Johnson loses 'crown jewels' in UK vote overshadowed by scandal

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative party lost control of key councils in London, according to partial results from local and regional UK elections on Friday, with a potentially historic change looming in Northern Ireland.

The main UK opposition Labour party of Keir Starmer won in Tory "crown jewels" in the capital, including Margaret Thatcher's "favourite" council Wandsworth, and Westminster for the first time since it was created in 1964.

Around two-thirds of votes for councils in England have been counted. Full results for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are due on Friday evening and over the weekend.

The contest for the devolved assembly in Belfast could see a pro-Irish nationalist party win for the first time, with huge constitutional implications for the four-nation UK.

Predicted victors Sinn Fein -- the former political wing of paramilitary group the IRA -- are committed to a vote on reunification with the Irish republic to the south, a century after the island was partitioned.

Starmer, visiting Barnet in northwest London, where Labour seized control of the council from the Tories, hailed what he called "a big turning point".

"When it comes to London, you can hardly believe those names come off our lips. Wandsworth! They've been saying for years 'You'll never take Wandsworth from us.' We've just done it! Westminster! It's an astonishing result," he told supporters.