Counting is underway in Northern Ireland’s local elections.
It comes as voters in England appear to have used their council elections to signal their anger with the ongoing Brexit turmoil.
Both the Conservative and Labour Parties lost ground – and control of councils – with big gains for the pro-remain Liberal Democrats.
The Greens and independent candidates also enjoyed success.
Some English voters made their anger very clear by scrawling protest messages such as "Brexit" and "traitors" on their ballot papers.
Council elections
More than 8,400 council positions were up for grabs across 248 English local authority areas when voters went to the polls on Thursday.
Northern Ireland was electing 462 seats in 11 councils.
With only half of the results in England, it was clear that the Labour Party had failed to capitalise on the Tory’s handling of the Brexit process.
Labour had lost more than 80 seats and control of three councils by 9am – although they did also gain control of one.
The Conservatives lost control over 20 councils with the loss of more than 400 seats.
They did gain two new councils – meaning they are down 18 in total.
The Lib Dems gained the most ground – taking control of eight councils and gaining more than 290 new seats.
The party is on course to gain as many as 500 new seats according to some predictions.
The Green Party and independent candidates also benefited from the apparent reluctance of voters to support the two main parties, with both boosting their number of council seats.
Brexit
The results come as talks aimed at finding a compromise way forward on Brexit continue between Labour and the Conservatives – with little sign of an agreement in sight.
This week, the Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) opted against committing the party to campaigning for a confirmatory referendum regardless of what happens with Brexit.
Instead the NEC opted to reaffirm its policy to only back a referendum in specific circumstances – such as if the party fails to secure any changes to Conservative policy and if there is no chance of a General Election.
