The historic pandemic election saw the Conservatives take a majority rule on the council - but the party did suffer a few surprising losses

Early counts see Northumberland, Harlow, Dudley and Nuneaton seized by Boris Johnson’s party

Voting has taken place across the region to elect councillors, mayors, and police and crime commissioners on an incredibly busy day of local elections

The Labour Party lost two seats on a tough night for the party across the region however a leadership challenge overshadowed the relative success

There were several shocks on the night as the local authority’s ruling party lost two seats to the Greens, one to the Conservatives, and one to an independent candidate.

Ms McGuinness secured a majority of more than 66,000 in the second round of voting, a comfortable win on an otherwise difficult election day for Labour in the North East