Record third term for London mayor Sadiq as Tories suffer drubbing

London's Labour mayor Sadiq Khan secured a record third term, as the party swept a host of mayoral races and local elections to trounce the ruling Conservatives just months before an expected general election.

Khan, 53, beat Tory challenger Susan Hall by 11 points to scupper Tory hopes that they could prise the UK capital away from Labour for the first time since 2016.

Khan had been widely expected to win as the opposition party surges nationally and the Tories struggle to revive their fortunes.

Hours later in the West Midlands, Conservative mayor Andy Street - bidding for his own third term - lost to Labour's Richard Parker, dealing a hammer blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

That narrow loss left the beleaguered leader with only one notable success in Thursday's votes across England after Tory mayor Ben Houchen won in Tees Valley, northeast England - albeit with a vastly reduced majority.

Sunak's party finished a humiliating third in local council tallies after losing nearly 500 seats.

"People across the country have had enough of Conservative chaos and decline," Labour leader Keir Starmer said after Parker's victory.

Writing earlier in the Daily Telegraph, Sunak tried to argue Labour was "not winning in places they admit they need for a majority."

Labour, out of power since 2010 and trounced by Boris Johnson's Conservatives at the last general election in 2019, also snatched a parliamentary seat from the Tories.

Starmer has seized on winning the Blackpool South constituency and other successes to demand a general election. Sunak must order a national vote by January 28 next year at the latest and said he is planning on a poll in the second half of 2024.

Labour has enjoyed double-digit poll leads for all of his 18 months in charge, as previous Tory scandals, a cost-of-living crisis, and various other issues dent his party's standing.

On Thursday, it was defending nearly 1,000 council seats, many secured in 2021 when it led nationwide polls before the implosion of Johnson's premiership and his successor Liz Truss's 49-day tenure.

In the end, they lost close to half and finished third behind the smaller centrist opposition Liberal Democrats.

Meanwhile Labour swept crunch mayoral races across England, from Yorkshire, Manchester and Liverpool in the north to contests across the Midlands.

In London, Khan netted 44 percent of the vote and saw his margin of victory increase compared to the last contest in 2021. "It's truly an honor to be reelected for a third term," he told supporters, accusing Tory of "fearmongering."

If replicated in a nationwide contest, the council tallies suggest Labour would win 34 percent of the vote, with the Tories trailing by nine points, according to the BBC.

Sky News' projection for a general election using the results predicted Labour will be the largest party but short of an overall majority.

Speculation has been rife in Westminster that Tory lawmakers could use local election results to try to replace Sunak.