Parties Reel From UKIP Election Success

UKIP's haul of seats in the council elections is up to 184 with the main parties now mulling the prospect of four-party politics in next year's general election.

Nigel Farage has said his anti-EU party is a "serious player" for 2015 after they added 167 councillors at the expense of the Tories, Labour and Liberal Democrats.

UKIP made gains in traditional Labour and Conservative heartlands, including strong showings in Rotherham - where it returned 10 out of 21 councillors.

It also got a big thumbs thumbs up from 'Essex Man' with a strong showing in areas such as Thurrock, Castle Point and Basildon.

However, it still does not have overall control of any council, and fared particularly poorly in London

Nigel Farage claims the 'UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse'

Mr Farage told the leaders of the main parties he would "see them in Westminster" and said the results showed UKIP had the potential to cause an "earthquake" at the general election.

"The UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse," he claimed.

"If voters think we are in with a chance of winning next year, then we are."

Sky News projections suggest UKIP would only return one MP next year - its first, but the possibility of it building momentum and wooing more voters over the next year is a major headache for party leaders.

The state of play with just two councils still to announce their results

The Prime Minister conceded the Conservatives had to start delivering on immigration and welfare reform, and said the public had become "frustrated" with the status quo.

Critics have also rounded on Labour leader Ed Miliband, saying he failed to mount a serious campaign to tackle UKIP and pointing to a series of PR blunders in the run up to polling day.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the public had grown 'frustrated'

Mr Miliband, who has promised to help families cut living costs through policies such as freezing energy prices, was accused of being out of touch when he underestimated the cost of a weekly food shop.

Labour's election was far from a disaster - it gained control of five more councils in the election - but the gains are thought to be some way from the shot in the arm the party needs to head towards an overall majority in 2015.

Another hung parliament could be on the cards if voters go the same way in 2015, with Sky projections pointing towards Labour falling short by 18 MPs.

Ed Miliband made several PR gaffes in the run-up to the election

The Liberal Democrats also had a dismal election night as voters ensured Nick Clegg's party lost control of councils in Kingston-Upon-Thames and Portsmouth.

Mr Clegg admitted the party had done badly but said: "Actually I think in the areas where we have MPs where we have good organisation on the ground ... we are actually doing well."

UKIP made gains in areas of Essex such as Southend, where it won five seats

With 159 or 161 councils now declared, Labour have won 3,999 seats, giving it control of 81 councils - an increase of five.

The Conservatives have 2,679 seats overall, controlling 41 councils - down 13; and the Liberal Democrats picked up 882 seats, seeing the number of councils under their control falling from eight to six.

The focus now moves to Sunday night when the count will come in for the European election.

:: Follow all the results as they come in on Twitter with @skyelections.

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Labour Badly Bruised By UKIP In Stronghold

Why The Only Way For Essex Is UKIP

Updated: 8:12pm UK, Friday 23 May 2014

By Jason Farrell, Political Correspondent

Standing by the roadside in their purple rosettes are two retired Essex men, Malcolm Elliott and Dave Morrish. They are brothers-in-law, both living in Thurrock.

One is a right-wing Thatcherite - the other a former left-wing activist who emigrated when Margaret Thatcher was in power.

They have never agreed on politics until now. Now they are waiting for their hero of the hour to arrive, Nigel Farage.

As the anticipation builds, Malcolm tells me: "I've been a socialist all my life but not anymore because nobody's listening."

"What do you think of Ed Miliband?" I ask.

"I don't frankly. I don't believe in any of them anymore."

His brother-in-law Dave agrees. "I voted Tory for 47 years. But I feel it doesn't matter if you vote Tory, Labour or the Lib Dems, what you're going to get is the EU and that's what I don't want. Renegotiation is a nonsense. Every European treaty states that it's not negotiable."

In the local elections UKIP has increased its number of seats in Thurrock from one to six, meaning the council is no longer controlled by Labour. Thanks to UKIP the Conservatives also lost control of Basildon, Brentwood, Castle Point and Southend: Essex man is becoming UKIP man.

As Mr Farage arrives the activists can hardly reach him for the cameras. The UKIP leader tells reporters his success in Essex does not mean he will stand for a seat here.

He also fields a number of questions about why his party failed to make the same impact down the road in London, where they only got 7% of the vote.

"We have a weak voluntary structure in London," he says. "We haven't built it. We haven't developed it. We haven't had the right local leaders. Once we get the right local Leaders we will start having results like this in London."

In previous elections this seat has seesawed from red to blue. The nearby parade of shops tells its own story of a community in decline. A pound shop, a Boots, a butcher's and a Greggs are among a row of otherwise boarded and shuttered facades. The butcher tells me that in the last five years for every shop that has closed, nothing has replaced them.

In Thurrock more than one in five children live in poverty. There has been a 200% increase in the use of food banks in recent months. If Ed Miliband's message about the "cost of living crisis" were to resonate anywhere, you would think it would be here. But instead they are more interested in what Mr Farage has to say about the EU and immigration.

In the local coffee shop I ask a group of pensioners why that is. "In this area we've swung between Labour and the Conservatives," says one man. "And what have either of them done for us? They've put their pay up 11% while our pensions have gone up 1%." There are six of them round the table and they all support UKIP.

The current MP is conservative Jackie Doyle-Price. With a shock of bleach-blonde hair and an upbringing on a Sheffield estate, she is far from fitting the Tories characterisation of Etonian established elite, and she is not someone to trot out the agreed party message.   

"There's been a definite mood on the doorstep of people saying the political classes don't speak to us anymore and if you look at the Westminster debate it's become very managerial, very bland, and along come UKIP with some populist messages and people say to themselves, let's give the main political parties a good kicking, and they have."

The overall mood is that Thurrock feels neglected and ignored by Westminster and therefore easily swept along by a new political wind. It seems, for many in Essex, the only way is UKIP.

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Glasgow Art School Blaze: Salvage Operation

Firefighters battling a blaze at a historic art school building in Glasgow say they have managed to save the majority of its contents, including student art work.

Crews were called to reports of a blaze at Glasgow School of Art's Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at about 12.30pm on Friday.

It is believed the fire started in the basement and spread to the upper floors where flames were seen leaping from windows and the roof.

Firefighters who were at the scene within four minutes of receiving the first emergency call brought the fire under control and said more than 90% of the structure was "viable".

Flames can clearly be seen coming from the windows. Pic: @xdxxnx/Twitter

Indications are that they also protected up to 70% of the contents, according to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

It is not known which artworks have been saved.

There were no casualties but a number of people had to be helped from the Category A listed building on the corner of Renfrew Street and Scott Street.

Sky's James Matthews said the blaze is believed to have broken out while final year students were preparing their end of year degree shows on the upper floors.

Many of the students were in tears as they witnessed their efforts go up in smoke.

Broadcaster Muriel Gray, a former student and current chairwoman of the school, was another who burst into tears as she arrived and saw the building in flames.

The art school, designed by the famous Scottish architect and dating from 1897, is a tourist attraction and is regarded as a building of "national or international importance".

Broadcaster and current art school Chairwoman Muriel Gray was in tears

It attracts around 20,000 visitors a year, with tours given of the building.

Hugh Thornhill, a second year student, said: "I was helping one of the fourth years set up their exhibit and suddenly the alarm went off. We saw smoke coming out and realised that it was really bad."

As well as renowned artists, former students include members of the bands Travis and Franz Ferdinand, Architect and TV presenter George Clarke and actors Peter Capaldi and Robbie Coltrane.

Travis lead singer Fran Healy tweeted: "Man the mac library is all wood!!!! And loads of paper!! Man!!"

Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Glasgow School of Art. Pic: Finlay McWalter

George Clarke said: "Devastating to see the Glasgow School of Art in flames...I'll support its full restoration in any way."

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) described the blaze as "an international tragedy".

Fire brigade assistant chief officer Dave Boyle said crews worked " absolutely flat out" in an effort to save "this treasured building and many of the items it housed".

He said: "While the priority from the outset was to save life we have also been working closely with GSA staff to ensure firefighters conducted an effective salvage operation.

"Work to save everything that can be saved is ongoing and we will continue to work closely with GSA staff and students throughout this operation."

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Sex Offenders Face Lie Detector Tests

By Afua Hirsch, Social Affairs and Education Editor

A thousand of the UK's most high-risk sex offenders are to undergo mandatory lie detector tests, under new measures announced by the ministry for justice today.

Probation officers are being trained in how to use polygraph examiners as part of new measures to toughen up the monitoring of convicted paedophiles and reduce the danger they pose to the public.

Don Grubin, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Newcastle University, whose company Behavioural Measures is leading the training, said: "The aim of the testing is to assist offender managers in supervising the offenders.

Dr Grubin says the tests will help the monitoring of offenders

"There is not a specific crime you are investigating, not a specific security breach, it's much more of a general tool to look at how they are behaving under supervision and to see whether there is a need to intervene."

"It's important to emphasise that nobody will be recalled because they failed a test ... polygraph testing both facilitates the disclosure of information and alerts offender managers to possible deception, allowing them to work with offenders in a more focused way."

A group of seven officers will administer the tests to sex offenders deemed at high risk of reoffending or convicted of the most serious offences, in a 12-week training programme administered by polygraph experts from the US, where use of the devices is much more common.

As well as undergoing lie detector tests every six months, the Government has also announced plans to use satellite tags and controversial libido suppressant drugs, also known as "chemical castration".

Sex offenders already have to abide by licence conditions, including signing onto the sex offenders register, adhering to exclusion zones, curfews, internet restrictions and non-contact orders.

Polygraph tests will be used regularly on high-risk sex offenders

But there are hopes that the addition of lie detector tests will help probation services better monitor the risk of reoffending.

Justice minister Jeremy Wright said: "We are determined that Britain has one of hte toughest regimes in the world for managing sex offenders, to stop reoffending and to protect victims."

According to the most recent figures there are 43,664 registered sex offenders in the UK. Reoffending rates have been a persistent cause for concern, with 13% of adults convicted of a sex offence committing further offences.

This is the first time that mandatory lie detector testing will be used by probation services across the UK, but the Government says that a pilot conducted between 2009 and 2011 in the East and West Midlands found that those who took the tests were twice as likely to admit having breached the terms of their licence or having thoughts that suggested they continued to pose a risk.

Two police forces are already are also using lie detectors for people arrested on suspicion of indecent images of children.  

But the use of polygraphs remains controversial, with some concerned about the reliability of the devices.

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Tragic Sailors: Skipper 'Dearly Missed'

The family of yachtsman Andrew Bridge say they are "deeply saddened" by the discovery of the upturned hull of the missing boat Cheeki Rafiki.

The search for the four British sailors ended at 3am UK time after a search of the capsized vessel found the only realistic means of survival had not been deployed.

Mr Bridge, the yacht skipper, was one of four men on board the boat which got into trouble on May 15.

From left: Andrew Bridge, Steve Warren, James Male and Paul Goslin

The family statement said: "Andrew will be dearly missed by everyone who knew him. Our thoughts and condolences go out to the families of the rest of the crew on the Cheeki Rafiki.

"We would like to thank everyone who's helped in the search for Andrew including the US Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard, the RAF, Merchant vessels, the yachting community and the British and American Governments."

The raft was found stored in the aft of the boat Pic: US Coast Guard

It added that they had been "overwhelmed" by public support.

US Navy divers found the boat with a missing keel and a completely flooded cabin with shattered windows, said the Coast Guard.

"A US Navy warship smallboat crew and surface swimmer captured underwater imagery clearly identifying the raft in its storage space [behind the wheel]. The image was shared with and acknowledged by the families," said a statement.

"The crew and swimmer deployed to investigate the overturned boat after a helicopter crew located it 1,000 miles offshore Massachusetts and within the US Coast Guard's search area.

The search effort involved military aircraft and ships

It had already been announced that the search would be called off in the early hours of Saturday if no signs of possible survival were discovered.

"None of the current developments" indicate the crew are still alive, said the US Coast Guard.

The upturned 40ft yacht had been found on Friday, with divers first knocking on the hull to check for signs of life.

The men's familes had campaigned for the search to go on

The families had said they were still hopeful their loved ones would be found.

Relatives of Steve Warren, 52, Andrew Bridge, 22, James Male, 23, and Paul Goslin, 56, said they had been told "endless stories" of people surviving for months at sea.

A statement on behalf of Steve Warren's family said it was an "incredibly difficult" time and that the search effort had been "exceptional".

The Cheeki Rafiki had been at a regatta in Antigua

The vessel ran into difficulties on May 15 and began taking on water while returning to the UK from a regatta in Antigua.

Yacht training and charter company Stormforce Coaching said it had been in contact with the skipper at the time, and that the crew were keeping the situation stable.

The original search was halted after 53 hours amid bad weather but resumed on Tuesday after a request from the UK government and a online petition which collected more than 200,000 names.

Rescuers scoured more than 21,000 square miles of ocean during their second search for the boat.

Experts had agreed it would be impossible for the crew to survive outside of the life raft in cold, rough seas for more than 20 hours.

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "My thoughts are with the families of the crew of the Cheeky Rafiki after the sad news its hull has been found with the life-raft unused."

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Fire Crews Battle Glasgow City Centre Blaze

Firefighters are tackling a serious blaze at a historic building belonging to the Glasgow School of Art in the city centre.

Crews were called to reports of a fire at the Charles Rennie Mackintosh building at about 12.30pm, and were on the scene within four minutes according to the brigade.

The area around Renfrew Street has been cordoned off.

Smoke can be seen billowing from the building, and four fire engines are involved in the effort to bring the flames under control.

A post on Twitter from the School of Art said: "The Mackintosh building is on fire, all have been evacuated & we will post updates as we get them. Currently setting up an incident number."

More follows...

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Stuart Hall Jailed For Sex Assaults On Girl

Ex-broadcaster Stuart Hall has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for indecently assaulting an underage girl.

The former It's A Knockout presenter had been convicted of carrying out an attack on the youngster by a jury at Preston Crown Court.

He was found guilty last week of assaulting her when she was under 16.

Hall, 84, had earlier pleaded guilty to another indecent assault on the same girl when she was 13.

That involved an incident at a dinner party where he crept into his victim's bedroom and assaulted her.

Passing sentence, Lord Justice Turner said of his offences: "It was an act of vile bravado and horrible betrayal."

The victim sat metres away and began wiping away tears with a handkerchief passed to her, as details of the offences were again mentioned in court.

Hall was sentenced to 12 months for the offence he admitted and was given an additional 18 months for the indecent assault of which he was convicted by the jury.

Last week, he was cleared of 15 counts of rape in relation to that woman and another who claimed they were sexually assaulted by him between 1976 and 1981.

The married father-of-two is currently in prison serving a 30-month term.

He had been jailed after he pleaded guilty last year to indecently assaulting 13 other young girls, aged between nine and 17, over a 20-year period.

The ex-BBC football match commentator had not been due for release from that custodial sentence until September.

Hall will not now be eligible for release until December 2015 as the latest sentence will only begin after the end of his current jail term.

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Missing Yachtsmen: 'Still Hope' As Search Ends

The families of four British sailors missing in the Atlantic say they "still hold out much hope" their loved ones will be found despite the search being only hours from ending.

Relatives of Steve Warren, 52, Andrew Bridge, 22, James Male, 23, and Paul Goslin, 56, said they have received strong support from the public and have been told "endless stories" of people surviving for months at sea.

They spoke out after the US Coast Guard said the hunt will be called off if the seamen are not found by midnight on Friday - 5am on Saturday UK time.

Captain Anthony Popiel said he had phoned the men's families to tell them the news.

Family members of the missing men outside the Foreign Office on Thursday

He added: "It is only after deepest consideration that we suspend active search efforts."

A statement issued by the Foreign Office on behalf of the families said they "still hold out much hope that their loved ones will be found soon".

It added: "They have received so much support from the public and the yachting community, hearing endless stories of people that have survived many weeks and months in different circumstances at sea and have drawn much strength from this.

Captain Popiel says he has informed the men's families

"They were obviously saddened to hear that the US Coast Guard will be suspending the search. But, they were prepared for the fact that this would have to happen."

Debris was found in the search area on Thursday, but Captain Popiel said none of the objects located so far match the missing yacht.

The four men were on board a 40ft yacht when it ran into difficulties a week ago while returning to the UK from a regatta in Antigua.

An initial search for the stricken vessel was called off on Sunday amid bad weather in the Atlantic Ocean, but began again on Tuesday after pressure from the men's families.

More than 200,000 people signed a petition demanding the operation be resumed and the families of the four sailors have written to US President Barack Obama to thank him for his support.

The search, around 1,000 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, includes commercial vessels as well as aircraft from the US Coast Guard, the US Air Force, the Canadian military and the RAF.

More than 17,500 square miles of ocean have been covered since the search resumed three days ago.

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Local Elections: UKIP Makes Significant Gains

Nigel Farage has claimed his party is a "serious player" for 2015 after UKIP made significant gains in the local elections, leaving main party leaders admitting the public was voicing its discontent.

The Prime Minister conceded his party had to start delivering on immigration and welfare reform, and said the public had become "frustrated" with the status quo.

Mr Farage forecast his party would win double the 80 seats predicted leading to claims the elections had ushered in an era of four-party politics.

A ballot box is emptied at Trinity School in Croydon

UKIP took seats off both Labour and the Conservatives in their heartlands, which was particularly damaging to Ed Miliband, who has been accused by his own party of running an "unforgivably unprofessional" campaign.

David Cameron said: "People want us to deliver. The economy is growing, we are creating jobs, but we have got to work harder and we have got to really deliver on issues that are frustrating people and frustrating me, like welfare reform and immigration and making sure people really benefit from this recovery.

"We will be working flat out to demonstrate that we do have the answers to help hard working people."

Labour lost its grip in the north and, in a serious blow, the party lost control of Thurrock, a key marginal for the General Election in 2015, to no overall control, losing two seats to UKIP.

Mr Farage said UKIP would now be "serious players" in the General Election and said the party was expecting to win double the 80 seats that had been predicted.

He said: "The UKIP fox is in the Westminster henhouse" and added: "The idea the UKIP vote just hurts the Tories is going to be blown away by this election." 

Joey Essex may have supported Ed Miliband but Essex man voted UKIP

However, Mr Farage, who has consistently warned the local and European elections would deliver a UKIP "earthquake", admitted that the party was unlikely to be successful in London.

Ed Miliband defended the party's campaign and said people were turning to UKIP to express their discontent with the way the country is run.

He told Sky News: "I think we ran a good campaign."

He said: "I think in some parts of the country we have had discontent building up for decades about the way the country has been run and about the way our economy works and people feeling that the country just does not work for them and so what you are seeing in some parts of the country is people turning to UKIP as an expression of that discontent and that desire for change."

Mr Farage casts his vote in Cudham, Kent

Mr Miliband added that Labour would be able to provide the answer to the discontent by the 2015 vote.

UKIP made its greatest gains in Essex, where Margaret Thatcher once identified the "Essex Man", a man who moved out of London, once voted Labour but switched to the Tories.

UKIP took seats from Labour in Hartlepool, won 10 seats in Rotherham and polled more than a third of the vote in wards in big cities, such as Sunderland, Birmingham and Hull, where it previously had little or no presence.

The Camerons and the Milibands cast their votes

According to the latest Sky News projection, the results so far would give a hung parliament at the 2015 General Election.

Sky's election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher said UKIP's success suggested the party would claim at least one seat in the House of Commons next year

As predicted, the Liberal Democrats suffered significant losses, particularly in Kingston-Upon-Thames where it lost control of the council after 12 years to its coaltion partners. In Portsmouth it lost control with UKIP gaining six seats.

However, the party managed to hold on in Eastleigh, where UKIP came second last year in a by-election.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg admitted the party had had a bad night but said: "Actually I think in the areas where we have MPs where we have good organisation on the ground ... we are actually doing well."

:: Follow all the results as they come in on Twitter with @skyelections.

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RBS And NatWest Hit By Mobile Banking Glitch

Mobile banking services for RBS and NatWest have been hit by an IT glitch, along with an unconnected problem that affected some Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland online users.

In a statement given to Sky News, a spokesperson for RBS Group said: "We are aware that some customers are experiencing issues with mobile banking, we are working to get this resolved as quickly as possible.

"We apologise to customers for the inconvenience."

A spokesman for Lloyds Banking Group said there was a temporary issue on Friday morning that affected mobile and online services for a small number of customers who were trying to set up payees.

The apology seen by NatWest smartphones users

The RBS Group has been hit be a sequence of system-wide IT failures in the past, which affected RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank.

More recently, it has suffered 'pay day problems'  in the past, when workers expect to see funds enter their accounts.

Branch and cash machines are believed to be unaffected by the latest woes.

In its last annual results, the group said it was investing heavily in computer infrastructure to modernise its systems.

A number of banks were affected in February when workers expected funds to be deposited.

According to the British Bankers' Association, the use of mobile devices for banking services has doubled in the past 12 months.

RBS saw more than 17 million log ins in one week, through its mobile app, earlier this month.

In late December the group was hit by its fourth IT failure, after a cyber attack left online users unable to access accounts.

That followed an outage in early December, on one of the year's busiest shopping days.

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