First major ballot box test for Labour as polls open in English local elections

 

First major ballot box test for Labour as polls open in English local elections

 

All eyes on Reform as 24 councils, six mayoralties and a parliamentary byelection are contested

 

Peter Walker Senior political correspondent

Thu 1 May 2025 07.00 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/01/first-major-ballot-box-test-for-labour-as-polls-open-in-english-local-elections

 

Polling has opened across England in a series of local, mayoral and parliamentary races that will be the first major electoral test of Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

 

The elections cover 24 councils across England, as well as six mayoralties and a byelection in the formerly Labour-held seat of Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.

 

One of the first results will be in the byelection, where Reform are the favourite to overturn a near-15,000 Labour majority, although some polls have suggested the race is too close to predict.

 

The byelection, the first since last year’s general election, was triggered when Mike Amesbury resigned after being given a suspended prison sentence for punching a constituent, an incident captured on video.

 

Nigel Farage has sought to downplay Reform’s chances, but a win in Runcorn would provide hard evidence of voters in traditional Labour constituencies being tempted by the party he leads, a major worry in Downing Street.

 

Reform could also fare well in some of the mayoral contests. Four existing posts – the West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, North Tyneside, and Doncaster – are being contested, along with two new ones in Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire.

 

The former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns is the favourite to win the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty for Reform and the party is also hoping for success in Hull and East Yorkshire.

 

The elections could also have significant repercussions for other parties. The Conservatives are braced to lose hundreds of councillors, in part because they did so well in 2021, when the same seats were last contested, amid the brief fillip of Boris Johnson’s “vaccine bounce”. A particularly bad night could put new pressure on Kemi Badenoch’s leadership.

 

The Liberal Democrats and Greens will be hopeful of making gains, but will also be wary about potential ingress by Reform.