British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has suffered a major setback as his Labour Party lost control of London's City Hall on top of its worst local election results in 40 years.

According to the BBC, in the local polls in England and Wales, the Conservatives took a 44 percent share of the national vote. That's enough to secure the party a sizeable parliamentary majority if the results were repeated at a general election due within two years.

The Liberal Democrats took 25 percent and Labour 24 percent.

Conservative candidate Boris Johnson was elected London's new mayor, ousting Labour's Ken Livingstone, who had governed for eight years.

Johnson told Londoners he would work flat out to repay their trust and that the result showed his party had regained people's trust.

"It does show that the conservatives have changed into a party that can again be trusted."

Johnson's victory crowns an impressive set of results for the Conservatives in local elections held in England and Wales.

Party chief David Cameron, said his party's strong gains in the capital represented a key moment on the path to ousting Brown at the next national election.