The Conservative Party has slaughtered many of its opposition rivals in this year's local elections.

Both UKIP and Labour have emerged as the biggest losers, as a collapse in the former's vote benefitted the Tories in many local councils.

The national vote stood as follows: the Tories are on 38%, Labour gained a 27% vote share, the Liberal Democrats managed to achieve an 18% vote share and UKIP gained a 5% share of the vote.

Conservatives win in the West and West Midlands

Many areas of the country were electing a mayor for the first time, and the Conservative Party managed to win the West of England and West Midlands Mayoral Elections.

Tim Bowles and Andy Street were elected in both regions respectively.

4851 seats were contested in 32 councils in Scotland, 22 in Wales and 34 county councils and unitary authorities in England.

Labour failed to retain 350 council seats. Much of the UKIP vote was translated into support for the Conservatives as Prime Minister Theresa May's tough talk on Brexit has resulted in their share of the vote collapsing.

The pre-existing support for remaining in the European Union has failed to allow the Liberal Democrats to make significant gains off the other parties.

Tories gain control of councils

Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, the Isle of Wight, Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire are now all controlled by the Tories.

The Labour Party has acknowledged what a disappointing night it has been for them as they lost control of Glasgow, Bridgend and Blaenau Gwent, traditional bastions of Labour support.

Despite this, former shadow health secretary Andy Burnham managed to secure a victory for Labour in Manchester.

He was elected Mayor for Greater Manchester.

Describing his party's performance as 'neutral', former business secretary Vince Cable said the Liberal Democrats had made some losses and some gains.

The Europhile party lost 30 seats.

UKIP lost all of its seats in Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Hampshire, Essex and the Isle of Wight.

In total, the Eurosceptic party lost 136 seats.

However, the Scottish National Party has failed to retain control of Dundee.

The Conservative Party achieved an impressive performance in Scotland that has come mostly at the expense of Labour's vote share collapsing.

The centre-left party has now lost 80 Scottish councillors.

These results will come as excellent news for Mrs May in the run-up to the General Election on June 8th.

Good news for the general election

Sky News has predicted the Conservative Party will win a majority of 48, a huge increase from their current working majority of 20.

The Labour Party may well lose a significant portion of their current MPs, which stands at 229 for now.

The Prime Minister is expected to gain at the expense of UKIP voters deserting the party due to her Brexit mandate.

Betfair spokeswoman Katie Baylis said the likelihood of a Conservative majority is 1/10.