Early results Friday from British local and regional elections seen as a key test for opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn showed strong gains for Scottish nationalists, as London looked set to elect its first Muslim mayor, AFP reports.
Initial results showed the Scottish National Party winning what their leader called a "historic" victory in Scotland, as it seeks a mandate to move towards a second independence referendum.
Some counts were expected to stretch into the weekend as 45 million eligible voters were asked to cast their ballots in contests across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The results of local elections were already emerging early Friday, while the outcome of the vote for a new mayor of London to replace Conservative Boris Johnson was expected later in the day.
Labour lawmaker Sadiq Khan, a former government minister and son of a bus driver from Pakistan, is tipped to beat Conservative multimillionaire environmentalist Zac Goldsmith in the race to run the British capital.