Nick Clegg hails strong set of results in local elections

12.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Fri 2nd May 2008

Winning Here Diamond

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has praised the party's strong performance in the local elections. Gordon Brown said it had been a "bad and disappointing" election for Labour, as the party suffered its worst council results in at least 40 years. BBC research suggests Labour won a national equivalent vote share of 24% of votes cast in England and Wales, behind the Tories on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%. So far Labour has lost 310 councillors and a net nine councils, including Reading and Wolverhampton. Lib Dems have so far gained a net 30 councillors on top of an already impressive 2004 performance, and have taken four new councils - Sheffield, Hull, St Albans and Burnley.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said "These are a very strong set of results for the party. Against the predictions of most pundits, we have successfully defended the record number of council seats that we won in 2004 - the best ever year for Liberal Democrats - and for only the second time in our history, we have outpolled Labour. This is a very strong performance and a great tribute to the hard work of our councillors up and down the country. It has been a very good night for us."