Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has declared his party is on course to change the face of British politics in the wake of its strongest performance in local elections, making a series of gains across England.

In the biggest surge by a fourth party in England since the second world war, Ukip averaged 25% of the vote in council wards where it stood, according to a BBC estimate.

Farage, who has high hopes of winning next year's European parliamentary elections, is planning to stand in the 2015 general election. The Ukip leader came third, on 17.4% of the vote, when he stood against the Commons speaker John Bercow in Buckingham in 2010.

"Send in the clowns," Farage told Sky News as he lampooned Kenneth Clarke, who said Ukip was led by "a collection of clowns". The Ukip leader, who invited Clarke to address his party's annual conference after their overnight success, added: "We've been abused by everybody, attacked by the entire establishment who did their best to stop ordinary decent people from going out and voting Ukip, and they have done in big, big numbers. At the end of today we are going to have a fair tally and it sends a shockwave through the establishment."

The Ukip success saw Farage's party deprive the Conservatives of control of Lincolnshire county council after gaining 16 seats to become the main opposition. The Tories also lost control of Gloucestershire, where Ukip gained three seats and Labour gained four.

The Tories maintained control of five councils in overnight results – Devon, Somerset, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman, said the Tories were outperforming Ukip, though he acknowledged his opponents had done well. "We get it," he said after many Tory voters defected to Ukip.

Labour said it had performed well in the South Shields byelection – winning 50% of the vote – and was gaining support in Westminster seats it lost at the last election. In the initial overnight declaration the party won 42 seats – the same number as Ukip. As results poured in through Friday Labour outpaced Ukip.

In a morale boost for Labour, Laura Price gained the ward of Witney South and Central on Oxfordshire county council in David Cameron's constituency. Ed Miliband visited the area during the local election campaign.

The BBC projected, on the basis of an analysis from key council wards, that the Ukip vote is expected to increase by 18 points on 2009 when the same seats were last contested. Labour is up by seven, the Conservatives down by nine and the Lib Dems down by 11.

Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat president, said his party had been "obliterated" in the South Shields byelection, where it came seventh and lost its deposit.

The leading psephologist John Curtice, who said before the elections that Ukip presented the greatest challenge by a fourth party since the second world war, said the party had put in a phenomenal result. Curtice told the BBC: "Ukip have, so far, far exceeded our expectations of what they might do in the local elections … In practice we are seeing them at 26%. This is a phenomenal performance by Ukip."

Farage said he aimed to change British politics along the lines of the SDP, which transformed the Labour party without winning many parliamentary seats, or by creating a major political force at Westminster. The Ukip leader told the Today programme: "The SDP didn't last very long but it won because they finished up with Tony Blair who was an SDP prime minister. They fundamentally changed the entire Labour party – Foot, Benn and the hard left was gone and you got a modernising Labour party."

But Farage said Ukip could follow the example of the Reform party in Canada, which used a byelection win to build a base in parliament. "It can happen," he said. "Britain is in a mess and we need radical reform. There is now a settled majority that wants us to get our country back."

Shapps acknowledged that the three main parties had suffered. "Lots of people have chosen to vote for not one of the three mainstream parties, so it hasn't been a great night for any of the mainstream parties," he told the Today programme.

But the Tory chairman said he understood and would heed the message from voters who have abandoned the Tories for Ukip. "I do accept that people are sending quite a clear message. They are impatient for change. They want the economy fixed, they want the welfare system sorted out, they want a government that is on the side of hardworking people, they want the immigration system resolved and a say over Europe as well. That is a very loud and clear message.

"What I would really say is we get it. We have heard you. We understand. We are also anxious to make progress in all of those areas as well."

John Baron, the Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay who is demanding legislation during this parliament for an in/out referendum on the EU, said Ukip should no longer be seen as a protest party. "When you see Ukip, certainly in Essex, taking a quarter of the share of the vote, our message to the Conservative leadership is we have got to stop looking at Ukip simply as a protest party. Some of its members have genuine concerns about the EU which we need to address."

Tom Watson, Labour's election co-ordinator, said his party had performed well after winning the byelection in South Shields with 50% of the vote, and winning back the mayoralty in Tyneside. He told Today: "In the Westminster battleground seats – places like Hastings, or Harlow, Stevenage, Cannock – they are coming back to Labour in quite big numbers."

The Lib Dems' Farron said: "We have had a shocking result in South Shields. But we are gaining seats from Tories in places like Taunton and Cheltenham. The Westminster battlegrounds are where it is at. For the Lib Dems, South Shields is one extreme where we've got little strength on the ground and we got obliterated. And then you look at other places like Cheltenham, Taunton, Eastbourne, where we have got to win at the next general election where we are doing extremely well. Most of our battles are against the Tories and against the Tories we are doing very well."

The Ukip success in Lincolnshire saw the party's Richard Fairman unseat Eddy Poll, the Tory deputy leader in Spalding. Kelly Smith, the executive member for finance, and Graham Marsh, who ran adult services, also lost, according to BBC Lincolnshire.

A mother and three daughters – Sue, Felicity and Elizabeth Ransome – won three seats in Boston. Her husband, Don Ransome, who came second in Boston South, told the BBC: "Our time has come – I'm used to always being the bridesmaid – but at least I've got a few brides with me now. Everybody has had enough, and hopefully we can deliver something different – and spend Lincolnshire taxes on Lincolnshire people."

Peter Bedford, a Conservative councillor who lost his seat to a Ukip candidate, said: "It was a protest against central government's polices – it's disappointing but we'll bounce back."

All of the seats on 27 county councils (1,811) and all seats (528) on the six unitary councils were being contested. A third of the seats (23) were contested in Bristol. In Wales, 30 seats were contested on Anglesey borough council.

The Tories were defending nearly two-thirds (1,477) of the 2,362 seats up for grabs on Thursday. They expected heavy losses as they defended seats captured when they were at a polling high in 2009.