Police were forced to break up a late-night election count fracas on Thursday evening.
A row broke out as Liberal Democrats in Labour-controlled St Helen's suffered a series of setbacks, leading to disappointment for the party's leader on the council, Brian Spencer who lost his seat.
According to witnesses at St Helen's Town Hall there was a confrontation between Mr Spencer and Labour candidate Mark Johnson, who fell across a table and landed on his mother.
Labour councillor Andy Bowden said: "As the results were coming in it was becoming clear the Lib Dems had lost quite a few seats."
He added: "There were quite a lot of police in the room and at least two interjected and separated everyone."
Coun Bowden said Mr Johnson may have twisted his ankle and was giving a statement to police.
It is understood police officers intervened, but no arrests were made.
Lib Dem councillor Michael Haw said Mr Spencer, the council's ex-opposition leader, was upset at losing his seat.
So over 41 hours after polls opened on Thursday morning, Boris Johnson is mayor of London and we can all go to bed to dream analytical dreams about what the results mean for the country.
Probable ETA of a declaration is about an hour, hopefully less (please)
London Elects statement:
We have results in from 13 of the 14 constituencies in the Mayor of London and London Assembly election. The final constituency is Brent & Harrow. The Greater London Returning Officer has been in touch with the CRO for Brent & Harrow to establish the reason for a delay. All batches of ballot papers were registered and scanned. Two batches went to storage without some ballot papers being manually entered as required. Manual entry is required when a scanner cannot read a ballot paper – for example if a ballot paper is damaged. It is not an issue with the scanners. The issue was identified during the verification stage. These two batches are being re-processed. To make this happen as quickly as possible we have separated out into several smaller batches. This is why the progress screens appear to show a changing number of verified ballot papers.We will declare as soon as possible but it is obviously important that every vote is counted.
Well we don't entirely know. The latest is that at least two ballot boxes were found unscanned at the Brent count, and they're now being counted by hand, for some reason.
There are rumours that Ken's team has asked for a full recount in Brent, which would delay things for another few hours.
London elects thinks it'll be only another 20 mins, but they've been saying that for nearly two hours.
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| @ tnewtondunn : The Sun's pollster Peter Kellner of YouGov calls it - "Boris has won. He has too big a lead for Ken to overturn". |
It's leading to a sharp narrowing in the polls between the two candidates. On 1st preference votes Boris now has 44% and Ken 40% - 8 out of 14 constituencies have now declared.
Here's the latest.
People are talking about 50/50 odds between Ken and Boris. The atmosphere at City Hall has changed dramatically in the past half hour.
Ed Miliband, speaking in Southampton, has declared that Labour is "coming back".
This comes after Labour took control of Southampton from the Conservatives.
He railed against the "out of touch government in Westminster".
"David Cameron promised change, not for the better but for the worse. Today in Southampton, it is a rejection of the economic failure of this government, and the unfairness of this government". he added
He also boasted that Labour is "beating back" the SNP in Scotland.
He recognised the low turnouts, saying it showed there was "still more to do".
Conservative MP Peter Bone has said that the PM has 'one hand tied behind his back'.
"Worst of all, we've got the Liberals holding us back" he added
The results signified the "beginning of the end of the coalition", he told the BBC.
"We're seeing Boris winning as a Conservative in London, yet the Coalition losing against Labour. So the message must be let's come out of this coalition as soon as possible." he said
Liam Byrne, who quit the Shadow Cabinet in preparation for running for Birmingham Mayor, has just tweeted this
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| @ LiamByrneMP : A huge thanks to ALL who supported Yes2Mayor, Albert and me: our job now is to get 4-square behind our brilliant new Lbr council #brummayor |
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| @ SmithTonyD : Brum result: Leader 120,611, Mayor 88,085. 57.8 Per cent "no" #BrumVote12 |
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| @ oflynnexpress : Brum votes No to a Mayor. Has anyone noticed people like voting No in refs? No2EU |
With 56 of 79 seats declared, Labour currently lead over the SNP by 29 to 20.
Barring a major upset, Labour will resist the SNP advance in Glasgow.
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| @ suemacmillan : Labour holding its majority in Glasgow is a whopper of a result. Well done @scottishlabour |
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| @ JenWilliamsMEN : Ian Stewart is mayor of Salford. |
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| @ baddogOTM : Labour win CHIPPING NORTON! David Cameron, Rebekah Brooks, Elisabeth Murdoch, Steve Hilton + Jeremy Clarkson now have a LABOUR council. |
With 166 of 181 councils declared, Labour have gained more than 700 council seats.
Former Libdem leader Paddy Ashdown has said the Liberal Democrats should "keep on doing" what it is doing.
Speaking to the BBC, Lord Ashdown said the party's mettle has been "tested" by the results.
"The party's mettle has been tested, it has been tested before. We should keep on doing what we're doing" he said
"It doesn't look as bad in terms of hanging onto our seats that we have got as it might have been." he added.
According to the Guardian, Ken Livingstone's team are privately conceding defeat.
They reportedly also think Boris Johnson will increase his majority.
A council candidate dressed as a penguin called Professor Pongoo has received more votes than the Liberal Democrats in Edinburgh.
Professor Pongoo (real name Mike Ferrigan) was an independent candidate who had pledged to wear the penguin outfit to every council meeting if he was elected.
From the votes counted so far, Labour are on 44%, Conservatives are on 33% and the Greens are on 8%.
The LibDems dwell at 7% while Ukip are on 5%.
Harman castigated Watson for his "hold your nose and vote for Ken" comment - and was a bit hesitant to agree that Ken had been the right candidate in the first place...we thought.
Clearly annoyed, Farage has arrived at City Hall and says that the ballot paper fail was UKIP's fault, not London Elects. But he's blaming it on UKIP's poor performance. They're currently trailing in 6th place behind Siobhan Benita
Ukip leader Nigel Farage is reportedly furious that his party's candidate for Mayor of London, Lawrence Webb, was listed on the ballot paper as Fresh Choice for London.
He says it was a 'cockup which undoubtedly cost UKIP votes' and could have helped Boris Johnson's bid for four more years at City Hall.
Also here is a round-up from HuffPost of Tory dissent following the local elections drubbing. A few themes emerge. Many Tories think House of Lords reform is a distraction - a couple but don't like gay marriage, but the overwhelming narrative is there needs to be a growth strategy.
In an update to previous news about the BNP's difficulties, it has emerged that the party has lost every single one of the 12 seats it has been defending.
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| @ Kevin_Maguire : Looks like Labour will win London but lose the Mayoralty, getting most votes/seats in the Assembly but Blue Boris beats Red Ken |
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| @ StewartHosieMP : 16 out of 16 #SNP win outright control of Dundee |
2012 Election News, Videos, Opinion - HuffPost Politics
London mayor and local elections 2012 - live polling day coverage ...
2012 Elections News Headlines - Yahoo! News
Local elections 2012: Early lessons from a bad night for the Tories
Local elections 2012: Labour enjoys 'stunning' night in Wales
Elections 2012: Labour jubilant as councils across Wales turn red
Elections 2012: Coventry votes no to elected mayor in referendum
Local council elections 2012: Low turnout feared as Scotland goes to the polls
Local elections 2012: Three are arrested in polling day operation
United States presidential election, 2012 - Wikipedia, the free ...
United Kingdom local elections, 2012 - Wikipedia, the free ...
United States Senate elections, 2012 - Wikipedia, the free ...
London mayor and local elections 2012 - live polling day coverage

| demsoc Re last RT from @sussexlrc - interesting point, but would annual elections mean different type of local politics or more of the same? | ||
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UnaDispatch
Voter registration for Afghanistan's 2014 presidential and provincial council elections kicks off tomorrow. Here's hoping it's peaceful.
1 hour ago from TweetDeck
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KenRoth
Serious electoral flaws & repression undermine any real prospect of free & fair #Iran elections on June 14: @HRW. http://t.co/Gls8r1QNLC
1 hour ago from SocialFlow
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ASLANmedia
RT @hadinili: Follow "the funny and (not) very surprising parts" of #Iran presidential elections w/@parissasaranj http://t.co/A5Up621aK8
11 hours ago from HootSuite
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| Seldemerdash @Bassem_Sabry adding on the elections law is that the districting is designed to give better position to the Islamists. | ||
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thenation
Public financing of elections is not about drafting citizens to endorse particular politicians. http://t.co/Gk43PEiVof
12 hours ago from HootSuite
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DowntownNews
Which member of the LA City Council got every endorsement wrong in Tuesday's elections? Answer at the bottom here: http://t.co/4de9j1IbF3
12 hours ago from web
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aradwanski
A problem with Ontario horse-race polls btwn elections: hard to tell how much they're actually about Ontario, as opposed to federal.
12 hours ago from web
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MJayRosenberg
Rumor: Instead of running in the next elections, Netanyahu will replace Peres as president http://t.co/PU2R9fr8yU via @972mag
15 hours ago from Tweet Button
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JohnRentoul
Must post one day on best & worst govt terms, divided by elections or changes of PM: 1987-90 wd be one of the worst http://t.co/6yVIdN0JTw
15 hours ago from web
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ddayen
@DKElections she's replacing Ann Northup. Isn't this just the R seat on the Commission?
17 hours ago from web
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Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Kerry casts doubt on the credibility of Iranian elections set for June 14 http://t.co/cIqs29K5Es
17 hours ago from TweetDeck
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CPHeinze
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BlogsofWar
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18 hours ago from HootSuite
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BlogsofWar
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CFR_org
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20 hours ago from HootSuite
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RightWingWatch
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20 hours ago from web
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ReutersIndia
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20 hours ago from Tweet Button
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RightWingWatch
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20 hours ago from web
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POMEDwire
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20 hours ago from TweetDeck
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POMEDwire
McInerney: Upcoming elections in #Iran are far from free and fair but still extremely important. #POMED
21 hours ago from TweetDeck
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| HugoSwire Welcome registration of 3 political parties in Fiji. Authorities must ensure parties can operate freely in run up to elections. | ||
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JohnCook1964
Read Lewis Baston's analysis of 2013 elections published by @thefabians. @ipswichlabour listed amongst the "best" http://t.co/JA3qsMh9GM
22 hours ago from TweetDeck
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ReutersIndia
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PA/The Huffington Post UK | Posted: 04/05/2012 12:01 Updated: 04/05/2012 12:37