Local elections: voters head to the polls across England
Good morning. It's started. People are already voting in the 2025 local elections. They are England-only, and there are only around 1,600 council seats up for grabs (in some other years, there are more than 8,000 seats up for election in England alone), and so in some respects it's a minor set of local elections. But you will never find an election commentator say that any polling day does not matter, and this year there is plenty to get excited about. That is partly because it is Labour's first electoral test since the general election (and no governing party in modern times has seen its popularity collapse so quickly, as John Curtice pointed out this week). But mostly it is because two-party politics has collapsed, there are now five political parties that competitive in England and the rise of Reform UK means a realignment of the right is already happening. These elections will show how developed that process is.
Today people are voting for:
More than 1,600 councillors in 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities, one metropolitan council, and in the Isles of Scily.
Six mayors – two of them are regional mayors where Labour won last time (West of England, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough), two of them are regional mayors where elections are being held for the first time (Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire), and two of them are single-authority mayors where Labour won last time (Doncaster, and North Tyneside).
One MP – in Runcorn and Helsby, where there is a byelection.
Here is Peter Walker's morning preview story.
And, in his First Edition briefing, Archie Bland sets out what would count as a good result for all the main parties.
On polling day itself not a lot normally happens. But we've always got dogs at polling stations. A dog walker passing a polling station in Runcorn, Britain, this morning. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA
And there may be some non-election politics too. Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, leader of the Commons, takes questions on next week's Commons business.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland's first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
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