Ukip faces being wiped out at the ballot box after failing to hold onto a single seat at the local elections.

Paul Nuttall's party lost all its seats in Lincolnshire, Hampshire and Essex, all key battlegrounds for Ukip at next month's General Election.

As a sign of how bad a night it endured, "Ukip 0" was trending on Twitter early on Friday as other social media users said "RIP" to the party:

With results available from 19 councils, Ukip had lost all 30 seats it held and failed to win a single contest.

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Elections expert Michael Thrasher said Ukip's share of the national vote could fall as low as three per cent, down from 22 per cent in the same contests in 2013.

In another blow, Ukip's top tier in Rotherham resigned in protest at the direction of the party and Mr Nuttall's leadership, the Yorkshire Post reported.

Ukip lost 10 seats in Lincolnshire, where party leader Mr Nuttall has decided to run in the General Election. It lost a further eight seats in Hampshire and six seats in Essex.

Politics professor John Curtice said Ukip "has lost everything they've been trying to defend".

Ukip's Lisa Duffy insisted the results were not a "disaster" for the party but acknowledged it was "very disappointing" it had been wiped out in Lincolnshire.

"I won't use the word 'disaster', I'll use the word 'challenging'," she told the BBC. "We knew it was going to be a difficult night."

Prof Thrasher told Sky News: "Ukip received one in eight votes cast at the 2015 general election, and therefore those votes are absolutely critical in a month's time at the General Election.

"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."

Paul Nuttall: Ukip a victim of its own success

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall put the party's dismal showing in the local elections down to it being "the victim of its own success" on Brexit.

Mr Nuttall put the poor results down to the Tories talking tough on Brexit. Praising the party's candidates, he said:

"It's been a difficult night. Frankly, there is nothing they could have done in the face of a big national swing to the Tories. "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 particularly fortuitously timed for the Conservatives. "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. "We are the victims of our own success and now we pick ourselves up and go on to further success in the future."

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Ukip local government spokesman Peter Reeve said the party had always expected a "very tough" set of elections, defending seats won in its breakthrough year of 2013.

Theresa May had been successful in "cynically" promoting a "myth" that the Tories had replaced Ukip as the party of Brexit, he said.

But he told BBC One's Breakfast that the suggestion that Ukip was no longer needed "couldn't be further from the truth", adding: "Even if we don't win a single seat later on today, Ukip still has 300 councillors across the country and is still a very relevant, real voice in local politics.

"What is also true is we continue - and have done for many years - to control the national agenda and the Government agenda. They didn't want to have a referendum on Brexit, Ukip forced that on them, they were terrified of us and they did it."

Asked whether it was time to bring back Nigel Farage as leader, Mr Reeve said: "Paul Nuttall is our leader, we're very proud of him as our leader.

"He's had a very rough time - even Nigel says he has not experienced the media backlash and horror that poor old Paul has experienced. And yet he is still humorous and rides roughshod over it.

"I'm very proud of our leader. I think he has a very long-term role leading our party."