The British National Party has suffered defeats in council seats across the United Kingdom.

The far-right party lost all of its five city council seats in Stoke-on-Trent, and both of its seats in North West Leicestershire.

In the Barpool ward on Nuneaton and Bedworth borough council, where the party already had one councillor, the BNP failed to win a second seat.

Results are still coming in, but so far the party has held only one seat, in Queensbury in Bradford.

In Wales the BNP also slumped, while overall in the UK the party saw the levels of support it achieved in 2007 fall.

A BNP candidate for a Merseyside council seat won just 44 votes, while another for Longbridge in Birmingham gained just 5.64 per cent of the vote, compared with 14.1 per cent four years ago.

According to the head of Britain's leading anti-fascist organisation, Nick Lowles of Searchlight, "it has been an appalling night for the BNP".

Chris Beverley, a former BNP councillor for Leeds who lost his seat last year and then defected to the English Democrats lost his bid for the seat of Morley South

In Scotland, pro-Palestinian campaigner and former Respect MP George Galloway also suffered a defeat, failing in his bid for a seat on the Scottish Parliament.