote in 2019 shows exactly the kind of progress we needed to make in Teesside.’

Earlier, Tory Cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris admitted the Conservatives had suffered ‘a bit of a blip’ following last year’s ousting of Mr Johnson and Liz Truss as PM.

The Northern Ireland Secretary said ‘fantastic councillors’ were set to lose their seats but insisted the Conservatives were ‘trying to make sure we win people’s trust back’ under Mr Sunak.

‘We know we’ve got work to do and it is going to be a tough set of results for us — we are in no doubt about that,’ he told BBC’s Newsnight.

Local Tories pinned the blame for poor council election results on the party’s woes at Westminster.

‘Nationally and locally we’ve had a very difficult 12 months and I think the electorate have responded to that and voted as they see fit today,’ Jeremy Oates, the Tory leader on Tamworth Council, told the BBC.

Chris Mitchell, a former local Tory leader who lost his seat on Worcester Council to the Greens tonight, said: ‘The political backdrop of Westminster undoubtedly is a key factor, which we heard on the doorstep.’

Virge Richichi, a former chair of North West Leicestershire Council and a current councillor, said: ‘We’ve been dealt a pretty bad hand over the past three or four years from Boris, Liz Truss and now Rishi Sunak.

‘And hopefully Rishi Sunak will put us on the right track again.’

Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said she was ‘confident’ the party had made progress in key battleground areas.

‘I’m confident we’re going to see progress in those key areas where we need to make gains come the next general election, and I think we have run a really strong campaign that will demonstrate that,’ she said.

Prior to polling day, the PM had predicted a ‘hard night’ and warned that – despite ‘good progress’ since he entered No10 – Tory councillors could yet be punished for the turbulence of the past 12 months at Westminster.

Mr Sunak personally paid for a delivery of 10 large Domino’s pizzas at Tory HQ tonight ahead of votes being counted across England. 

Senior Tories have admitted they could lose more than 1,000 council seats across England – although Labour have furiously accused the Conservatives of expectation management ahead of election day.

Losing fewer than 500 seats overall would be viewed as a good night at Tory HQ, at a time when the party currently trails Labour in most national opinion polls.

Amid growing signs of a late Conservative surge ahead of polling day, one forecast even suggested Tory losses could be as little as 338 seats.

Tory hopes of a decent performance will be buoyed by the fact the local council seats being decided this year were last contested in 2019, at the nadir of Theresa May’s time as PM.

Following a poor performance that night, Mrs May went on to suffer humiliation in European Parliament elections just three weeks later, which swiftly led to her resignation.

But Labour was also failing to make major inroads at the time with an unpopular leader in Jeremy Corbyn.

Meanwhile, polling experts have said that Labour needs to score a victory of more than 10% in the projected national vote share in this year’s local elections to show that Sir Keir is on course to be the next PM.

Sir Tony Blair had double-digit local election vote share victories in the lead-up to New Labour’s landslide in 1997, as did David Cameron’s Tories before 2010 when they ended up in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Labour gaining 700 seats or more would be the party’s best local election performance for at least 10 years.

And gains above 500 seats would point to Sir Keir being poised to win the keys to Downing Street at the next general election, experts have said.

But both Labour and the Tories will be keeping a close eye on the number of independent councillors elected.

Success or otherwise for non-party candidates is set to provide evidence as to whether the two major parties are currently garnering much enthusiasm among voters.

As the polls closed last night, a Tory spokesman said: ‘This will be a tough night for the Conservatives.

‘Any Government which has been in power for 13 years is highly likely to lose seats. Independent experts Rallings and Thrasher have said we could lose over 1,000 seats.

‘But if Labour want to be in with a chance of taking office after the next general election as they did in 1997, they need to be making very significant gains as they did in 1995 – the last most comparable election – anything less than that will pose serious questions for Labour HQ.’

Labour sources swiftly rubbished the Tories’ comparison with the 1995 local elections, as they pointed out Scotland and Wales were included in the council elections that year – but no contests were held in the two countries on Thursday. 

They also claimed the dominance of the two main parties in local government had long since ended, with the number of independent candidates having massively increased in recent years.

Shabana Mahmood MP, Labour’s National Campaign Coordinator, said she was proud of her party’s ‘positive campaign’ that ‘focused on the issues that matter most to voters’.

‘This is a cost of living election,’ she added.

‘We have set out the choices we would make to help people through the cost of living crisis, cut crime and cut NHS waiting lists, but the Tories have been silent on the issues that matter most.

‘If the Conservatives go backwards from their disastrous 2019 local election results, the voters will have sent a damning message about Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

‘It’s going to be a long night and the full picture of results will not form until well into Friday afternoon but we expect to make gains and show we’re making the progress in the places we need to win at the next election.’

The Lib Dems are eyeing up ‘Blue Wall’ seats in traditional Tory heartlands at the next general election and tonight’s result will show whether they are on course to achieve that aim.

Gains of 150 seats or more, particularly in Tory-Lib Dem battlegrounds, would point to Sir Ed Davey’s party being on the right path ahead of the general election.

But they will do well to repeat their success from last year, when they gained more than 200 council seats.

Last year’s local elections were held at the height of the Partygate scandal, while the Tories saw their poll ratings plummet further under Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership in September and October.

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: ‘I have knocked on countless doors in recent weeks and heard real anger and frustration from voters who are sick and tired of being taken for granted by this Conservative Government.

‘Tonight, their voices will be heard.’

Speaking on Wednesday night at an Onward think tank event, Mr Sunak gave a downbeat assessment of his party’s likely performance in this year’s local election.

He hailed the Tories for moving away from the ‘box set drama’ of what went before his premiership, in a reference to turmoil under predecessors Boris Johnson and Ms Truss.

But he said: ‘We should be prepared that tomorrow night is going to be hard for us.

‘Good councillors will lose their seats because of all that has happened over the past year.’

Mr Sunak added: ‘I’ve only been PM for six months but I do believe we’re making good progress. Just think about where we were then and where we are now.’

Sir Keir, speaking to broadcasters on the eve of the polls opening on Thursday morning, said his party had ‘a positive case to tell’ and that he hoped to make electoral ‘progress’.

He said voters could ‘set Britain on a path of growth, security and the promise of a better future’.

On his final day of campaigning for the Lib Dems, Sir Ed claimed lifelong Tory voters were ‘in open revolt against this shambolic Government’.

‘I have never known so much anger on the doorstep towards a Government which is completely out of touch with the British public,’ he said.

‘Former Conservative voters feel completely taken for granted by this Government.’

Council elections were not taking place in all parts of England on Thursday.

There were no contests in London and Birmingham, along with other areas including Cornwall, North Yorkshire and Cumbria.

Polls were also taking place to choose mayors in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield, as well as Middlesbrough.

Thursday’s local elections were the first time it has been compulsory for all voters in England to show photo identification at polling stations. There were regional pilots previously.

There were reports of confusion at ballot stations over new ID rules, with the Lib Dems complaining that the numbers are ‘significant’.

Some said they turned up to vote with photo ID only to be told it was the wrong type – while others claimed ‘greeters’ were asking for identification and turning people away outside, meaning that records would not be kept.

The craze for #dogsatpollingstations even got in on the act, with one owner creating an ID for her pet.

But the Electoral Commission said their initial assessment was that ‘overall, the elections were well run’.

People were required to show a form of photo identification, such as a passport, driving licence or blue badge.

Other forms of identity that were being accepted include biometric residence permits, defence identity cards, and national identity cards issued by the EU, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.

Supporters say it is normal to show ID in much of the rest of the world, and the move protects the integrity of the process. But critics argue it could deter young people and those from poorer communities.

There have been questions raised about why bus and travel passes for older and disabled people are being accepted as photo IDs, but that young people’s travel cards will not be permitted.

Lib Dem MP Layla Moran tweeted: ‘We’ve had reports by our tellers of people being turned away at polling stations for lack of correct ID. 

‘That’s just in my constituency so far. Across the country I’m worried this will be significant numbers and far more than the exactly 0 people found guilty of fraud last year.’ 

One Twitter user said they had been unable to use a driver qualification card to prove their identity. The Electoral Commission responded explaining that it was not one of the 20 accepted forms in legislation.

The watchdog’s director of communications Craig Westwood also moved to clarify that expired photo IDs were acceptable – as long as the picture is still recognisable.

‘There is a specific list of around 20 (forms of ID) so I urge people to check that list,’ he told Sky News.

‘If you’ve got an ID which has expired that doesn’t matter as long as it still looks like you.’

He also said that Electoral Commission research found that around 96% of people already have an eligible photo ID.

Annette Hill, from Weston-super-Mare, made light of the row by making her dog Ruby her own photo ID, complete with name, photo, and an ‘authorised signature’ of a paw print.

The 58-year-old, who works in learning and development HR, said her two-year-old golden retriever was making her first trip to the polling station.

An Electoral Commission spokesman said tonight: ‘These were the first set of polls to take place since the voter ID requirement came into force.

‘Our initial assessment is that overall, the elections were well run.

‘Across the country, votes were cast throughout the day and in line with the law.

‘This is in large part thanks to the dedication of electoral administrators, who have worked hard to prepare for today and for the implementation of this new measure.

‘Confidence in the overall picture, however, should not overlook other impacts which can only be revealed through detailed data collection and analysis over the coming weeks.

‘We already know from our research that the ID requirement posed a greater challenge for some groups in society, and that some people were regrettably unable to vote today as a result.’

The spokesman added that the watchdog had already begun work to ‘understand the impact’ of the new photo ID rules.

Campaigners opposed to the photo ID requirement said Thursday had been a ‘dark day for democracy’.

Tom Brake of Unlock Democracy, who is leading a coalition of groups opposed to the move including the Electoral Reform Society, Fair Vote UK and Open Britain, said ‘many thousands’ of people were estimated to have been turned away.

‘Reports from all over the country confirm our very worst fears of the impact of the disastrous policy which has been made worse by the shambolic way it has been introduced,’ the former Lub said.

‘One voter turned away is one too many, but early estimates point to many thousands of people being turned away and denied their right to vote.

‘Too many people were unaware that they needed photo ID or weren’t clear on exactly what type of ID was required.

‘The buck for this attack on democracy rests squarely with Government. This policy was always a sledgehammer looking for a nut to crack.’

Mr Brake said the policy should be paused until an independent inquiry has examined its impact.