Labour has won a trio of nail-biting mayoral contests after seeing off huge swings to Reform UK in North Tyneside, the West of England and Doncaster.

In North Tyneside, new mayor Karen Clark secured 16,230 votes to continue Labour's 12-year stint in power.

However, with a swing of 26 per cent, Reform UK's John Falkenstein fell just 444 votes short of defeating Clark.

The Tories managed to put up a relatively strong showing - but were unable to prevent being relegated to third-place on 20.5 per cent.

Ros Jones, Karen Clark and Helen Godwin all won their respective contests

The result might have intensified calls to "unite the right" given the Conservatives' 11,017 votes would have proved more than enough to overturn Labour's 444-vote lead over Reform UK.

Just hours later, former Leave.EU donor Arron Banks was close to pulling off a major shock in the West of England after supplanting the Tories, Greens and Liberal Democrats to take second place.

Reform UK's West of England mayoral candidate Arron BanksPA

Labour's Helen Godwin, who saw off Reform by just 5,945 votes, won the contest despite only receiving 25 per cent of the vote.

However, Banks's still managed to obtain 22.1 per cent, putting him narrowly ahead of Green candidate Mary Page on 20 per cent.

It was a tough night for both the Tories and Liberal Democrats - with both parties traditionally treating the South West as a battleground.

Tory Steve Smith only secured 16.6 per cent of the vote and Liberal Democrat Oli Henman ended up in fifth place on 14 per cent.

Moments after the West of England declaration, Labour activists were yet again celebrating the barest of victories over Reform UK.

Ros Jones managed to defeat Reform's Alexander Jones by just 698 votes - with Labour's 23,805 votes topping the populist party's 23,107 showing.

Tory challenger Nick Fletcher, who lost his Doncaster East & the Isle of Axholme seat in the 2024 General Election, made the contest a three-way fight after securing 18,982 votes.