Boris Johnson dodged a humiliating nationwide defeat for prime minister David Cameron by winning London in local elections that saw voters angry at Britain's economic woes flock to opposition Labour and a right-wing anti-European fringe party.
Maverick mayor Johnson's silver-lining win in London was the only good news for Mr Cameron whom local media said had been given a bloody nose by voters upset at spending cuts and Britain's return to recession.
Even Mr Johnson, who as one of the most popular politicians in Mr Cameron's own party is tipped as a possible future prime minister, saw his majority slashed, claiming victory only after a lengthy count that had put him head to head with his rival, Labour candidate Ken Livingstone.
"I will continue to fight for a good deal for Londoners, a good deal from the government that will help us deliver prosperity for everybody in this city," Johnson, famous for his ruffled fair hair, said after the vote count at London's City Hall.
Mr Johnson failed to mention the wider Conservative defeat, but his challenger, Mr Livingstone, said that the victory could put Mr Johnson on course to one day lead the Conservative party.
With results declared in all 181 councils being contested across the country, Labour had gained 823 new councillors while the Conservatives had lost 405 and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners were down by 336.
After preaching economic prudence, Mr Cameron's coalition government was damaged by a return to recession and weeks of blunders that made ministers appear out of touch with voters struggling with high unemployment, price rises and low wages.
Mr Cameron apologised to Conservative candidates who lost their jobs, blaming the defeat on the tough decisions he had been forced to make to reduce Britain's debt mountain and mend the economy.
"There aren't easy answers," said Mr Cameron, whose party lost seats to Labour in the rural constituency he represents in parliament.
Labour said the results were a wake-up call for the government to soften its flagship deficit-cutting agenda.
"People are hurting, people are suffering from the recession, people are suffering from a government that has raised taxes for them and cut taxes for millionaires," said Ed Miliband, leader of Labour.
For Mr Miliband, who has been under constant fire since he took over the Labour Party in 2010, the vote was a rare victory - with the exception of London - though he was pelted with an egg during a celebratory walk through Southampton.
The government's drubbing increased pressure on Mr Cameron from within his own party to shift his electoral strategy to the right, a step his supporters say would be electoral suicide and one that would likely sour his relations with his coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats.
UKIP, which stands for UK Independence Party, was contesting only a fraction of the total seats up for grabs but where it did field candidates, it averaged a record 14 per cent of the vote.This translated into just nine councillors because UKIP's support is geographically scattered, which makes it hard for the party to win any individual ward.
However, UKIP's surge was a clear threat to the Conservatives, who need to increase their popular support before the next national election.
"What they're scared of is that this trickle of support that has come to UKIP could turn into a flood," leader Nigel Farage told Reuters.
Vociferous right-wingers within the Conservative Party have always maintained that Mr Cameron should have done more to appeal to the party's traditional supporters by attacking the European Union and talking tough on crime and immigration.
Mr Cameron's cherished policy of strengthening local democracy by introducing elected mayors also suffered a setback. Voters in eight cities voted against having a directly elected mayor, with only Bristol voting in favour.
The picture was equally bleak for the Liberal Democrats, whose support has collapsed since they went into government. The local election results in England were the worst in their history.
In one area of Edinburgh, the Liberal Democrats won fewer votes than a climate activist wearing a penguin suit calling himself Professor Pongoo.
Labour, which had struggled to capitalise on the coalition's problems, captured 38 per cent of the national vote versus 31 per cent for the Conservatives and 16 per cent for the Lib Dems.
Voters turnout was low at just 32 per cent.
Reuters