Ed Davey has sought to cast Liberal Democrat wins in England’s local elections as proof his party is best positioned to confront what he described as the “extreme populist change” offered by Reform UK and the Greens.

As Labour assessed a disastrous set of results, the Lib Dems could claim they had been able to fend off Reform challenges in areas including Portsmouth, where they made gains to seize the city council, which had been under no overall control.

However, while the party’s highly concentrated results demonstrated a clinical efficiency, early results indicated that on average its support was down by three points on 2022 and 2024.

It means Davey could face questions about why the party has been unable to make major national gains, on the back of an anti-incumbent mood, relative to those achieved by Reform and the Greens.

Nevertheless, the Lib Dems were not without eye-catching results, most notably in Richmond upon Thames where they gained five councillors – all from the Greens – to take all 54 seats.

The result in the affluent London borough suggests the Lib Dems may have been able capitalise on some more traditional Green voters’ anxiety about the new direction Zack Polanski has taken his party as leader.

Speaking in Portsmouth, Davey said people were fed up with the Conservatives and Labour and wanted change. “Some are going to the extreme populist change, the sort of ‘burn it all down’ type change from Reform and the Greens,” he told the BBC. “We offer a different form of change, which is ‘build it up’, which is far more in tune with British values of tolerance, decency, respect for the rule of law, individual freedom, with a real plan to turn round our economy, our defence.”

In the north of England, the party claimed it had been able to “hold its own” in the face of a Reform surge after narrowly losing majority control of Hull city council, where Reform took almost half the seats being contested.

In the south, the Lib Dems made further advances in their efforts to supplant the Conservatives in heartland areas where one-time Tory voters have been looking for a new political home. In Sutton, the party now has 51 of 55 seats after the Conservatives lost all 20 of their councillors.

The party was also set to take control of the unitary authority of West Surrey, traditional Conservative territory and the long-term home of Tory heavyweights, including Jeremy Hunt.

The picture was less rosy in Wales and Scotland. In early results, the SNP gained the Shetland Islands from the Lib Dems. The islands had long been a traditional stronghold, with the Liberal party and later the Lib Dems chosen to represent Shetland since 1950 at general elections.

In nearby Orkney, the Lib Dems’ Liam McArthur was the first MSP to be returned to Holyrood, polling 70% of the vote, the biggest share in the Scottish parliament’s history.