Tony Blair suffered a poor night in England's local elections as Labour made net losses of more than 100 seats.

The Prime Minister will reshuffle his Cabinet today as he seeks to regain momentum after days of bad headlines.

The Tories and Lib Dems both made early gains. The BNP has doubled its number of councillors, including winning 11 in Barking and Dagenham.

Results from key wards so far suggest the Tories are up two per cent on 2004, Labour unchanged and Lib Dems down one per cent.

Labour has so far lost overall control of eight councils, including Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire and Bury in Greater Manchester.

It has also lost its grip on Crawley, which has been Labour-held since the 1970s, to the Conservatives.

The Tories have also won Bassetlaw, Mole Valley and Shrewsbury and Atcham but lost West Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire and Gosport in Hampshire, where the Lib Dems gained four seats.

The Lib Dems have picked up South Lakeland and St Albans in Hertfordshire, where one ward was decided by which candidate drew the longest pencil after a tie in the votes.

The UK Independence Party has won a seat in Hartlepool. The Greens have made limited gains in cities like Oxford and Bristol.

The local election campaign has been overshadowed by the flurry of controversies over the government.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott admitted to an affair with one of his secretaries and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt was booed by nurses worried about staff cuts in the NHS.

And the week was dominated by calls for Home Secretary Charles Clarke to quit over the mistakes which saw more than 1,000 foreign prisoners released without being deported.

Defence Secretary John Reid said the results had not been as bad as he initially feared.

"It's not a good night for us, it's a poor night, but actually when you look at the share of the vote, it looks as though it's very much the status quo for us," said Mr Reid.

Some of the council seats contested this year were last fought in 2004, when Labour fared badly. Others, including the London boroughs, were last contested in 2002, when Labour suffered fewer losses.

Heavy losses for Labour are likely to trigger more calls for Mr Blair to name the day for him to leave No 10.

More than one in three people want Mr Blair to go now, according to an ICM poll for the BBC.

It is the first big electoral tests for both Tory leader David Cameron and Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell.

Conservative chairman Francis Maude said his party had made a good start but was not saying it was about to storm into Downing Street.

"It looks like where we are is at the top end of people's expectations, but none of us believe that this is any other than the beginning of a long haul," said Mr Maude.