Voters will head to the polls today in the Government’s first electoral test since taking power. Sir Keir Starmer’s party faces a twin challenge of local elections across England and a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, which Labour won with ease in 2024. However, this year the seat could to go down to the wire with Reform expected to make gains.
In a final message to voters ahead of the polls opening at 7am, Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves insisted the Government’s plan was “already starting to deliver”. She said: “As voters head to the polls today, there’s a clear choice between Labour with a plan for change to deliver the security working people deserve and renewal for our country, or more of the same chaos voters rejected last year with the Tories and Reform.”
Labour has sought to cast Thursday’s contest as a test not for Sir Keir but for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner saying the elections were “predominantly… the Tories trying to retain seats that are in the shires”.
Badenoch has conceded that the scale of the Conservative victory when these councils were last up for election in 2021 means losses are likely. But in her final message to voters, she said: “If you want a great council, don’t just hope for it, vote for it. Vote Conservative because Conservative councils deliver better services for lower taxes across the board.” Experts have suggested the Tories could lose around 500 seats, with gains for the Liberal Democrats and, especially, Reform.
Read our live election blog below…
Millions of voters in England will head to the polls this week at the local elections – the first major vote since last year’s General Election.
A total of 1,641 council seats are up for grabs across 23 local authorities while four regional mayors and two local mayors will also be elected. A key by-election is also taking place to choose a new MP for the constituency of Runcorn & Helsby after the ex-Labour MP Mike Amesbury resigned.
Polls will be open between 7am and 10pm on Thursday with the results expected to be declared from the early hours of Friday morning. But votes have been delayed in some areas – including East Sussex and Norfolk – until 2026 due to an overhaul of local government announced earlier this year by the new Labour government.
Search your area to see if there’s a vote this week
Voters have been warned not to trust “nasty Nigel’s numpties” to run vital local services as polls open across England today.
Some 1,641 council seats are up for grabs across 23 local authorities in today’s local elections, while six mayors will also be elected. It marks the first major electoral test since Labour’s landslide general election win last summer.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK are expected to make major gains – with the Tories braced to lose hundreds of seats as the right-wing outfit and the Liberal Democrats squeeze their vote from both sides.
But a surge in support from Reform could also prove a headache for Labour, preventing Keir Starmer’s party from making gains in their traditional heartlands in the North and the Midlands.
A Labour source said: “Don’t trust nasty Nigel’s numpties to run your council. They couldn’t even run a bath.”
Voters warned ‘don’t trust nasty Nigel’s numpties’ in crunch local elections today
Voters across England are being urged to remember their ID when they go to the polling station tomorrow.
On Thursday, voters in 23 local authorities in England will go to polling stations between 7am and 10pm to choose their new councillors in the first big test at the ballot box for political parties since Labour won the general election in July 2024.
A total of 1,641 council seats across the 23 authorities are up for grabs, as well as contests for six mayors in England. The first by-election of this Parliament, for Runcorn & Helsby, will also be held after former Labour MP Mike Amesbury quit.
The politician resigned after being convicted of assault after a 3am brawl on the street. Reform UK and Labour are neck and neck in the race.
What ID can I take to the polling station for local elections – see full list
Voters will go to the polls on Thursday as Labour faces its first electoral test since taking power last year.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party faces a twin challenge of localelections across England and a by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, a seat Labour won convincingly in 2024 but that is expected to go down to the wire in a contest with Reform UK.
In a final message to voters ahead of the polls opening at 7am, Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves insisted the Government’s plan was “already starting to deliver”.
She said: “As voters head to the polls today, there’s a clear choice between Labour with a plan for change to deliver the security working people deserve and renewal for our country, or more of the same chaos voters rejected last year with the Tories and Reform.”
Labour has sought to cast Thursday’s contest as a test not for Sir Keir but for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner saying the elections were “predominantly… the Tories trying to retain seats that are in the shires”.
Mrs Badenoch has conceded that the scale of the Conservative victory when these councils were last up for election in 2021 means losses are likely.
But in her final message to voters, she said: “If you want a great council, don’t just hope for it, vote for it.
“Vote Conservative because Conservative councils deliver better services for lower taxes across the board.”
Experts have suggested the Tories could lose around 500 seats, with gains for the Liberal Democrats and, especially, Reform.
Twenty-three local authorities will be holding elections, with 14 of them county councils. They are: Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
Further polls will be held in eight unitary authorities: Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Durham, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, West Northamptonshire and Wiltshire.
An election is also being held in one metropolitan council, Doncaster.
A major test for each of the parties will be the six mayoral contests in the West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, North Tyneside, Doncaster, Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire.
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