Voters still choose Labour despite 'unpopular' Miliband

An East End London borough has still not completed its council election count more than three days after polls closed.

Electoral chiefs at Tower Hamlets suspended their operations at around 3am today until Monday daytime.

Recounts have been taking place at Bromley South ward.

The provisional council line-up shows Tower Hamlets First Group - backing re-elected mayor Lutfur Rahman - and Labour on 18 seats each. There are four Tories and no party has overall control.

Even when the Bromley result is resolved the councillors' team will not be complete.

There will still be three vacancies in Blackwall and Cubitt Town where the election was postponed after a candidate's death.

David Cameron faced demands yesterday to hold an early referendum on Europe as a poll by a Tory peer showed Labour on course for victory at next year’s general election.

In an article for The Sunday Times (£), David Davis, a standard bearer of the Tory right, warned that Cameron’s policy position on the European Union lacks “both clarity and credibility”.

He wrote: "We appear to be moving crab-like towards a referendum in 2017, without a clearly articulated set of strategic negotiating aims that might make it worthwhile to stay in the EU, or a clear vision of what we will do if the people decide they want to leave.

"We should start by bringing the referendum forward to 2016. The reform negotiation has barely got under way, precisely because the date is so distant [...] if we do not grasp this nettle, I can see the UKIP resurgence carrying all the way through to the general election".

Ed Miliband said he remained determined to attract voters "from every walk of life" as he seeks to quell criticism of his party's local election results.

The Labour leader is to confront the party's most prominent failure by returning to the campaign trail next week.

It comes after he was voted least popular party leader due to his 'lack of charisma' and lack of 'common touch.'

A poll by former Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft has found Labour could win "a comfortable majority" in the 2015 general election.

Lord Ashcroft polled more than 26,000 voters in 26 marginal constituencies that will be hotly contested battlegrounds between Labour and the Tories.

He said: "Across the battleground I found a 6.5% swing from the Conservatives to Labour – enough to topple 83 Tory MPs and give Ed Miliband a comfortable majority. But this is a snapshot, not a prediction."

He added: "The research also found that most voters in these seats are optimistic about the economy, and only three in ten would rather see Mr Miliband as Prime Minister than David Cameron. Half of voters say they may change their mind before the election – and there is still a year to go."

George Osborne has said he "respects" Ukip leader Nigel Farage and those who voted for his party at this week's local and European Parliament elections.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, the Chancellor said: "I respect anyone who wants to put forward about ideas about how this country should be run, I respect participants in the political debate, including Nigel Farage."

Mr Osborne also urged his Conservative colleagues to listen and respond to the "anger and anxiety" that have led people to vote for Ukip.

Read: Ukip gains in local elections at expense of major parties

Six in ten people who voted Ukip in the European elections did so as a protest, according to polling from the influential Conservative, Lord Ashcroft.

Writing on the Conservative Home website, the peer said his survey of 4,000 voters found that 60% of Ukip voters had said they were voicing anger at the party they usually vote for or registering a more general protest.

However 80% of Ukip voters also said they thought Nigel Farage's party had the best policies on Europe.

The results of Thursday's European Parliament vote will be revealed tomorrow.

Read: Ukip gains in local elections at expense of major parties

Lutfur Rahman has been re-elected for a second term as Mayor of the London borough of Tower Hamlets.

The closely-fought contest saw Rahman, formerly a member of the Labour Party but now under the banner of new party Tower Hamlets First, beat Labour's John Biggs by 37,395 votes to 34,143.

Rahman's campaign was marred by allegations that he had increased grants for certain charities in return for electoral support, which the Mayor strongly denied.

An police investigation into the allegations, ordered by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, found "no credible evidence of criminality".

Barnet Council remains Conservative-led after the party won exactly the number of seats required to hold a majority.

Having been neck and neck with Labour at 30 seats each out of 63, the Conservatives took two seats from the Lib Dems as the vote count in the London borough came to a close.

Labour supporters expressed their frustration at the near-miss:

Gains for Labour in the local elections were not enough to stop further attacks on the leadership of Ed Miliband.

MPs from within the party criticised the election campaign, saying voters are being turned off by the Labour leader.

ITV News Political Correspondent Carl Dinnen reports.

Ukip today confirmed its status as the official opposition in some areas of the country, as leader Nigel Farage said the party now has to be taken seriously.

ITV News Political Correspondent Romilly Weeks was with Farage as he celebrated his success in Essex.

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