London local election results LIVE: Brown returns as Labour bruised in five-party split

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Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer engaged in discussion at a political event, highlighting leadership and policy collaboration
Gordon Brown has returned to support Starmer' after tough election results. PA

Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. 

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has returned to support Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership as a special envoy for global finance.

The appointment was made after bruising election results across the country, particularly in Wales and Scotland where Labour lost control.

Starmer resisted calls for his resignation as he took responsibility for what he described as a “tough” set of local election results.

“I’m not going to walk away and plunge the country into chaos. We were elected to deal with these challenges and that’s what we will do,” Starmer said.

Labour has held on to some key London boroughs, including Merton and Hammersmith, though it lost Wandsworth and Westminster in tightly-fought battles with the Tories.

The Greens took Hackney from Labour as well as Waltham Forest.

Nigel Farage hailed a “historic change in British politics” as Reform gained Havering, its first London council, as well as a swathe of seats in the North of England.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said her party is showing “signs of renewal” despite losing 80 council seats so far. The Tories kept Kensington and Chelsea and Hillingdon, plus Bromley and Bexley.

Zack Polanski’s resurgent Greens targeted inner-city areas like Lewisham, Lambeth and Hackney – as well as Starmer’s backyard in Camden. Camden was held by Labour despite huge surges in support for the Greens.

Nigel Farage’s Reform, on the other hand, were hopeful they could take outer boroughs like Hillingdon, Bromley and Bexley. They failed in each of the three councils but took Havering.

Starmer’s party are defending 2,557 seats at this set of elections and some pundits suggested they could lose up to 1,800. As of Saturday morning, it lost nearly 1,400 seats.

Markets have held their nerve on Friday, but analysts have warned the “woo-woo” bond market could fall into chaos as the political aftermath of the elections takes hold.

Get yourself up to date with our election preview and profiles of the state of play in every single London borough.

We’ll bring you every London result as it comes in, plus key market and political reaction, so stay tuned.