00:00I'm at The Count here in Birmingham, where the local elections have delivered a heavy setback for Labour across the
00:06West Midlands.
00:06The results are still being read council by council, but the direction is clear.
00:11In places where Labour has relied on long-standing support, voters have moved away.
00:17Reform UK has made gains, independents have remained a factor,
00:21and the Conservatives have also faced pressure in areas they once expected to defend more comfortably.
00:27Tamworth is one of the clearest examples.
00:30Labour has lost overall control there, with Reform taking seats in a result that shows how quickly the local map
00:38has shifted.
00:39Redditch has also moved out of Labour control, adding to a sense of a difficult election for the party across
00:46the region.
00:47Here in Birmingham, The Count has been watched closely because Labour has been under pressure over the city's council's financial
00:54crisis,
00:55cuts to services and long-running bins dispute.
00:58Those local issues sit alongside wider frustration with national politics and the early record of Sir Keir Starmer's government.
01:06For Labour, the challenge now is to show it can respond to anger over services, living costs and trust.
01:13For the Conservatives, these results are another sign that voters have not automatically returned to them.
01:19But the broad message from across these elections is hard to miss.
01:22Across the West Midlands, Labour has taken a serious hit, and local politics looks much less predictable.
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