Who won from a Conservative collapse in the South East?

Thursday's vote has led to the biggest shake-up of the political landscape in the South East for decades.

The Conservatives have been virtually wiped out in parts of their South East heartlands.

The Liberal Democrats and Reform UK have become the region's new power duo while the Greens have also made eye-catching gains.

So what does it all mean?

Few had expected the Conservatives to remain in charge at the councils in Sussex which they have run for decades but the scale of losses was still staggering.

In West Sussex, they barely scraped double figures and in East Sussex, they were reduced to just three councillors after 25 years in charge.

Kemi Badenoch told BBC South East ahead of these elections that her party wasn't being "complacent."

It's difficult to see how she will read any positivity into these results which leave the party with little to rebuild from.

Perhaps most worryingly for the party, Reform UK stormed ahead in those constituencies where Tory MPs survived in the 2024 General Election, in places like Bexhill and Sussex Weald.

The Liberal Democrats have made no secret of their aim to replace the Conservatives as the major political force in areas like the South East.

In Surrey, they seem to have succeeded, winning a majority on both the new unitary authorities of East and West Surrey.

They also cemented their control of Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

In West Sussex, they more than doubled their number and ended up level-pegging with Reform as the largest party.

They could yet end up in charge if they can find common ground with enough of the other parties to win their support.

East Sussex may have been more of a disappointment.

Despite previously leading the opposition, they gained just a couple of councillors and not enough to block the advance of Reform.

Reform UK couldn't quite pull off a repeat of the landslide victory it won last year in Kent but still had a very good day at the polls.

The party swept up seats both in rural and coastal areas which were previously true blue Tory and in some Labour-facing towns.

While it fell short of a majority in both East and West Sussex, it is the largest party in East Sussex and joint-largest on West Sussex.

It will now be down to negotiations between the various parties to decide whether it can take charge at either.

That may yet turn out to be a poisoned chalice: East Sussex has a deficit of more than £50m and a high social care spend so may not be the easiest place to find millions to cut in waste.

Success didn't come without any pain: the party's leader on East Sussex County Council lost his seat and its Mayoral candidate for Sussex didn't win either.

This was never going to be great territory for Labour and, on the face of it, the party didn't do too badly.

It kept control of Adur and Crawley, two out of the three councils it ran, and even took two seats from the Tories.

Dig a little deeper though and the woes are there too.

Labour may have the system of electing councillors in thirds to thank for keeping hold of Crawley.

The council, which has historically only had Labour and Conservative councillors in large numbers, now has a significant Reform UK presence and the town's MP, Peter Lamb, has pinned the blame on Keir Starmer.

Perhaps also worryingly for Labour, it didn't get any new councillors elected on Hastings, in a constituency which it won at the General Election.

The Greens may have the most to celebrate.

Hastings handed them their first ever majority-controlled council in the South East, with big gains.

It gives them a second power-base beyond their traditional heartlands just along the coast in Brighton and Hove.

Success in Hastings also significantly boosted their numbers on East Sussex County Council where they came just behind the Lib Dems.

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