We are closing this blog now but you can follow all the results and reactions on our new blog.
A summary of today's developments
The polls for the local elections in England will be closing at 10pm. Voters will decide who will run services in 230 local councils with around 8,000 councillors’ seats. Four local mayoral posts are also up for grabs in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and Middlesbrough.
A local election vote was suspended due to the death of a candidate after the polls opened. Graham Galton, a Conservative councillor running for the Coxford ward in Southampton, Hampshire, died on Thursday.
Campaigners said there were “countless examples” of would-be voters being turned away from polling stations in the first elections where photo identification is mandatory. The Electoral Reform Society, which has strongly opposed the introduction, urged ministers to rethink the new law. But the Association of Electoral Administrators said the polls were “running as smoothly as usual”.
Away from local election news, RMT members have voted overwhelmingly to continue their rail dispute with a mandate given for industrial action over the next six months.
The government said there is no “quick fix” to meet the prime minister’s promise to stop the small boats crossing the Channel. The prime minister’s official spokesman said it would require a “combination of a number of different approaches from the government” to “solve this long-standing problem”. Those measures included “the partnership with Rwanda” and the illegal migration bill.
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The local elections mark the first time voters in Britain have been required to show photo ID at polling stations before casting their ballot.
James Toft, 41, was unable to vote in Chesterfield this morning as he had forgotten his photo ID.
The support worker said he “left in a bit of a huff” because work commitments meant he could not return later in the day with ID.
Although he said the refusal was “partly his fault,” he added: “The ID requirement is silly.”
Toft believes the requirement to bring photo ID to the polling booth could be detrimental to people voting, telling the PA news agency: “They’ll take a look at what you need to do and just not bother voting, especially the younger ones, what about the less well off who can’t afford a passport or other forms (of identification)?
Gillian Long, 42, said ID requirements are “a load of rubbish” after she was stopped from voting by an administration error between her ID and the registration system in East Riding, Yorkshire.
Long told PA that her address “wasn’t down right on their system”.
She said: “I’ve lived there six years and never had an issue.”
Here are some more shots from photographers across the country covering the local elections
Away from local election news, RMT members have voted overwhelmingly to continue their rail dispute with a mandate given for industrial action over the next six months.
Broxbourne in Hertfordshire is expected to declare its results first at 12.30am on Friday. Most councils are expected to declare from midday on Friday.
The introduction of voter ID in England has left a number of people, often from more marginalised groups, unable to cast ballots in local elections – although some officials’ fears of widespread chaos did not materialise, write Peter Walker and Jessica Murray.
However, opposition MPs and some administrators said a lack of conclusive data collection for the numbers who were unable to vote could mean the problem was notably worse than it appeared.
Anecdotal reports from campaigners, MPs and voters highlighted a series of examples in which people were turned away because they lacked one of the relatively small list of photo ID documents that had to be used for the first time in Thursday’s poll.
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The polls for this year’s local elections in England will close at 10pm.
There are around 8,000 councillor seats and four mayoral posts up for grabs.
Dozens of voters have been turned away at polling stations because they did not have valid photographic ID, ITV News reported.
Polling station tellers in Oxfordshire said “large numbers” are being turned away, reporting that between 10% and 25% have been unable to vote.
The Electoral Reform Society said it had seen “countless examples of people being denied their right to vote due to these new laws”.
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Here are more details on the vote in Southampton being called off after a Conservative candidate, Graham Galton, died after the polls had opened.
In a relatively rare occurrence, the vote in the Coxford ward for Southampton city council has been completely cancelled. A new election will be held within 35 days, with a new nominations process taking place.
Colleagues paid tribute to Galton, who was a sitting councillor for Millbrook ward in the city but was standing this time for Coxford, alongside his wife, Diana, also a Conservative. Their son, Steven, is standing in Millbrook for the party.
Just a polite reminder to readers not to post how they voted in the election in the comment section.
The Electoral Commission says postal voters can take their ballot to a polling station in their area until 10pm.
Still need to return your postal vote? ✉️
— Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) May 4, 2023
You can take it to a polling station in your area until 10pm.
Find out more about voting by post: https://t.co/y18b3FVynr
Local election suspended due to death of Tory candidate
A local election vote has been suspended due to the death of a candidate after the polls opened.
Graham Galton, a Conservative councillor running for the Coxford ward in Southampton, Hampshire, died on Thursday.
Southampton city council has told residents not to try to vote in the ward, with another election expected to take place within 35 days.
The council said in a statement: “The returning officer has been advised of the death of Coxford ward candidate Mr Graham Galton, who was standing for election to Southampton city council in today’s elections.
“Our condolences go to Mr Galton’s family.
“The law provides that where proof of death of a candidate is delivered to the returning officer after polls have opened, but before the declaration of result, the poll must be abandoned, and a new election must be held for that ward.
“Therefore, the returning officer has closed all the polling stations in Coxford ward and voters should not go to these locations.”
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Voters have heard the pledges and promises of four Conservative prime ministers since the last time this set of authorities were up for election in May 2019. Theresa May faced enormous pressure to quit after a bad set of results and she resigned in June that year.
Keir Starmer will be hoping to reap the rewards of Labour’s 18-point lead over the Conservatives. The Tories, who launched their local election campaign with little fanfare, have been in heavy expectation-management mode, predicting losses of more than 1,000 seats.
Commentators predict that Tory losses of even 500 seats would mean trouble for Rishi Sunak’s authority. But Labour also has a lot to prove, with more than 8,000 council seats across 230 authorities in England up for election on Thursday.
Campaigners claim 'countless examples' of would-be voters being turned away over ID issue
Campaigners claim there have been “countless examples” of would-be voters being turned away from polling stations in the first elections where photo identification is mandatory.
The Electoral Reform Society, which has strongly opposed the introduction, urged ministers to rethink the new law as voters went to the polls in the local elections in England on Thursday, PA Media reports. But the Association of Electoral Administrators said the polls were “running as smoothly as usual”.
Jess Garland, the Electoral Reform Society’s director of policy and research, said: “We’re already seeing countless examples of people being denied their right to vote due to these new laws.
“From people caught out by having the wrong type of photo ID to others turned away for not looking enough like their photo.
“One voter turned away is one voter too many. The government must take lessons from the problems we’re seeing today at polling stations across the country and face up to the fact that these new rules damage our elections more than they protect them.”
In the early afternoon, the Association of Electoral Administrators said that no major problems had been reported, though it would probably not hear about individual voters being turned away.
Its chief executive, Peter Stanyon, said: “Polling day appears to be running as smoothly as usual, which is testament to the months of planning and hard work from returning officers and electoral administrators running today’s elections. We hope the rest of the day continues along the same lines.”
But Layla Moran, the Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said she had been told of issues in her constituency. “We’ve had reports by our tellers of people being turned away at polling stations for lack of correct ID,” she said. “Across the country I’m worried this will be significant numbers and far more than the exactly 0 people found guilty of fraud last year.”
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Here are some of the latest images coming through from news agency photographers:
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The government has said there is no “quick fix” to meet the prime minister’s promise to stop the boats.
PA Media reports:
The prime minister’s official spokesman said it would require a “combination of a number of different approaches from the government” to “solve this long-standing problem”.
Those measures included “the partnership with Rwanda” and the illegal migration bill.
The spokesman said: “While we are confident that some of the elements already introduced – stepping up the partnership with the French government to increase intercepts in the Channel – is having an impact, we know that this will be an incremental approach.”
It was “too early to draw conclusions at this stage” about the impact of the government’s announcements “given we know the impact the weather can have on weekly, even daily, crossings”.
“It will be the culmination of the introduction of all the different policies we are introducing which will have the long-lasting impact the public wants.”
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Despite warnings that the introduction of new voter ID requirements might lead to disruption at polling stations across England on Thursday, by lunchtime there were few reports of problems.
In Leicester, the city council said things were “so far, running smoothly”.
“The majority of people turning up to vote appear to be aware of the new rules and have brought the right forms of photo ID,” a spokesperson said.
You can read more of Jessica Murray’s report here:
What constitutes a good or bad result for the main parties?
Prof Rob Ford, an elections specialist, has written an article for the Guardian trying to assess what would be a good result and a bad result for the political parties in the local election. It is here, and well worth reading.
There are plenty more assessment around, but two in particular are also worth reading.
Sir John Curtice, the BBC’s main election specialist and the person who calculates the projected national share (PNS – see 9.26am) which by Friday night will generally be taken as the key “result”, published his verdict in the Times. Here is his summary.
According to the BBC’s “projected national share”, Labour’s best local election performance since 2010 was in 2012. The party, then led by Ed Miliband, was credited with 38 per cent of the vote, seven points ahead of the Conservatives. Sir Keir Starmer’s minimal target is to beat that benchmark.
However, that would not be enough to emulate the performances of Tony Blair before the 1997 general election or of David Cameron before his success in 2010. Labour enjoyed leads of 15 points or more between 1994 and 1996. The same was true of Cameron in 2008 and 2009. Doing quite as well as that might be thought a tall order. But registering at least a double-digit lead should not. Certainly, if Labour’s lead is anything much less than that we will be left wondering whether the party really have as yet sealed a deal with the voters.
And Prof Colin Rawlings and Prof Michael Thrasher, who produce the rival national equivalent share (NEV) calculation, have provided their benchmarks to Sky News. Here is an extract.
Conservatives
1000+ losses: A bad night with a third of all seats defended lost. Tory MPs in marginal ‘red wall’ and southern seats will be worried
750 losses: A clear swing to Labour but rather less than opinion polls imply
500 losses: The party will try to write this off as “mid-term blues” and argue the gap with Labour can be caught before the general election
Fewer than 300 losses: Council seats regained from Independents as Labour and Lib Dems fail to prosper
Labour
700 gains+: This would be the best local election performance for at least a decade, putting the party on the path to becoming the largest party at Westminster in a general election, even if short of an outright majority
450 gains: Results little better than a year ago
250 gains: Disappointing in the context of the polls, suggesting limited success in winning back the ‘red wall’
Fewer than 150 gains: Effectively a step backwards for Sir Keir Starmer and his party
That is all from me for today. My colleague Tobi Thomas is taking over now.
We will be running a results blog from 10pm, and I will be back early tomorrow morning to carry it through Friday, when most results will be coming in.
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Is the photo ID voting system likely to be repealed? Q&A on voting and photo ID
Readers have been asking a range of questions about the new photo ID requirement, and voting rules in general. I’ll answer some of them here.
Will voter ID be required in Scottish and Welsh elections? And is the system here to stay?
Andrew, will voter IDs be required in forthcoming elections in Wales and Scotland? Is this ‘system’ here to stay?
The photo ID voting law applies for all UK parliamentary elections, all local elections and referendums in England, and all police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales. Voters in Northern Ireland have had to provide photo ID to vote in local and assembly elections since 2007.
So, in Scotland and Wales, you will need photo ID to vote for an MP, but not for an MSP, an MS or a councillor.
As for whether the system will stay, Labour opposed it when it was going through parliament, but has not committed to repeal the law. Readers have criticised the party for this, but it is not obvious what impact the photo ID system will have and Labour wants to see what the research says afterwards. Also, voters support the principle of photo ID checks for voting by a margin of two to one (although they may feel differently after today). A more obvious option for Labour would be to extend the category of ID allowed, to include polling cards and types of photo ID available to young people that are currently excluded.
Can tellers tell people they need photo ID before they enter a polling station?
I did a stint as a teller at a polling station once and was instructed not to accost voters on the way into the polling station, but to wait until they had cast their vote. I was told this was a legal requirement to avoid the appearance of trying to influence voters. If this is true, it seems that these tellers turning voters away are breaking the law.
Parties often have tellers outside polling stations so they can keep a record of who has voted, so if a party knows by mid-afternoon a likely supporter has not turned up, they can chase them up.
At this election, some councils are also using some of their staff as “greeters” outside polling stations to remind people they need photo ID to vote. Because people turned away before they get inside will not be included in the official figures for people who do not have ID, there are concerns this will skew the data. See 11.10am.
According to the Electoral Commission, tellers cannot ask to see someone’s photo ID. But they can remind people of the need for photo ID before they go in.
Can people vote with an out-of-date photo ID?
@AndrewSparrow is this a legit Tory flyer - and if it is - is it deliberately lying ? pic.twitter.com/lFoRYZ7IWU
— Suella De-Vil (@SuellaDe) May 4, 2023
Yes, you can vote if your photo ID is out of date, as long as it is an acceptable form of ID (link to full list below) and as long as you still look like the person in the photo.
Only have out of date ID?
— Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) May 4, 2023
As long as it looks like you and the name on your ID is the same as the one you used to register to vote, your ID will still be accepted at the polling station.
Find out more: https://t.co/FlGDP2RcYj
Can people vote in clothing with a political slogan on it?
One of my Twitter contacts just posted that election officials told a friend of hers that they wouldn’t be able to vote in a GE wearing the “don’t vote Tory” T-shirt they were wearing today. They were (finally) allowed to vote today but this seems very weird. Any thoughts?
Apparently there is nothing in law to stop you voting wearing clothing with a political slogan. But campaigning outside or inside polling stations is not allowed, and you would be expected to leave quickly.
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The UK government has formally notified Scotland’s highest civil court that it will contest the Scottish government’s legal bid to overturn its veto of controversial gender legislation passed at Holyrood, PA Media reports.
Alister Jack, the Scottish secretary, used a section 35 order to block the Scottish parliament’s gender recognition reform bill, a decision which the Scottish government is attempting to overturn in the courts.
A UK government spokesperson said:
The UK government will robustly defend the secretary of state’s decision to prevent the Scottish government’s gender recognition reform bill from becoming law.
We are clear that the proposed legislation would have an adverse effect on reserved matters, including on the operation of the law as it applies to Great Britain-wide equalities protections.
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Scots 'losing faith in this failing SNP government', says Labour's Anas Sarwar at FMQs
“Is it any wonder every single day more and more people are losing faith in this failing SNP government?” asked the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, of Humza Yousaf at this week’s FMQs session, after new polling showed his party making further gains on the nationalists. (See 10.11am.)
Yousaf was challenged today by the Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, on proposals to protect coastal areas which have seen a huge backlash from fishing communities, and by Sarwar on failures across the justice system.
But while the topics are specific to this week, the underlying themes have been constant since Yousaf took over from Nicola Sturgeon at the end of March. Ross pointed out that SNP MSPs had voted against their government yesterday on highly protected marine areas, underlining the increasing willingness of previously disciplined MSPs to speak out.
Sarwar used a critical report on the operation of what was lauded as “gold standard” domestic abuse legislation to hammer home his message that the Scottish government never follows through on its progressive rhetoric.
What wasn’t raised was this morning’s Daily Record front page, where erstwhile SNP comms chief Murray Foote denounced the police investigation into the party’s finances as a “grotesque circus”. While this may be a case of “he would say that, wouldn’t he?”, Foote’s article is well worth a read for those with more than a passing interest in SNP internal affairs.
Tomorrow's Daily Record leads on former SNP spin doctor Murray Foote saying the donations probe could turn into a debacle like the failed Rangers prosecutions #TomorrowsPapersToday @sgfmann pic.twitter.com/VU40kfVwNH
— The Daily Record (@Daily_Record) May 3, 2023
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There is a much-raised theory that the government’s imposition of mandatory photo ID at elections is an attempt to squeeze the non-Conservative vote, one that perhaps falls down on the fact that older people, who disproportionately vote Tory, are one of the groups least likely to have the necessary documents (although the list of permissible ID is very much skewed to the over-60s).
But it is striking that on social media this morning, the Conservatives are the only main party to not mention the need for people to bring ID with them when they go to the polling stations.
“This morning vote Labour,” ran the 7am poll-opening Labour message, with a box inside the image saying: “Remember to bring photo ID.” A later message shows a Post-it-style note reminding people to go out with, “keys, phone, photo ID”.
The Liberal Democrats’ 7am social media missive only urged people to vote, but subsequent posts told people they did not need to bring their polling card, but would need ID.
In contrast, five hours after voting began, the Conservatives’ main Twitter and Facebook accounts have made no mention of the new system, only inviting people to vote Tory for a range of reasons including fewer potholes, plus an attack on the Lib Dems for not supporting plans to deport asylum seekers.
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For years the Liberal Democrats have been associated with election leaflets making often-questionable claims about how “only the Lib Dems can win here”. Often they featured bar charts that would horrify a statistician (because they misrepresented the gap between parties).
As the i’s Paul Waugh points out in a Twitter thread starting here, now some Green parties are in on the act. In some places they have been producing bar charts showing they are the strongest second place contender based on doorstep surveys they have carried out themselves.
That leaflet is from Darlington.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) May 4, 2023
But similar small print features in leaflets in Chester... pic.twitter.com/GxNmiTkbMS
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The Local Government Association, which represents councils, is urging people to be patient today as they vote because the need to check photo ID could create delays.
Kevin Bentley, the chair of the LGA’s people and places board, said:
Councils are working around the clock to deliver the local elections and the new voter ID requirements, which is the biggest change to in-person voting in 150 years. The practical effort required to deliver this change in such a short timeframe should not be understated.
We would urge members of the public to remember their photo ID when they come to vote and to be patient with hardworking polling staff if there are queues, or the process takes a little longer than usual. Many councils will be deploying additional staff to ensure queues are kept to a minimum and people can vote quickly and easily.
It is vital that the implementation of voter ID is rigorously and transparently evaluated to ensure that lessons are learned ahead of future elections. We will be working with councils to understand how the process worked on the ground.
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At PMQs yesterday Keir Starmer attacked Rishi Sunak for abolishing mandatory housebuilding targets for councils, tellings MPs “his decision to scrap housing targets is killing the dream of home ownership for a generation”.
Today the Times has splashed on a story saying at least some Tory MPs agree.
Thursday's Times: "We cannot be party of nimbyism, Tories warn" #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday https://t.co/fUltKeRODe pic.twitter.com/D0kreiwyE8
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) May 3, 2023
In his report, Steven Swinford quotes what three Tory MPs said in a private WhatsApp group in response to a comment from Greg Hands, the party chair, saying that Labour could lose support as a result of its promise to bring back mandatory targets. Swinford says:
Minutes later Justin Tomlinson, the Tory MP for North Swindon, responded: “Why? People need houses to live in. Rising housing costs (rent/mortgage/deposits) plays badly ahead of polling.”
Mark Jenkinson, the Tory MP for Workington, replied: “Short-termism on housing will cost us dearly.” He said that the government should strengthen contributions by developers to mitigate the impact of housebuilding, adding: “We have to be prepared to make the arguments.”
Simon Clarke, a former housing secretary and the Tory MP for Middlesbrough South, said: “We cannot become the party of nimbyism. It will be hugely damaging to the country and our electoral fortunes.” Several other Tory MPs also raised concerns.
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For some years now one of the minor joys of election day has been #dogsatpollingstations on social media. Here are two examples from today.
It’s my favourite # day again.
— Annette Hill (@familyhrguru) May 4, 2023
Ruby’s first time at #DogsAtPollingStations
She remembered her photo ID! pic.twitter.com/9RmGd6R1LC
Blyton & Brontë would like to remind you that you now need photo ID to vote. #dogsatpollingstations pic.twitter.com/PSXuPsCVcM
— Zara Farrar (@CreaFarrar) May 4, 2023
But perhaps the trend has gone too far. Blue Cross, the animal rescue charity, has sent out a statement this morning saying people should not tie up their dogs outside polling stations because they might get stolen. It says:
According to guidance from the Electoral Commission, dogs can enter polling stations in an ‘accompanying’ role but they are not allowed to be ‘free range’ inside or to disrupt the vote.
Blue Cross would advise dog owners to check with their local councils whether they allow dogs inside ahead of election day, as leaving your dog tied up outside can leave your pet at risk of being stolen.
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Here is a comment from a reader.
Just been to the polling station: tellers outside were turning people without ID away instead of sending them in to be recorded for the so called evaluation. Numbers will be meaningless if this is widespread.
In the Commons last week Rachel Maclean, a levelling up minister, had to respond to an urgent question on this very point. She could not answer properly. Peter Walker wrote up the story here.
At the end of the UQ Clive Betts, the Labour MP who tabled the question, said the Electoral Commission accepted that, if tellers or “meeters and greeters” at the door, tell people not to go in if they do not have photo ID, the official figures collected by the clerks inside the polling stations (like the figures produced from the pilot schemes – see 10.44am) could be misleading.
Betts said the commission wants two sets of figures to be produced: one from polling stations with tellers/greeters outside, and another from polling stations without anyone at the door.
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How many people might lose right to vote as result of photo ID requirement?
There is considerable uncertainty about the impact of the new law requiring voters to produce photo ID. When the government produced its bill covering this, it published researching suggesting that 2.1 million people across Britain might lack the appropriate ID. The government created a scheme to allow people without photo ID to apply for a voter authority certificate that would perform the same function, but take-up has been minimal.
However, the government has strongly rejected the claim that 2 million people will be disenfranchised. It says many of them either don’t have elections in their area, or might not vote anyway.
In a briefing, David Cowling, who used to be head of political research at the BBC, has set out the figures from the voter ID pilot schemes held in 2019 showing how many people were actually turned away because they did not have the right ID. The chart is here.
Three different versions of voter ID were piloted in 2019, requiring either: a poll card; photo or non-photo ID, or photo ID only. Only Pendle and Woking piloted the photo ID option, which is the version the government chose.
Cowling says that, on the basis of the 0.24% figure for voters turned away who did not return, 21,255 people out of 8.8m voters in the 2019 local elections would have lost the right to vote. He thinks claims that hundreds of thousands of people might lose out are an exaggeration.
The government has said it will publish research into the impact of the new rule in these elections, with a report published by November this year.
As mentioned earlier, what happens in Scotland will have a huge impact on whether, and how easily, Labour can win a general election. That is one reason why it will be hard to work out what the local elections results tell us about who will be PM in 2025. (See 9.26am.)
Yesterday a poll for Redfield and Wilton Strategies had the SNP on its lowest figure for general election voting intention recorded by any pollster since just after the independence referendum in 2014.
Lowest SNP vote share in any UK GE poll by any pollster since Oct 2014.
— Redfield & Wilton Strategies (@RedfieldWilton) May 3, 2023
Scotland Westminster VI (30 April–2 May):
SNP 35% (-1)
Labour 32% (+1)
Conservative 18% (-1)
Lib Dem 9% (-1)
Green 3% (+1)
Reform 2% (–)
Other 1% (–)
Changes +/- 31 March–1 Aprilhttps://t.co/uHyaRNxGiV pic.twitter.com/mfdscxxCiD
The same poll had Labour ahead of the SNP in voting regional list voting intention for Holyrood, but not constituency voting intention. (Voters in Scotland get two votes, a constituency one and a regional list one, in Holyrood elections.)
SNP leads by 4% in constituency VI for Holyrood.
— Redfield & Wilton Strategies (@RedfieldWilton) May 3, 2023
Holyrood Constituency VI (30 April-2 May):
SNP 36% (-2)
Labour 32% (+4)
Conservatives 18% (–)
Lib Dems 8% (-2)
Greens 2% (-1)
Reform UK 2% (–)
Alba 1% (+1)
Other 0% (-2)
Changes +/- 31 March-1 Aprilhttps://t.co/uHyaRNxGiV pic.twitter.com/cHAhbNxYTV
Labour leads SNP by 2% in regional VI for a Scottish parliamentary election.
— Redfield & Wilton Strategies (@RedfieldWilton) May 3, 2023
Holyrood Regional List VI (30 April-2 May):
Labour 27% (+3)
SNP 25% (-5)
Conservatives 19% (–)
Green 13% (+2)
Lib Dems 10% (-3)
Alba 2% (+2)
Reform UK 2% (–)
Other 2% (–)
Changes +/- 31 March-1 April pic.twitter.com/RHmJGE5yF9
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We are already seeing reports on social media about people being turned away from polling stations for not having photo ID.
Just been to vote in Drake, and already seeing electoral officials having to explain to a voter why their ID isn’t valid :(
— Fiona Beckman (@FionaBeckman) May 4, 2023
Just voted. The guys at the polling station had already turned away someone for not having ID. They recorded it thankfully. Don’t forget your ID when you vote today!
— Luke Piper (@Pipermigration) May 4, 2023
Other people are saying the photo ID rule has been an inconvenience, because it stopped them voting when they otherwise would have done.
Walked past polling station on after school drop off. But I don’t have my ID with me so can’t vote.
— Sally Hogg (@salhogg) May 4, 2023
I’m lucky to have a passport & driving license at home & can come back later. But I’m concerned about those who don’t, & those who might be turned away and won’t go back. pic.twitter.com/VoHMLqiduH
Back from the school run and forgot to take my ID.
— mr_cbraw 💙🌱 (@mr_cbraw) May 4, 2023
I'll get my chance to vote for anyone, but the Tories, later today. pic.twitter.com/CKHtTdNbiU
And Kylie MacLellan, a Reuters journalist, wonders how many ID documents are going to be left behind in polling stations today.
When I went into the polling booth to vote this morning I found a driving license a previous voter had left behind. How many people are going to remember their ID today and then promptly lose it in the process of voting? 🤦♀️
— Kylie MacLellan (@kyliemaclellan) May 4, 2023
A reminder: please don’t post anything in the comments below the line about how you voted. That is because, under the Representation of the People Act 1983, we are not allowed to publish that information. The law is intended to stop people publishing exit polls on the day that could sway voting behaviour while the polls are still open, but the ban covers publication of “any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted at the election where that statement is (or might reasonably be taken to be) based on information given by voters after they have voted”, and so in theory even an innocuous “I voted for X” is covered.
Tell us about using voter ID in the local elections in England
Today, for the first time, voters will have to present photo ID if they want to vote. The system has been piloted, but it is now law for all general elections in the UK, as well as for all local elections in England.
We would like to hear from readers about their experience of the new rules. Did you know about the rule? Were you turned away? If so, do you return.
There is a callout form here where you can tell us about your experience of this.
Sunak warns Tories to prepare for 'hard' night in local elections because of 'box set drama' under Johnson and Truss
Good morning. It is local elections day in England. More than 8,000 council seats are up for grabs, and this is the biggest set of elections in the four-year local elections cycle, and the biggest electoral test for the parties between now and the general elections. There are no elections in London, but roughly 70% of voters in England do get a vote. Here is a map of the places involved.
The Conservatives are 16 points behind Labour in the latest Politico poll of polls and they are braced for a bad night. Last night, in a speech to an Onward thinktank event, Rishi Sunak said it would be a “hard” night for the party. He blamed his predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, saying that Tory councillors would lose their seats because of the “box set” psychodrama that enveloped the party last year. He said:
We should be prepared that tomorrow night is going to be hard for us.
Good councillors will lose their seats because of all that has happened over the past year.
I’ve only been prime minister for six months but I do believe we’re making good progress. Just think about where we were then and where we are now.
Our economy is in much better shape. Our politics doesn’t feel like a box set drama any more. And our friends and our allies know that we are back.
What everyone will want to know, of course, is whether the results tomorrow mean Labour is on course to win a general election, but that is hard to assess for at least three reasons.
1) The places voting today aren’t representative of the country as a whole. By comparing how the vote share has changed in particular wards, they produce figures for what the share of the vote would have been if there had been local elections in every part of Britain. Confusingly, there are two versions of this figure. Prof John Curtice produces a “projected national share” (PNS) for the BBC. And Prof Colin Rallings and Prof Michael Thrasher produce a “national equivalent vote” (NEV) which is published in the Sunday Times, but also informs the Sky News analysis. These figures tends to be similar, and they illustrate the same trend, but they are not identical.
2) Even when you have the PNS and NEV figures, they only show how people across Britain as a whole would have voted in local elections, not in a general election. A party is never going to win in one set of elections if it is doing badly in the other, but people don’t always vote the same way in local elections and general elections.
3) Today’s elections will only produce data for England. What happens at the next general election will depend hugely on whether or not Labour can gain 20-odd seats from the SNP, and that is hard to tell because the situation in Scotland is in flux.
There will be a lot more on this in our results blog tomorrow.
Here is our preview story on the elections from Peter Walker and Aubrey Allegretti.
And Archie Bland has a guide to what would constitute a good or bad result for the parties in his First Edition briefing.
The House of Commons is not sitting today, and there will be no party politics on the BBC or Sky News, and so the agenda will be light. But we will be looking out for reports as to whether the new photo ID requirements create problems at polling stations. And at 12pm Humza Yousaf is taking first minister’s questions at Holyrood.
If you want to contact me, do try the new “send us a message” feature. You’ll see it just below the byline – on the left of the screen, if you are reading on a PC or a laptop. (It is not available on the app yet.) This is for people who want to message me directly. I find it very useful when people message to point out errors (even typos – no mistake is too small to correct). Often I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either in the comments below the line, privately (if you leave an email address and that seems more appropriate), or in the main blog, if I think it is a topic of wide interest.
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