With the proviso that many seats are still left to declare, I'm going to begin bringing the charts out, to put these results into some broader perspective. In terms of seats defended, absolutely dire results for Labour and Tories. Not as bad as last year, but high on the board for worst-ever.
Most governments do make a net loss of seats, but the extent this year (current 57% of defences) is at the bad end, fifth-worst in the past 60 years. Does it rule Labour out winning the next GE? No, but at present, 40% is the worst govt defence rate to be re-elected (Con, 1981).
In terms of overall councillor counts, the Tories are set to fall to their second lowest level in modern local election history (only after LE1996 was worse), while Labour are on trend to fall to a level only previously held between 2008-11.
And here's the overall picture in historic perspective. A seismic reshaping of the local election map. Reform UK making fewer gains overall than last year, in part because of a less favourable map, but huge losses for Labour and record gains for Greens.