Labour's electoral suffering was felt nowhere more than in the West Midlands, as Political Editor Jonathan Walker reports.

The West Midlands is a sea of blue after voters humiliated Gordon Brown at the polls.

Labour remains firmly in control of only one authority in the region, Sandwell, where the loss of three seats to the Tories did little to dent their large majority.

Elsewhere, Mr Brown’s party took a hammering which exceeded the worst fears of his party.

Tories took overall control of Redditch, where the MP is Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, and dramatically took eight seats from Labour in Wolverhampton.

The result means that no party has overall control in Wolverhampton, but the city’s Labour administration is likely to fall as Tories and Liberal Democrats patch together a coalition administration.

Conservatives in the Black Country city hope to follow the example of Birmingham and create their own "progressive partnership" with the Lib Dems, a party source said.

Labour will be bitterly disappointed to have failed to regain control of Coventry from the Conservatives, where Mr Brown launched his party’s local election campaign.

Although the Tories lost one seat to Labour, placing the council under no overall control, they retain the mayor’s casting vote, which Conservatives say gives them an effective majority on the authority.

The results came on top of Tory wins in Nuneaton and Bedworth, a former Labour stronghold where the Conservatives gained control.

Mr Cameron could also celebrate taking overall control in Wyre Forest, Worcestershire, suggesting his party may be on course to win back the seat in a General Election.

It is currently held by Richard Taylor, an independent MP elected in a wave of protest over the downgrading of the local hospital.

And Solihull, where his party is fighting a long-running turf war with the Liberal Democrats, returned to Tory control with the gain of one seat.

The leader of the borough’s Labour group was deposed with a surprise loss to the Green Party candidate.

Conservatives were also predictably delighted with the gain of six seats in Birmingham, including Labour heartlands Stockland Green and Weoley.

Andrew Mitchell, the city’s sole Conservative MP and a member of Mr Cameron’s shadow Cabinet, said: "To win Stockland Green was a stupendous result for us. And we also held on to a number of very difficult wards where we might have been expected to lose ground."

He added: "This wasn’t just a vote against Gordon Brown. It was a positive vote for the Conservative Party, and it shows that we are seen as having changed for the better.

"I think that increasingly, people are looking to us, rather than the Government, to speak up for them on improving schools and hospitals, and dealing with crime on the streets."

Tories said they were now set to take seats held by senior Labour figures including Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary and Redditch MP, and Mike O’Brien, the Pensions Minister and Warwickshire North MP, in a General Election.

Dudley North MP Ian Austin, Mr Brown’s ally and Parliamentary Secretary, could also be in danger.

In Birmingham, the Tories would expect to win Labour-held Edgbaston, and possibly Northfield and the new Selly Oak constituency.

But Edgbaston’s Labour MP, Gisela Stuart, said: "I’ve heard the same thing after local elections ever since I became an MP 11 years ago."

She said Labour had suffered from anger over the abolition of the 10p starting tax rate, but had time to turn it around.

"The best thing we can do is take a deep breath and pause, and listen to what people are saying."

She dismissed speculation about Gordon Brown’s leadership, saying: "If anything, these results just remind people what happens when a party is disunited.

"What the public want is jobs, they want public services, and they want to know that when things get tough, as of course they are now for the economy, that they can trust in the judgment of the party leader.

"Gordon has a hugely impressive track record. I still think that if you look at what David Cameron is offering, there is no substance behind it yet."

Solihull’s Liberal Democrat MP, Lorely Burt, who took the constituency from the Tories in 2005, was upbeat despite the Tories gaining control of the council.

She said: "The council covers a larger area than my constituency. In the parliamentary seat, we have 17 councillors to seven for the Conservatives."