Tories take a wrecking ball to Labour's Red Wall AGAIN with historic Hartlepool by-election win by 7,000 votes – as Keir Starmer vows 'no excuses' amid signs of more brutal Super Thursday results across the country and hard-Left backlash

• Tories have overturned 3,500 majority to win by a huge margin of 7,000 votes in the Hartlepool by-election 
• Shadow minister Jim McMahon conceded hours before result admitting Labour was 'not close to winning'
• Civil war in full swing in the part with Corbynites demanding Sir Keir Starmer change tack or step aside  
• Counting is underway across England after all of the UK went to the polls for 'Super Thursday' elections 
• Labour Party is bracing for 'grim' results in council elections while the Tories appear to be making gains 
• Voters have cast ballots in council, mayor, Welsh and Scottish elections after 2020 polls were delayed 
• Nicola Sturgeon faces long wait to see if SNP can win a

  Boris Johnson delivered a devastating hammer blow to Sir Keir Starmer today as the Tories romped to an historic victory in the Hartlepool by-election.

  Labour has held the seat since it was created back in the 1970s but Sir Keir was left humiliated as the Conservatives piled up a majority of nearly 7,000 - overturning the previous margin of 3,500.

  Jill Mortimer will now serve as the constituency's MP in Westminster after she trounced Labour contender Paul Williams. 'Labour have taken the people of Hartlepool for granted for too long... people have had enough,' she said in her speech.

  The official announcement of the result was made just after 7am but Labour had already conceded defeat hours earlier, with shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon telling Sky News that 'we are not close to winning this'.

  The victory by 15,529 to 8,589 votes shows that Mr Johnson's realignment of the British political landscape is continuing, with more of the so-called Red Wall collapsing. The 16 per cent swing is believed to be the biggest to a governing party in a by-election since the Second World War.

  It heaps pressure on Sir Keir amid a growing revolt from hard-Left activists. A senior source admitted this morning that Labour had 'not changed nearly enough' to woo voters and insisted there will be no 'excuses'.

  Holyrood majority as she pushes for independence