Former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell declared 'it's over' for the party today after it was obliterated at the ballot box in local elections.

Leader Paul Nuttall tried to put a brave faced on the dismal results and claimed Ukip was a 'victim of our own success'.

The party has so far won just a solitary seat - a gain from Labour in Lancashire. It has lost every seat it was defending in the declared results - currently 145 of the 147 seats it won last time around.

Much of the Ukip vote appears to have transferred straight to the Tories and in a statement Mr Nuttall admitted it had been a 'difficult night'.

Mr Nuttall claimed the prize of defeat was knowing Ukip 'forced' the Tories to embrace Brexit.

Paul Nuttall (pictured campaigning on Tuesday) has seen his party so far lost every one of the 30 seats it was defending that have so far been declared

Former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell (file picture) declared Ukip dead as he claimed the election results meant it was 'over'

Much of the Ukip vote appears to have transferred straight to the Tories and in a statement Mr Nuttall admitted it had been a 'difficult night' (pictured is the count in Cardiff)

Mr Nuttall said: 'In the local elections yesterday many excellent UKIP representatives lost their seats on county councils despite campaigning hard for re-election.

'Frankly, there is nothing they could have done in the face of a big national swing to the Tories.'

The embattled leader added: '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.'

Elections expert Michael Thrasher told Sky News Ukip's share of the national vote could fall as low as 3 per cent, down from 22 per cent in the same contests in 2013.

Former Ukip MP Douglas Carswell declared the Eurosceptic party 'over' today as its vote was obliterated and switched to the Tories

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.'

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.

The national picture reveals an extraordinary collapse for Ukip to the benefit of the Tories

The party has so far lost every seat it was defending in the declared results - currently more than 40 of around 140 seats it won last time around.

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.'

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.'