Theresa May shrugged off a difficult week as Britain's Prime Minister as she hailed Conservative "success" in local elections after Jeremy Corbyn's Labour failed to make predicted breakthroughs.
The Conservatives held on to "crown jewel" authorities in London including Wandsworth, Westminster and Kensington while picking up votes from the UK Independence Party across England.
But despite the ongoing row over anti-Semitism and the lack of eye-catching victories, there were signs of progress for Labour and analysis suggested the two main parties were neck-and-neck overall in terms of national vote share.
With results in from 149 of 150 councils Labour had a net gain of 61 seats but a net loss of control of one authority while Tories suffered a net loss of two councils and had 93 fewer councillors.
Votes in the local elections equated to a 35 per cent share for both Labour and the Conservatives.
The BBC's projection suggests that if the result was repeated at a general election there would be another hung parliament with Labour on 283 seats in the Commons compared to the Conservatives' 280.
Corbyn sought to put a brave face on overnight results which saw Labour gain control of Plymouth.
Meeting activists in the Devon city, Labour's leader denied that his party has passed the moment of "peak Corbyn".
"No, no, there is much more to come, and it's going to get even better," Mr Corbyn told Sky News.
"Obviously, I am disappointed at any places where we lost a bit of ground, but if you look at the overall picture, Labour gained a lot of seats across the whole country, we gained a lot of votes in places we never had those votes before."
But the impact of its underwhelming performance was amplified by a failure to damp down expectations of victory in Tory strongholds which have not voted Labour in decades.
The Prime Minister - just days after suffering the resignation of home secretary Amber Rudd and a setback over finding Cabinet agreement on the post-Brexit customs plan - was greeted by cheering supporters in Wandsworth.
She praised their efforts in beating off a Labour challenge which had seen the streets flooded with activists, including members of the Corbyn-backing Momentum campaign.
"Labour thought they could take control, this was one of their top targets and they threw everything at it, but they failed," the Prime Minister said.
Labour said that tight results in four Wandsworth wards meant it missed out on victory by just 141 votes.
