ReutersThe Labour and Conservative parties are digesting the results of England's local and Mayoral elections after Reform UK made major gains at their expense.
With counting complete, Nigel Farage's party took control of 10 local councils, won two mayoral races and added a fifth MP by taking Runcorn and Helsby.
Sir Keir Starmer conceded people were not yet feeling the benefits of a Labour government, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch pledged to make her party a "credible" alternative once again.
Farage hailed the results as "the end of two-party politics" and "the death of the Conservative party".
Writing in The Times, Sir Keir said the lesson learned from the elections was not that the country needed "ideological zealotry".
"It's that now is the time to crank up the pace on giving people the country they are crying out for," he said.
But some within Labour have called for the prime minister to change direction, saying the decision to cut winter fuel payments to all but the poorest pensioners put off voters.
Labour MP Rachael Maskell called on the government to ditch the cuts, telling BBC Breakfast: "We have got that mandate, I believe, as a party to look at how we can better redistribute wealth, as opposed to taking out of the pockets of the poorest."
With the results all in, Badenoch apologised to the defeated Conservative councillors, saying: "I am going to make sure that we get ourselves back to the place where we are seen as the credible alternative to Labour."
Writing in The Telegraph, she said: "I'm deeply sorry to see so many capable, hard-working Conservative councillors lose their seats. They didn't deserve it - and they weren't the reason we lost."
The results were worse than Conservatives had feared, with the party not only losing votes to Reform but also to the Liberal Democrats.
It lost 676 seats and control of all the 16 authorities it was defending.
Roger Gough, former Conservative leader of Kent County Council, told the BBC's Today programme that the Tories had a huge job to do.
"We are still under the shadow of what happened when we were in government, that's a shadow that was over us when we went to the national polls last year and it hasn't lifted," he said.
"There's a genuine pressure between coming up with serious answers, which will in some cases take time, and establishing a credible position in the shorter term.
"Clearly that's not happened so far, that's why so many of us paid the price electorally over the last couple of days."
On the Today programme, shadow chief treasury secretary Richard Fuller insisted that Kemi Badenoch would be the party's leader in a year's time.
He added: "The Conservative party has to think deeply about policies that are going to work, make sure we've got the people to put them in place, then regain trust."
On whether the Tories may need to look at an electoral pact with Reform UK, he said: "There won't be pacts. Nigel Farage has been very clear that he wants to destroy the Conservative Party."
The Lib Dems also saw significant gains, with 163 seats. They seized Shropshire from the Tories and gained control of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire after both previously had no party in overall control.
They also became the biggest party in Hertfordshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Devon, where they narrowly fell short of an overall majority.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the party had supplanted the Conservatives as the "party of Middle England".
The party's education spokesman, Munira Wilson, told the Today programme that the party was "standing up for British values both locally and nationally".
She said: "It's the party that will work on the issues that people care about, whether that's the health and care services or fixing pot holes, or the party that will stand up for British interests on the world stage and will stand up to the likes of Donald Trump."
The Green Party made some gains, winning 43 seats in total, however it suffered disappointment in the West of England mayoral race.
Green peer Baroness Jenny Jones told Radio 5 Live the party had increased councillors every year over the past eight years.
"It seems an era of five party politics is happening and that's very good for us, because as soon as people see it is not a choice between the Labour or Conservative, they start looking around for policies that suit them," she said.
