The Labour leader of Burnley council has said he will not work with the three members of the far-right British National Party who won seats in Thursday's local elections.

Stuart Caddy's comments came as main political parties took stock of their performances across England, with none claiming outright success.

Vote shares

Conservatives: 34% Labour 33% Lib Dem: 27% Others: 5%

Labour suffered a blow in Middlesbrough where former policeman Ray Mallon, known as 'Robocop', was elected mayor with a massive majority.

And in Peter Mandelson's Hartlepool constituency voters elected their football team's monkey mascot H'Angus - otherwise known as Stuart Drummond - as mayor.

But overall the result left all of the main parties with little to celebrate.

In many ways it was the night of the independents with concerned parents, patients and just plain residents winning seats and - in some cases - power up and down the country.

Turnout

Overall +5% Postal voting +28% E-voting +5% Online voting +1% No experiment +4%

Labour had the most to lose but in the end the Conservatives, facing their first significant electoral test since Iain Duncan Smith became leader, failed to make anything like the recovery they had hoped for.

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats won Kingston-upon-Thames and Norwich, but lost control of Richmond and Sheffield.

The BBC's latest projection of each party's share of the vote puts the Conservatives on 34% with Labour on 33% and the Liberal Democrats on 27%.

Turnout, with a handful of results remaining, is forecast to be 35% - which would be the highest for any local election since Labour came to power and up significantly from the 29.6% in 2000.

'Conned'

The BNP's limited success was greeted with alarm by Lord Ouseley, former chairman of the Campaign for Racial Equality, who said it was a "severe chill factor" for the area's community relations.

While Burnley's Labour MP, Peter Pike, said voters had been conned by "racist" candidates.

Labour chairman Charles Clarke said the BNP's success was "disappointing".

He said the party's candidates were only interested in "tearing apart" the communities they targeted.

H'Angus promised free bananas for schoolchildren

But BNP leader Nick Griffin called the result a "triumph".

He denied the party was exploiting racial tension in Northern towns, but he said the BNP's objective remained "an all white Britain".

But the party only fielded 68 candidates when there were almost 6,000 seats contested nationwide.

The Tories gained Adur, Swale, Peterborough and Wokingham, and Enfield, where Michael Portillo lost his seat in 1997.

Heartlands

But they lost power in Cheltenham, Worthing and Eastbourne.

Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram called the Conservative performance "workmanlike".

He said: "We are at a very early stage in building our policies and I think we can be satisfied with last night."

But Lib Dem chairman Mark Oaten claimed the Tories were "flat lining", although his party later lost Richmond to them.

Labour's vote rose in some of its traditional heartlands but the party lost 20 seats and overall power in Hull, as well as control of Stoke-on-Trent.

Key events

Labour lose Hull Liberal Democrats win Norwich but are ousted in Sheffield Conservatives win Enfield, lose Eastbourne and Cheltenham Independents win control of Elmbridge Council BNP wins three seats in Burnley but fails in Oldham Stuart Drummond, alias "H'Angus the Monkey", elected Hartlepool mayor

The party's vote has dropped 14% in London boroughs, where it lost Lambeth, Enfield and Harrow - although it did win back Bexley.

Voters in seven areas have been the first to follow Greater London's example in choosing directly elected mayors.

The Lib Dems notched up the mayoral victory in Watford, while Labour had their candidates elected in Newham and Doncaster.

The Conservatives won a closely-fought mayoral contest in North Tyneside.

While residents groups took control of Elmbridge Council, in Kidderminster campaigners to save the town's hospital repeated the victory they won at the general election.

In a night of success for fringe parties, the Greens also put up their best performance since the 1989 European elections, winning 7% where they stood - up two points on 2000.

It appears that all-postal votes were more successful at encouraging voters than internet polls.