Polls have opened for millions of people across England, Scotland and Wales as voting at the local, Holyrood and Senedd elections gets underway.
All seats in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments are up for election – as well as 136 councils including all London boroughs, and six mayoralties in England.
Voting ends at 10pm, after which more than 5,000 seats across 136 local authorities will begin to be decided, with 46 set to declare their results from just after midnight.
Labour is fielding the most candidates in England, with around 4,900, followed by Reform with 4,800, and Conservatives with 4,700.
The party either controls or leads the majority of the council areas where voters are going to the polls in England.
The results will determine who controls public services including, social care, waste collection and transport.
All adults aged 18 and over can vote in the council elections if they are either a British or Irish citizen, or a qualifying foreign national.
Everyone voting in person in the local elections in England will need a valid photo ID, but there is no such requirement in Scotland and Wales – where the minimum voting age is 16.
FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY…
Zack Polanski’s final words to voters as polls open
The leader of the Green Party posted on X this morning urging people to vote in today’s local and devolved parliamentary elections | X / ZACK POLANSKI
Kemi Badenoch: ‘Today is the day!’
The leader of the Conservatives Kemi Badenoch took to social media to encourage voters to head to the polling station this morning | X / KEMI BADENOCH
PICTURED: Keir Starmer with wife Lady Victoria heading to polls this morning
Sir Keir Starmer and his wife Lady Victoria Starmer arrive at the polling station in Westminster Chapel, central London | PA
PICTURED: Unusual polling stations
A caravan which is being used as a polling station opens up for voters in Duxford, Cambridgeshire this morning | PA
Why do the local elections matter?
Local elections typically attract fewer voters than general elections.
In 2024, turnout in England stood at 30 per cent, against 60 per cent at the general election held the same year – yet that does not make them insignificant.
Local councils wield considerable influence over people’s daily lives — arguably more so than the government in Westminster.
While Whitehall retains control over areas such as foreign policy and defence, councils are responsible for a wide range of local services: how often bins are collected, how quickly potholes are filled, and which services receive funding priority, whether that is parks, libraries or leisure centres.
The devolved parliaments in Wales and Scotland also hold substantial powers.
Depending on the nation, these cover areas including income tax rates, the NHS, social care and education, among others.
Local elections are nonetheless watched closely in Westminster, where the results are treated as a bellwether to how a General Election might go.
When can we expect the first results from today’s voting?
Viewers and readers hoping to find out the results of today’s council elections can tune into GB News or GBNews.com tonight – with the first declarations expected in the early hours of Friday.
Staff will be working hard in Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and Halton in Cheshire to reveal the results of those two council elections first at around 1am.
Most of the local authorities counting overnight have only a third or half of their seats up for grabs, which means those councils where a party currently has a large majority, like Broxbourne or Halton, may not see a change in overall control.
However, some councils’ leading parties are defending slim majorities – including in Harlow and Redditch – and are also due to finish counting at this time.
Through the night, big councils across the North West, London and the South East will all declare their results – with Southampton set to round off our overnight coverage at around 6.30am tomorrow.
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