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>> hello, i'm ben thompson. you're watching the context on bbc news. >> we've had 14 years of failure and decline. we have chaos and division. people want to turn the page on that and go forward with our positive plan for the country. >> it is disappointing to lose good, hard-working conservative counselors and i'm grateful to them for all of their service in local government. >> dire election results becoming a dangerous habit for the conservatives. there is no sign it is prompting more tory mps to get rid of rishi sunak. >> rishi sunak's conservative party has been decimated in local counsel and marrow -- mayoral elections as the

opposition continues to celebrate a strong night at the ballot box. all you need to know tonight and what the results could mean for the general election. we also speak to the youngest counselor who one for labor. she is juggling campaigning with her a level exams next week. also tonight, the end of week three at the donald trump trial. it has been a week of fines and threats of jail for the former president. we will look at what we have learned so far. we start tonight in the u.k., where prime minister rishi sunak has acknowledged a disappointing series of local election results. after the conservative suffered deep receipt -- the results are seen as the last major test of public opinion before a general election later this year. there is little good news for the prime minister at a by election in blackpool south, his

party suffered its third-largest swing to the opposition labour party since the second world war. at a local council level, the results are no better. the conservatives have lost half of the seats announced so far. experts say they can be on track to lose a staggering 500 counselors. one of the worst performances at the polls in four decades. here's our litical editor chris mason. >> in north yorkshire this afternoon. the prime minister lived a few miles away, look who has turned up to rub his nose in it. the wider county so often rocksolid conservative was elected a labor mayor. >> we have had really good results across the country all day long. this is a special moment to become the mayor. than you to the team and the fantastic work they have done. the villages and the towns of

north yorkshire, people who have voted for change. >> there have been smiles all over the place taking the military town aldershot in hampshire. they did the same in the northeast of england. on the south coast, and west sussex where they never won before. five independent candidates on a pro gaza platform, labor control and alderman greater manchester. he's had an impact, particularly in places with a significant muslim population. -- was a black bull to celebrate winning at westminster. winning wasn't surprising. the scale of the victory was. the music for the prime minister, pretty dire then.

it rishi sunak was in garrison in north yorkshire. >> it is disappointing to lose good hard-working conservative counselors. i'm grateful for them to all of their service and local government delivering services for local people. but we still got lots of results to come. >> one of their few islands of optimism in a sea of glue, the conservative ben how sure with victory, but not a terri rose at. he won by millie miles last night. it was much closer this time. he had this message for the prime minister. >> and the people behind me may not thinking about voting conservative, they want more progress. they want -- we need to give them the excuse to vote for us. we have not given them that excuse yet. >> in traffic, in essex, they managed to cling on. the liberal democrats delight in the less than subtle photo opportunity.

there they are in winchester. >> let's make this conservative government history. >> they are suggesting the conservatives are sn to be as dead as the dinosaurs. and point to gains they are making at the tory's expense. >> therere so many parts of the country, they will be worried about liberal democrats across the southeast, the blue wall, the southwest in many parts the country. people know if you want to get rid of this awful conservative government and make them history, they should vote democrat. >> the successor to the brexit party gave some conservatives -- they came within a whisker of beating the tories in the blackpool by election. >> what is rapidly becoming clear is as more people ask about reform, we are becoming the real opposition to the labour party in the north, in the midlands, in wales, we are on the way up. it is quite clear the tories on

the way down. x the green party is volunteering a barrel. this is the trend of the green steady rise in local politics continuing. >> a fantastic set of results for the green party. the fifth local election in a row or we had the record number of green counselors being elected. winning seats in all corners of the country for the labor and conservatives in rural and urban areas. >> the democratic process comes with certain rituals. color, stamina, and sleep deprivation. in winners clutching babies. there are yet more results to come tomorrow. >> let's talk jack blanchard. good evening to you. how bad was this for the tories? >> really bad for the tories. most of these results are exactly what you would expect to see from a government that is about to be thrown out of office. they have been losing councils in all of the wrong places.

in every part of the country, we are seeing marginal parliamentary seats, they are getting thrown out of office. i suspect we will see more tomorrow. the one shining light for rishi sunak was the victory four hao-ching. we may see some other big wins for rishi sunak, possibly in the west midlands, possibly even in london. do not let that deceive you. mayoral politics is often very personality based. the wider picture in terms of whether people want to turn out and vote tory is not good for rishi sunak at all. >> interesting as well. rishi sunak stuck a smile, went out and said the results show the voters are going to stick with us. where does he come up with that? >> what else can he say? he will just come out and go it looks like we are toast. but it feels like we does. he went to north yorkshire and

his own constituency to do his media bit today, and found out an hour later they had lost the mayoral seat. never would have dreamed that would be possible a few years ago. north yorkshire, a true blue place. wealthy retired people, always voted conservative. they are losing places like that. we are seeing -- which used to be a classic swing area. goes to labor, goes to tories when they win election. that swung across the labor. places like that tell you people in those areas are not listening to rishi sunak anymore. and he really doesn't have very long left to turn it around before the general election. >> i want come onto that in a second about the overall, the national picture. people will vote differently whether it is a vocal issue -- local issue our national issue. i'm interested in whether this was an outright rejection of the the -- in the other parties.ust this is either saying we a

done with the tories and voting for someone else, or i like the policies these other parties are presenting. >> there is very little evidence of some huge tide will of support for the opposition parties. if you look at every focus group done, the way people are surveyed when you ask about labor or the other opposition parties, there is not a lot of love at the moment. what there is is a massive rejection of the ruling party. they have been in power for 40 years now. it is a huge amount of time. enough to upset about one moment or another. with the chaos we have seen over this parliament with prime ministers and all the rest of it. every pollster, every political analyst will tell you the same. people are fed up with the conservatives. the idea is rishi sunak will come in and turn the feeling around here we are 18 months, and there is no sign of the shift in sentiment at all.

>> the former u.k. poses a problem, because it has the power to split that vote. i wonder how much of a danger that is. especially when we saw in these local election results was a real change -- danger the conservatives can be in third place. >> it is a huge problem for the conservatives. the last thing they needed. we have seen this happen to david cameron in the 2010s. the predisaster party was doing exactly this to the tories, attacking them to the right. and splits the vote as you say. we are not going to see a huge tidal wave of reform mps being elected to the general election. amazed if we even sell one reform mp and the general election. we will see them eating away at the majorities of conservative mps or the other people who might want to vote tory or last time voted tory going i don't like them anymore.

and they've got somewhere else to go on the right. what that means is a lot of those tories are going to lose their seat because they lost the votes to reform. and labor can come in to set a different reform it is going to make will be dozens of conservatives losing their seats at the election who herwise would not have done. ask us talk about that election. what does it tell us about voting intention at a general election? interesting tonight, a lot of speculation that if the results were disastrous for the conservatives, it would throw the spotlight on rishi sunak and renew the calls for him to go. that does not seem to be happening tonight. >> you are quite right about that. the expectation management by rishi sunak's operation has been good. they managed to convince people only if he lost absolutely everything, including every conservative and half of his

counselors, only then would it have been a night so disastrous that tory mps ought to think about getting rid of him. that hasn't happened. a lot of people think he's going to win in the west midlands tomorrow. and there are rumors the tories might even pick up the london mayoral as well. there are things for rishi sunak to point and say i can't still win in some places, but more broadly, the tories look like they are going to lose. look at blackpool south, a proper parliamentary seat. they almost took second place. and labor knocked it out of the park. if that kind of result is replicated, on current polling there is no reason to think it won't be, than they are going to lose an awful lot. >> the 26% swing to labor at blackpool south. always good to talk to you. thank you for being with us. we probably will not get the final results until sunday, just taking sometimes so the results

can still come in. in local elections, there are always some great personal stories. let's talk about one of them now. let's talk to an 18-year-old student who has been voted one of the youngest counselors in the country. good to have you with us. i'm right in saying 18 years a six months? you have that record now. how does it feel? >> a loss of emotions going on. overwhelmed, overjoyed. it has been amazing. the campaign has worked hard and it paid off. >> your mom and your grandparents were at the account as well. great to have them there. it felt like a real family affair. how important has their support been? you have been juggling campaigning, trying to study for your a-levels next week. >> they have been coming out every day after school.

and it has been amazing. i'm very grateful for their support. >> when you speak to peoplon the campaign, particularly young people, how do they respond? you are relatively young and all of this. they feel like they have a voice with you? >> es, the amount of doors i have knocked on and they have said i don't usually vote, but i will be voting for you, this is a chance for you to really make a difference in politics. >> what would that youth voice be? what is the top of your to do list? >> just really representing the young people. but mostly representing the people of my ward. that is more important. >> and being able to go out and represent peop in this way. that i suppose is one of the big issues of all election. whoever the party in power might not be representing them, it feels like this can be a clean

break for them. what is the most exciting bit about doing this job? >> i love canvassing. i start canvassing a year ago. i could do it every day. and i'm not a very social person. it is thrilling. you get to hear people's issues firsthand. >> good to talk to you. thank you. i know you had a really busy 24, 48 hours. thank you for talking to us. best of luck as well with those a-levels. good to talk to you. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news.

♪ >> it is the end of the third week in donald trump's criminal trial. the prosecution has been buildi its case with a range of witnesses so far. today, the court heard from a forensic analyst who examined the contacts and messages on

michael cohen's phone. he's mr. trump's former lawyer. we also heard from a staffer from the new york das office who reviewed trumps social media post for the trial. then came the main witness of the day, hope hicks. she served as donald trump's campaign spokesperson at the time of the hush-money payments in 2015. she was in the room for a key meeting between donald trump, michael cohen, and former national enquirer commissioner david packer. when it was agreed david packer would buy and suppress negative stories about mr. trump, including alleged affairs all designed to help boost his campaign. let's talk to our correspondent in new york. you have been following this closely. the end of week three. pretty dramatic testimony today. just explain what we heard from hope hicks. >> keep in mind, she's the first person who worked directly with donald trump to testify.

we did not really have to guess how she felt about taking the stand. we felt once she got on, she was nervous. even broke down in tears at one point, which the court took a short break. hope hicks has depicted donald trump as somebody who was across all of the mediatatements that she worked on, was very much part of his press strategy, all of the statements and that one out. very in tune with how the press coverage would be affecting him and his campaign. she discussed h the campaign was in crisis after the access hollywood tape, how it was wall-to-wall media coverage for 36 hours until the presidential debate. even knocking a category four hurricane off of the news. then she got to the actual article that went out exposing the stormy daniels payment. and she said donald trump had told her that the affair never

happened, he denied the affair in press statements. and when michael cohen told the new york times he had made the payment, that donald trump told her he was a very loyal and he had paid off this woman as a favor to him. and prosecutors asked if that sounded like something michael cohen would do, she said it did seem out of character for him, that he was someone who liked to take credit and was not exactly a charitable person. so overall, some pretty devastating testimony for the defense that they have to contend with on cross-examination. >> speaking of the testimony, the judge was forced to intervene to correct the president's -- former president's false about that gag order. explain what happened. >> last night when donald trump was leaving court and speaking to the press as he so often does, he made a comment

complaining about the gag order. but saying he's not able to testify. that he's being silenced. the judge once court resumed this morning wanted to make it absolutely clear, telling donald trump there is nothing about that gag order that prevents his constitutional right to take the stand and to testify in his defense. he said the gag order is only related to statements outside of the court and very limited at that. just aimed at witnesses and jurors. donald trump speaking to the press did seem to acknowledge that he can testify and the gag order does not prevent him from doing so. >> good to talk to you. thank you for the update. we can talk now to the former united states district judge. thank you for joining us on the context. i want to start with the intervention from the judge around the gag order. what did you make of that intervention to remind former president trump that this did

not affect his ability to testify? >> it is important. the judge is sang don't distort my gag order. you know well that you have a constitutional right to testify. you said you were going to testify. and of course my gag order does not prevent that. i think the judge wants to set the record straight when trump says things just so far off base. >> and of course, finding mr. trump $9,000 on tuesday for violating that order, signaling he will impose more fines and change his behavior. do you get any sense mr. trump is listening and will change his behavior? >> i think trump is listening, but he's always going to go as close to the line as he possibly can and maybe even across it. there is a theory out there that he's trying to goad the judge almost into incarcerating him. because his victim story is dramatically improved.

they have taken me to jail, sitting he in a cell. there is a theory he almost wants to go in. but the counter theory is he really doesn't want to be in jail even for today. it is unclear. he's going to try and go close to that line as possible. he's going to continue attacks. the judge did say on tuesday when he imposed fines, he would consider that if michael cohen and daniels continue to attack trump, they may become subject to a gag order that it has to be a two-way street. or he might let trump respond. depends if they quiet down, then there will be no excuse for trump to respond to it. if they keep attacking him in the public domain, social media, the judge might consider gagging them or letting trump respond. i did hear that on tuesday. he also said he wished he could give more than $1000 per violation, but he's illuminated -- limited by statute. he said i would like to give

more if i could, but i can't. >> a danger once again that all of this becomes a circus. it takes our attention away from that issue that is being tried in court. once again, the evidence a main witness today, hope hicks who served as campaign spokesperson. what did you make of her testimony? this could be quite key in this case. yes. as a previous guest said, you are a reporter in new york. there are things in that testimony, they are very do sitting -- devastating to trump. the campaign was thrown into turmoil and they knew that they had to control that story and suppress it if they could. they knew that other women would come forward and did, so they had to buy them off. on the other hand, there was one nugget of her testimony that was

helpful to the defense. she said right away please don't let this get out to my wife. i don't want her to learn about it. and that has been his defense narrative that had nothing to do with swaying the electorate, but he wanted to keep it quiet for family reasons. and she backed that up. she already handed the defense a talking point that i'm sure we will hear in the closing arguments. >> also interesting saying her response to scandals like that access hollywood tape was to deny. and you get a real sense of the inner workings of this, when it is laid out so clearly in court. mr. trump said every legal scholar said this case is nonsense. it is that true? what are legal scholars saying? >> that is not true. i have read legal scholars on both sides of commenting on the strength of this case. many have said it is a surprisingly strong case and when the full evidences in the

record, we will see how strongly it is. there are others who are concerned it is a case called the first impression. meaning some of the theories here have nevebeen tested before. such as what makes this a felony is the falsification of business records is in furtherance of another crime with the intent to commit another crime. and here, the other crime is the violation of election laws, that is new and untested. >> always good to have your insight on stories like this. speaking to us there. >> the 12 jurors, six alternates still to hear from the main players in this case. including the woman at the center of this story, daniels, who was paid $130,000. keeping quiet about that liaison and also from trump's former lawyer. we will talk more about that.

presentation of this program financial services firm, raymond james. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

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