The party is expected to lose up to 500 seats when all votes are counted, with Labour advancing in areas of both the “red wall” north won by the Tories under Boris Johnson and the traditional southern Conservative heartlands.
Labour also ousted a number of Tory police and crime commissioners, and took control of at least seven new councils, including in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hampshire and Sussex in the south of England.
Despite heavy losses for the government, the Conservatives pointed to pockets of success such as the Tory mayor Ben Houchen holding on in Tees Valley, and Andy Street likely to keep his mayoralty in the West Midlands on Saturday.
He accused Labour of trying to “stroll back in” to Tees Valley and said he was sure that the region’s voters would stick with the Tories at a general election – despite a swing in the mayoralty suggesting the opposition would have won all parliamentary seats in the area.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Conservative MP and former chancellor, told LBC that there was “no such thing really as a safe Tory seat any more” but he also said it was not the right time to change leader as “stability and consolidation” were needed.
Andrea Jenkyns, the only Conservative MP who has publicly acknowledged sending a letter of no confidence in Sunak, instead called for a “war reshuffle” to bring back former ministers Suella Braverman, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
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