Labour has conceded defeat in the hotly contested Tees Valley mayor race with a result which could save Rishi Sunak from facing a vote of confidence.
A Labour source told The Independent: We would have needed a 23 percent swing to defeat Ben Houchen but we are well on the way to the 12.5 percent we would need to win every constituency in the region.
Lord Houchen told The Independent that voters in the region have said they would back him on Thursday but not support the Conservative Party in a general election.
The result is one of the few positives for the Tories on a day of local election counts which see them on track to lose more than 500 of the 985 council seats they were defending.
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