The Liberal Democrats have taken control of Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire County Councils, after taking dozens of seats from the Conservatives across England.
The Lib Dems have won more than 140 new seats, almost entirely from the Conservatives, with more than 340 councillors elected on Thursday.
They are also the largest party on Devon County Council which is now under no overall control – and made major gains in areas such as Shropshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey claimed “people are putting their trust in us, they know we deliver for local people and their communities”.
The Lib Dems were the only party other than Reform UK to take control of a council in this year’s local elections, which saw support for Labour and the Conservatives collapse.
Sir Ed said the Tories “are increasingly looking like history” after their performance at the local elections in England.
With votes still being counted, Sir Ed told broadcasters the results were “exceeding my expectations”.
“It’s the Liberal Democrats beating the Conservatives,” he said.
But the Lib Dems missed out on winning any of the mayoral races up for grabs, coming in second to Reform in Hull and East Yorkshire, despite running Hull City Council for the last three years.
The Liberal Democrats went into the election campaign saying they aimed to replace the Conservatives as the “party of Middle England”.
