Voters head to ballot box for local elections in England

LONDON

Voters in England began casting their ballots Thursday morning to elect more than 1,600 councilors for 23 local authorities as well as two local and four combined authority mayors.

Voters across 23 English councils will elect councilors and mayors in the first set of local polls since the July 2024 general election that brought the Labour Party back to power.

Of the 23 local authorities holding elections, 14 are county councils: Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.

People are also casting votes in eight unitary authorities: Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Durham, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, West Northamptonshire, and Wiltshire.

One metropolitan council, Doncaster, is also holding an election.

Elections are also taking place for two local authority mayors and four combined authority mayors for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, and the West of England.

Meanwhile, voters in Runcorn and Helsby will also elect their new member of parliament (MP) in a by-election following the resignation of Labour MP Mike Amesbury.

Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are not holding any elections.

More than half of the seats across the local authorities are currently held by the main opposition Conservative Party, which is expected to face huge losses, while the election is the first test for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party following last year's landslide general election victory.

But Reform UK, the Liberal Democrats, and the Greens are expected to make gains at the expense of the ruling and main opposition parties.

Polling stations opened at 7 am local time (0600GMT) and are set to close at 10 pm (2100GMT).