Rishi Sunak’s government tries to limit the damage as the Conservatives’ worst fears prove correct in the English local elections
Keir Starmer was advised by his team to get an early night on Thursday before the first election results started to come through at dawn the next day.
They booked the Labour leader into a hotel at a secret location in the north-west, so he could be bright and breezy when celebrating an anticipated parliamentary byelection win in Blackpool South.
