GORDON Brown suffered a second humiliating blow last night after Boris Johnson for the Conservatives beat Labour's Ken Livingstone in the race to be London mayor.

The Tory victory came after Labour plunged to its worst showing in the English and Welsh local elections for 40 years, losing 333 seats and nine councils.

In the high-profile battle for the London crown, the idiosyncratic MP for Henley polled 1,168,738 votes to Mr Livingstone's 1,028,966, the Tory taking 43% of the first count votes over his rival's 37%. After the victory, Mr Johnson announced he would stand down as an MP.

At times the contest became dirty with Mr Johnson branding his opponent an "out of date" liar while Mr Livingstone described the Old Etonian as "a joke".

Labour's dramatic reversal in one of the world's major cities piles further pressure on Mr Brown who will spend the bank holiday weekend in Chequers, talking to cabinet colleagues and drawing up his fightback strategy. It is expected he will begin this week to unveil proposals in a draft Queen's Speech, setting out more legislative proposals on health, education, counter-terrorism and the constitution.

The Prime Minister appeared downbeat as he admitted his party had suffered a "bad night", referring to the pummelling in the council elections. He promised to "learn the lessons" of a disastrous result.

In contrast, a jubilant David Cameron hailed a famous victory in which the Conservatives won 260 seats and 12 councils, including Bury and North Tyneside, prompting the Tory leader to declare his party had broken through into Labour's northern England heartlands. He said it had been a "big day" for the Tories and that it was not just a negative vote against the UK Government but a "vote of positive confidence" for the Opposition.

The Conservatives won 44% of the vote and Labour 24%. This meant Mr Brown's party was pushed into third place by the Liberal Democrats, who won 25% with 34 extra seats and an additional council.

Nick Clegg, the LibDem leader, said his party had confounded the critics by going "forwards rather than backwards" and insisted the UK Government was now in "total meltdown".

Mr Brown blamed the "testing" economic conditions for the poor performance, which drew comparisons with the hammering John Major's Tories suffered in 1995, two years before their landslide General Election defeat. Insisting that people accepted the country was going through challenging economic times, the PM said he was "going to listen and lead," adding: "The test of leadership is not what happens in a period of success but what happens in difficult circumstances."

Derek Wyatt, the Kent Labour MP, who has a majority of just 79, said the council losses had been a "John Major moment" for the party. Referring to the 10p tax controversy, he noted: "Gordon has committed spectacular own-goals and the public is punishing him for it."

Labour left-winger Ian Gibson gave Mr Brown "six months" to recover, warning: "Or there will be really hard talking."

Even David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, called for the UK Government to re-engage with voters' concerns. "We've got to get a grip and we've got to build on the progress we've made but we can't rest on what we've done."

In Scotland, one Labour MP said: "If we'd have had elections up here, it would have been worse, we would have been tanked. We are not satisfying our heartlands, we have taken them for granted. We have to change and make things happen."

Another back bencher noted: "Gordon has to reinvigorate himself, he can get out of this hole. There have to be substantial changes in the Cabinet. He needs to bring back some heavyweights."

David Hamilton, the MP for Midlothian, told The Herald: "We have to reinvent ourselves and re-engage with the people we represent. We can overcome this. Gordon has to look at things issue by issue and start introducing some populist policies such as free bus travel throughout the UK and free prescriptions in England."

Michael Connarty, MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, said Mr Brown had to "broaden his appeal based on his strengths" and not rely on a "little group" of Blairite advisers who had his ear.

Brian Donohoe, the MP for Central Ayrshire, added there had to be "careful consideration" by Mr Brown of how the party moved forward, stressing that it had to be inclusive. "We have to be told from one end to the other within the party so that we understand what we are moving towards."

Meantime, Labour's electoral difficulties were compounded when party HQ announced that David Pitt-Watson, who was due to start as its general secretary, would not be taking up the post after all because of contractual difficulties that would cause delays in his starting the job. The Tories said it proved Labour's internal organisation was "utterly shambolic".