This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

The Liberal Democrats have been left reeling after suffering their worst electoral drubbing in almost 30 years, sustaining heavy losses across northern England.

The party was ejected from power in Sheffield – home to Nick Clegg's constituency – as its national share of votes plummeted to 15%.

With around two-thirds of local election results still to come in, the party had already lost around 200 seats.

Labour was on course for major gains, but suffered heavily at the hands of the SNP in the devolved Scottish elections. The SNP made significant gains over Labour in Scotland, with one political expert suggesting the party could win an outright majority in Holyrood.

While voters seemed intent on punishing the Liberal Democrats, their coalition partners, the Conservatives, fared much better, holding their own in terms of council seats.

Thursday's elections sparked a war of words between the coalition partners, with the former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown accusing the prime minister, David Cameron, of a "breach of faith" by allowing the largely Conservative-funded campaign against AV to turn its fire on Clegg in the referendum on electoral reform. The referendum result is due later today.

"You cannot fund a deeply vicious campaign to destroy the personality of your partner, who has been unmoved in his brave support of the coalition, without there being consequences," Ashdown said in an interview given before any votes were counted.

"When it comes to the bonhomie of the Downing Street rose garden, it's never again that glad confident morn."

There were no calls from prominent Lib Dems for Clegg to go, or to quit the coalition, but a number of senior figures urged the party to take a more independent stance within the government.

The deputy leader, Simon Hughes, said Lib Dem "trust" in the Tories had been knocked by the referendum campaign, and indicated that the party would demand concessions on key issues such as NHS reform, where Conservative ministers have strayed beyond the terms of last year's coalition agreement.

As voters punished the Lib Dems for their performance after a year in government, the party blamed a "decapitation strategy" by Labour and the unions which saw it lose power in Hull and Stockport and suffer big losses in Manchester and Liverpool.

Warren Bradley, the former Lib Dem leader of Liverpool council, had previously criticised Clegg's "record and perception". He stood down before the election.

Lord Mike Storey, who led the city's council from 1998 until 2005, lost his seat to an 18-year-old.

The Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition running Birmingham City council just managed to retain its grip on power, but lost a combined total of 13 seats to Labour.

The Lib Dem energy secretary, Chris Huhne, said he was not surprised by the results. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think it's inevitable that, if you have mid-term elections, governments do badly, and these are the first mid-term elections that the Liberal Democrats have had since 1945."

Hughes said Sheffield was where the "anti-Nick view will be exemplified most", and admitted that the government's controversial decision to cancel an £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters had been a factor.

Labour's successes included gaining control of Sheffield, Hull, Bolton, Stoke and Telford. But the more than 200 seats gained did not appear to be enough for Ed Miliband to claim a major breakthrough in his drive to steer the party back into power nationally.

Labour suffered in Scotland, where its leader, Iain Gray – who was accused of running a lacklustre campaign – scraped back in by a wafer-thin majority of 151 as the SNP secured the bulk of the benefit of protest votes against the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government.

The strong SNP performance was seized on by the Tories, who claimed it showed that Labour was struggling to position itself as the natural opposition to the Westminster coalition in what was once a natural heartland.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, was on course for a second term as first minister in Scotland after his party wrested a number of seats from Labour.

He said: "Scotland has now outgrown the Labour party. A positive campaign will always trump a negative one because, at the end of the day, even when times are tough people want something to go and vote for, something to believe in.

"They aren't going to be motivated by Labour's ridiculous scaremongering against Scottish independence."

On the question of a referendum on independence, he said the immediate priority for the SNP would be to put "economic muscle" into the Scotland bill.

"In due course, in due time, of course we'll offer the Scottish people their chance to decide their own country's constitutional future," he said.

Labour's best results came in the Welsh assembly, where it took Llanelli from Plaid Cymru and Blaenau Gwent from an independent and increased its share of the vote by 10.5% in results declared so far.

Labour must win 31 seats if it is to gain an outright majority on the assembly.

It has won 21 of the 29 constituency seats declared so far, and the final outcome is likely to hinge on the number of regional "top-up" seats it is allocated under the separate party list system.

Labour's gains included the election of the first-ever black assembly member after Vaughan Gething resoundingly held the Cardiff South and Penarth seat, winning almost double the number of votes secured by the Conservative candidate.

Plaid Cymru, which has governed in coalition with Labour over the last four years, also said it expected to lose seats. Final results will not be in until Friday afternoon because counting will not start in north Wales until later this morning.

Peter Hain, the shadow Welsh secretary, said: "It is nip and tuck whether we will form a majority. I am sure we will get our best Labour percentage share of the vote in the assembly elections."

It was also reported that Neil Hamilton, a Liberal Democrat council candidate standing in Westerhope, Newcastle, has been found dead after spending the day campaigning.

Police were called to his address after colleagues were unable to contact him, a party spokesman confirmed. The death is likely to invalidate the result in the ward and trigger a fresh election.