108 of 136 councilsCounting under way
Voters went to the polls on Thursday to vote for councillors on six North East councils
Reform takes control of Sunderland City Council after more than 50 years of Labour leadership
Reform takes control of Gateshead Council after more than 50 years of Labour leadership
Hartlepool was the only council which voted overnight - Reform won all the seats which were up for grabs
Labour is still in charge of North Tyneside Council but Reform is now the chief opposition
As well as local elections in England, voters in Scotland and Wales will decide who governs their countries. You can follow updates here
Helen Richardson
Political correspondent, BBC Radio Newcastle
Counting has finished in South Tyneside Council and it's been seismic.
Results are: Reform 41, Green 10, Labour 1, Independent 2
Reform UK have taken control of the council from Labour. Greens are the official opposition.
BBC Sounds
Sunderland Labour MP Lewis Atkinson said people were "sending a national message that they are not happy with the pace of change that they are seeing in the country" after his party's significant losses in the city.
"They are fed up that the cost of living has not improved significantly," he said.
"For a period beyond this government, over the last five or seven years, they have not seen improvement in living standards. That is really, really tough for any party that is in power."
"I am really sad that we have lost some really good Labour councillors in Sunderland tonight. I don't think it was a local vote.
"I think people recognise that Sunderland is a city on the up and there has been some really good work done by the Labour Council working together with the Labour government but ultimately national factors were the determining factor here."
Reform UK took control of Sunderland City Council earlier - here's a look at the final make-up of the council.
Helen Richardson
Political correspondent, BBC Radio Newcastle
Tracey Dixon, now the former Labour leader on South Tyneside, has lost her seat.
She has left the count, but earlier said: "The North East was a red wall and now it's actually crumbled to a Reform Wall."
With two wards left to declare, Reform UK have a clear majority.
The turnout here was 43.6%.
One of the newly-elected Reform UK councillors in Gateshead, Fiona Pearce, said people were "fed up of the current Labour councillors".
Reform UK swept to victory today, taking control of Gateshead after it was run by Labour for more than five decades.
Pearce, now representing Wardley & Leam Lane, said constituents felt a "vote for Labour was just voting for the status quo".
"It's just keeping things the same and a lot of people are unhappy with things like anti-social behaviour," she went on.
"We've got a lot of issues with the high street, the local shops are closing down, a lot of the businesses would like to succeed but they're struggling."
Helen Richardson
Political correspondent, BBC Radio Newcastle
Counting is still under way, but Reform UK has won a majority of seats on South Tyneside Council.
There has been a major change in the political make-up of the North East with today's election results. Here's what has happened:
More results are coming in for Newcastle City Council, and still no seats for Labour.
Former elected North of Tyne Mayor for Labour, Jamie Driscoll, won for the Greens after joining the party late last year.
All three seats in his Monument ward went from Labour to the Greens.
Image source, Hazel Plater
Mark Denten
BBC North East and Cumbria
The now-former Labour leader of Gateshead Council Martin Gannon lost his seat this afternoon, after 42 years on the council.
Speaking after the result, he said people across the country were "angry and dissatisfied".
"And I don't blame them," he went on. "I feel exactly the same way."
"We've got to win back trust."
Mark Denten
BBC Look North
Reform UK has become the largest party on Gateshead Council.
It officially takes control in the local authority which had been Labour since it was formed in 1974.
Helen Richardson
Political correspondent, BBC Radio Newcastle
"We just need to clear the decks and reboot," says South Shields Labour MP Emma Lewell.
At the halfway point in South Tyneside, Labour only had one seat. Reform UK had 18, the Greens seven and Independents one.
"Anyone looking at what happened in local elections elsewhere last year could see that if my party did not change course, this was what was going to happen," Lewell said.
"And instead, we committed to go on further and faster with our plan for change instead what we needed was a change of plan."
She said: "There's one fundamental in politics. If the public are telling you they don't like something and you keep doing it, do not expect their vote, and that's what we're seeing being played out here."
Earlier, Keir Starmer said he was "not going to walk away".
Image source, House of CommonsMark Denten
BBC North East and Cumbria
Reform UK is one seat away from taking control of Gateshead Council....
Joshua Aitken
BBC Look North
There's been some good news for local Conservatives in North Tyneside - Jay Bartoli has been elected to a new ward meaning he will continue serving on the council alongside his father Lewis Bartoli.
Naturally Bartoli Snr was beaming with pride and said: "Well my daughter turns 18 soon, so maybe the family business will grow, although I'm not sure she's as into it as us."
You can listen to more on BBC Sounds here.
Mark Denten
BBC Look North
Labour has lost control of Gateshead Council, which it has controlled for 52 years.
Reform UK is the largest party at the moment, and is seven seats short of an overall majority
BBC Sounds
Newly-elected Washington North councillor Paul Donaghy thinks Reform's gains in Sunderland are more than a flash in the pan.
"I think this is the start," he said.
"Three years ago when I first came over to Reform UK. I came because I could see the passion and the plan and I sat down with people at the time and they said this is what we want to do and I believed in it and I still believe in it and a lot of people who came into it believe it as well.
"This is not a flash in the pan, we've got a plan, we know what we want to do, we know how we want to do it and it is now our job to deliver that plan, deliver the promise of change that we have made."
Helen Richardson
Political correspondent, BBC Radio Newcastle
For a while it was looking like a straight battle between the Greens and Reform UK, but at the halfway mark it is: Reform 18, Green seven, Independent one, Labour one.
Reform have by no means swept the board but they are picking up seats from Labour and the independents. The Greens have lost some seats to Reform but gained some from Labour.
Some wards have three Reform councillors now, so all new faces representing the residents.
Labour is worried about so many new councillors in the chamber. They’ve only held on to one seat.
Mark Denten
BBC Look North
The Labour leader of Gateshead Council, Martin Gannon, loses his seat to Reform UK.
Image source, Transport North East
Richard Moss
Political editor, North East & Cumbria
Former Sunderland Labour council leader Graeme Miller, who was replaced by Michael Mordey, is another casualty as he loses his seat.
He joins Sunderland Conservative group leader Antony Mullen who has also lost his place on the council.
The Reform UK teal tidal wave seems to be washing away the Tories as well as Labour. Looks like there may be no Conservative presence on the new council.
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Luke Walton
Political correspondent, BBC North East and Cumbria
With half the Newcastle seats counted, Labour is still waiting to win its first council seat.
The city has been Labour-led since 2011 and the party has dominated local politics for four of the last five decades.
The Labour leader of the local authority Karen Kilgour lost her seat to Reform UK.
The city's first female leader fell victim to a Reform clean sweep in Blakelaw and Cowgate, an area where all three seats were previously held by Labour.
