The UKIP Leader, Paul Nuttall has issued the following statement following the local election results:

It's been a difficult night.

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.

Each one of our former councillors should be immensely proud of the contribution they have made not only to their local communities but also to the cause that our party was set up to achieve: the restoration of the United Kingdom as an independent, self-governing country.

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. And county council seats that were in natural Tory territory have gone back to the Tories.

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.

UKIP's decision to target our general election effort in a group of seats where we are very strong on the ground is clearly the right one and we remain excited by our prospects in the best of these.

Our members will know that politics is a long game and that as well as keeping up the pressure for Brexit, UKIP is now laying down its big agendas for the future; including taking a muscular approach on social integration, campaigning to bring down immigration and arguing for a switch of resources away from foreign aid and into the NHS and other public services.

Alongside that, we must remember that voters from across Britain made their way to polling stations last night to give their vote to UKIP. As a result of our outdated electoral system those voters are once again left without a voice. We will now focus our minds, energies and efforts into giving that voice back to them on June 8th.

We are the victims of our own success and now we pick ourselves up and go on to further success in the future.