Ukip fights for its life after Tories obliterate party in UK council elections… as all but one of its 145 seats are lost

UKIP’S existence hung in the balance last night after the party was obliterated in council elections across England — losing all but one of the 145 seats it was defending.

The wipeout prompted senior figures to question whether the party has a future after losing seat after seat to the Conservatives.

Former donor Arron Banks said Ukip was spent as an electoral force, while leader Paul Nuttall  was forced to concede the Tories’ success was a “price Ukip is prepared to pay” for Brexit.

Deputy chairwoman Suzanne Evans said the party had been a “victim of its own success”, while former chief Nigel Farage added: “We won the war, but we have not won the peace.”

Ukip shed 144 councillors across the country, only holding on in Lancashire.

In a further blow, ten councillors were lost in Lincolnshire where embattled Mr Nuttall will stand for Parliament at the General Election in June.

Probed on whether she had killed Ukip, a grinning Theresa May replied: “I think if we look at what’s happened in the local elections we have taken votes from across the whole of the political spectrum.”

Ukip lost all of its seats in Warwickshire and the Isle of Wight, plus eight seats in Hampshire and six in Essex.

Its share of the national vote could sink as low as three per cent — a huge drop from the 22 per cent it had in the same council contests in 2013. Elections expert Professor Michael Thrasher said: “Ukip received one in eight votes cast at the 2015 General Election, and therefore those votes are absolutely critical in a month’s time.

“The indications from the local elections are that Ukip is losing all of its councillors and it’s the Conservatives that are making the gains on the basis of that collapse.”

Former Tory MP Douglas Carswell, who defected to Ukip in 2014 and then left the party after Brexit, was delighted with the results.

He said Ukip was “over” and urged Brexit-backers to throw their support behind Mrs May.

He added: “Thousands of Ukip supporters out there realise the only way to make sure we get the Brexit deal we need to is to make sure Theresa gets a mega mandate. We get a lot of straight switches from Ukip to the Conservatives and I hope that gets replicated in the General Election.”

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Former donor Mr Banks also called time on the troubled party and heaped the blame on its leader.

The millionaire insurance tycoon said predecessor Nigel Farage had been a “skilled driver who drove the car around the track faster and faster, knowing when to take risks, delighting the audience”.

But he said Mr Nuttall had “crashed the car at the first bend of the race into the crowd, killing the driver and spectators”.

Defending himself last night, Mr Nuttall said that the Tories’ success was down to Ukip.

He added: “Our electoral success over recent years was a key driver in forcing the Conservatives to embrace our cause under a new Prime Minister, who was campaigning for a Remain vote in the referendum a year ago.

“Mrs May’s public dispute with the EU in recent days, which led to her speaking about standing up to Brussels in an eve-of-poll statement in Downing Street, was fortuitously timed for the Conservatives.”

He went on: “If the price of Britain leaving the EU is a Tory advance after taking up this patriotic cause then it is a price Ukip is prepared to pay.”

But other senior Ukip figures demanded a significant “rebranding” at the very least.

Ukip deputy Ms Evans said the party is facing a “difficult dilemma”.

She added: “Brexit is something we have fought for long and hard, and most sensible people recognise that if it weren’t for Ukip we would not be in the position we are now as a country.

“We have got what we wanted. But, unfortunately, we have been in a sense the victims of our own success. We do have a duty now to reform, because what concerns me is that there is still a desperate need for a sensible third party in British politics.”

Last night former Ukip leadership contender Steven Woolfe said that “darker forces” had taken over the party and new anti-Islam policies were “putting people off”.

When asked how he will vote on June 8, Mr Woolfe declared: “I’ve got no choice — it would have to be Theresa May.”

The Lib Dems’ hopes of an anti-Brexit resurgence were also dashed in the local elections with the party ending up 32 seats down.

There was no sign of a much-hyped return for Tim Farron’s party in the South West. But officials were buoyed by a seven per cent hike in its vote share and said it was a “mixed night”.

Party strategists claimed the results showed they would win “scores” of Westminster seats, including St Albans, Cardiff Central and Watford.

Lib Dem president Baroness Brinton said the party is now “breathing down Labour’s necks” with a projected national vote of 18 per cent against 27 for Labour.

Senior Lib Dem peer Baroness Grender added that a resurgence for the party “is coming, but it’s a bit slower than I hoped”.