Polling stations have now closed and votes are being counted in this year’s local elections in England.
The results will come in waves throughout the night and into the morning – with all councils expected to declare by 8pm on Friday.
Elections were held in 230 of England’s 317 councils, within district, borough, county borough and unitary authority councils, along with four mayoral elections in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and Middlesbrough.
This is your guide to the key seats to watch out for through the early hours of the morning and beyond.
From midnight
• The first result could come from Broxbourne, a Tory-held council – expected a little after midnight. • The pace of declarations will then speed up significantly, with results at Castle Point, Rushmoor, South Tyneside, Basildon, Halton and Sunderland all expected between 1am and 2am. • Hartlepool, a key battleground which as of now has no overall control, is expected to declare its result at around 1.30am. Both parties will be looking to seize a majority here – after Boris Johnson secured a by-election victory in the parliamentary seat in 2021. • The hotly-contested Harlow will also declare early. Losing just four seats would mark an end to Conservative control, which was gained back in 2021. Prior to this, Labour had the majority for a decade. • At this point, the result of the Middlesbrough mayoral election will also likely be confirmed.
• This is when results will really start to pour in. Brentwood is expected on the hour – and if the Tories lose just one seat, the council will fall to no overall control. There is also the potential for a Liberal Democrat majority if they made gains. • Also expected to declare at some point in this period are Ipswich, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Portsmouth, Redditch, Rochford and Exeter. • At 3am, Boston in Lincolnshire is expected to be one of the first councils to declare results in all of its wards. Currently under no overall control, the Conservatives only need to gain one seat to win a majority. • Three gains in Peterborough would also give the Tories overall control of the council. A result is expected at 3am. • Dudley is another Conservative-controlled council that we should keep a close eye on when the result comes in at around 3.30am. The Tories should retain overall control, but any transfer of seats between the two main parties will be watched.
• In this two-hour period, more than a dozen results could be declared in rapid succession. Early on the list will be Braintree, Coventry, North Devon, North Norfolk and Southend-on-Sea. • Bolton, which has no overall control, is one to watch at 4am. It is one of several Metropolitan Boroughs where the rise of local independent groups has affected the ability of one party to seize a majority. • At the same time, Plymouth will likely declare a result. Politics here is somewhat chaotic, with both Labour and Tory councillors either defecting or being expelled. With newly elected independents in their midst, it is difficult to predict how voters will react. • Turning to the Liberal Democrats for a moment, and Tory-held Dacorum in Hertfordshire is in Sir Ed Davey’s sights for a “blue wall” upset. • At 5am, we will see declarations that could also be significant for the Lib Dems: Bath and North East Somerset which the party took from the Conservatives in 2019, and Windsor and Maidenhead, where Lib Dem gains could shift the council from Tory to no overall control.
From 6am
• A headline of the day would be if Medway in Kent falls to Labour. This was a new council in 1997 but even during its landslide victory, Labour could not win it outright. The winning line is 28 seats so watch this one closely at 6.30am. • Another to watch in this hour is Stoke-on-Trent, which is set to declare at 6am. The area is a stark example of how Labour’s voter base has eroded in areas hard hit by industrial decline. Voters have been supporting various brands of independents since the turn of the century and their rise has damaged Labour. • Others declaring after dawn breaks are South Gloucestershire, South Kesteven and Tameside.
At this point, there will be time to take a breather.
With the exception of East Lindsey – which is expected to declare at 9am. After this, we don’t anticipate any results emerging until 12pm.
From midday
• The first in the Friday afternoon wave of results will be Herefordshire, and Labour-held Rossendale, Gateshead and Manchester. • Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will be hoping to bolster his majority in Gateshead – and hold on to the other northern councils – as the general election looms. • Solihull is one to keep a close eye on when it declares at 1pm – as is Stratford-upon-Avon. Both have fragile Conservative majorities and could see a fall to no overall control if the Liberal Democrats and Greens make gains. • Burnley could also bring an interesting result at 1.30pm. Labour needs four gains to take majority control. • Conservative-held Walsall is a council where Labour will need to make gains if it is to claim it’s on track to win the next general election. • We also expect the Mansfield mayoral election to declare at around this time.
From 2pm
• At this point, politics watchers should be aware of the results in Torbay, where the Conservatives lost their majority to no overall control in 2019. • Results for Stafford, Middlesbrough, Tunbridge Wells, West Devon, West Suffolk and Wokingham will also be confirmed between 2pm and 4pm. • Darlington is one to watch when it declares at 3pm. The Tees Valley area is a key target for Labour. With all seats up for re-election, Labour might advance, having finished just two seats behind the Conservatives last time. • It’s also worth noting that Milton Keynes is run by a Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition at the moment.
From 4pm
• Later in the afternoon, results will rush in from a number of key battlegrounds. The first will be Dover, where the Tories gained a seat from Labour in a local council by-election in 2021. If the Conservatives lose three seats, they lose overall control. • Two cabinet ministers – Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt – have their Surrey constituencies in Elmbridge, which is currently under no overall control. The area saw big swings to the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 general election – could the party take the council this time? • At the same time, Swindon is expected to declare its results. Sir Keir launched Labour’s local election campaign here – it is a key target for the party. • Stockton-on-Tees should also declare in this period. Labour lost control of the council in 2019 and the parliamentary constituency later that year in the general election. • Sheffield will see Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens going head to head – with Labour hoping for three gains to win a majority.
From 6pm
• The final rush will begin at 6pm – but by this point, we will likely have a good idea of the overall picture. • Those to declare in this wave will include Lancaster, New Forest, South Derbyshire, Mid Devon and Bedford. • Waverley is expected to declare at around 6pm. In May 2019, the Liberal Democrats came within six percentage points of the Tory total – but won only 14 seats compared to 23 for the Conservatives. The Lib Dems will be hoping to make gains and seats to build pressure ahead of the general election.
From 8pm
• The very last result is expected to come from York, which is currently run by a Liberal Democrat and Green coalition. Labour is hoping to make gains.
Russia has been accused by European governments of escalating hybrid attacks on Ukraine’s Western allies after two fibre-optic telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea were severed.
“Russia is systematically attacking European security architecture,” the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland said in a joint statement.
“Moscow’s escalating hybrid activities against NATO and EU countries are also unprecedented in their variety and scale, creating significant security risks.”
The statement was not made in direct response to the cutting of the cables, Reuters reported, citing two European security sources.
One cable was damaged on Sunday morning and the other went out of service on Monday.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority has launched a preliminary criminal investigation into the damaged cables on suspicion of possible sabotage.
The country’s civil defence minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said its armed forces and coastguard had picked up ship movements corresponding with the damage to the cables.
“We of course take this very seriously against the background of the serious security situation,” he said.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation said it had also launched an investigation, but Sweden would lead the probe.
NATO’s Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure was working closely with allies in the investigation, an official said.
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It is not the first time such infrastructure has been damaged in the Baltic Sea.
In September 2022, three Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany were destroyed seven months after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
No one took responsibility for the blasts and while some Western officials initially blamed Moscow, which the Kremlin denied, US and German media reported pro-Ukrainian actors may have been responsible.
The companies owning the two cables damaged earlier this week have said it was not yet clear what caused the outages.
More than 100 politicians from 24 different countries, including the UK, the US and the EU, have written a joint letter condemning China over the “arbitrary detention and unfair trial” of Jimmy Lai, a tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner.
The parliamentarians, led by senior British Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, are “urgently” demanding the immediate release of the 77-year-old British citizen, who has been held in solitary confinement at a maximum security prison in Hong Kong for almost four years.
The letter – which will be embarrassing for Beijing – was made public on the eve of Mr Lai’s trial resuming and on the day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a G20 summit of economic powers in Brazil.
The group of politicians, who also include representatives from Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, Ukraine and France, said Mr Lai’s treatment was “inhumane”.
“He is being tried on trumped-up charges arising from his peaceful promotion of democracy, his journalism and his human rights advocacy,” they wrote in the letter, which has been seen by Sky News.
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1:11
Starmer meets Chinese president
“The world is watching as the rule of law, media freedom and human rights in Hong Kong are eroded and undermined.
“We stand together in our defence of these fundamental freedoms and in our demand that Jimmy Lai be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Sir Keir raised the case of Mr Lai during remarks released at the start of his talks with Mr Xi on Monday – the first meeting between a British prime minister and the Chinese leader in six years.
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The prime minister could be heard expressing concerns about reports of Mr Lai’s deteriorating health. However, he did not appear to call for his immediate release.
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6:37
From October: ‘This is what Hong Kong is’
Ms Kearns, the MP for Rutland and Stamford in the East Midlands, said the meeting had been an opportunity to be unequivocal that the UK expects Mr Lai to be freed.
“Jimmy Lai is being inhumanely persecuted for standing up for basic human values,” she said in a statement, released alongside the letter.
“He represents the flame of freedom millions seek around the world.
“We have a duty to fight for Jimmy Lai as a British citizen, and to take a stand against the Chinese Community Party’s erosion of rule of law in Hong Kong.
“This letter represents the strength of international feeling and commitment of parliamentarians globally to securing Jimmy Lai’s immediate release and return to the UK with his family.”
Mr Lai was famously the proprietor of the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong, which wrote scathing reports about the local authorities and the communist government in mainland China after Britain handed back the territory to Beijing in 1997.
The tabloid was a strong supporter of pro-democracy protesters who took to the streets of Hong Kong to demonstrate against the government in 2019.
But the media mogul was arrested the following year – one of the first victims of a draconian new security law imposed by the Chinese Communist Party.
His newspaper was closed after his bank accounts were frozen.
Mr Lai has since been convicted of illegal assembly and fraud. He is now on trial for sedition over articles published in Apple Daily.
Forty-five pro-democracy activists have been jailed in Hong Kong’s largest ever national security trial.
The activists sentenced with jail terms ranging from four years to ten years were accused of conspiracy to commit subversion after holding an unofficial primary election in Hong Kong in 2020.
They were arrested in 2021.
Hong Kong authorities say the defendants were trying to overthrow the territory’s government.
Democracy activist Benny Tai received the longest sentence of ten years. He became the face of the movement when thousands of protesters took to the city’s streets during the “Umbrella Movement” demonstrations.
However, Hong Kong officials accused him of being behind the plan to organise elections to select candidates.
Tai had pleaded guilty, his lawyers argued he believed his election plan was allowed under the city’s Basic Law.
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Another prominent activist Joshua Wong received a sentence of more than four years.
Wong became one of the leading figures in the protests. His activism started as a 15 year old when he spearheaded a huge rally against a government plan to change the school curriculum.
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Then in 2019 Hong Kong erupted in protests after the city’s government proposed a bill that would allow extradition to mainland China. It peaked in June 2019 when Amnesty International reported that up to two million people marched on the streets, paralysing parts of Hong Kong’s business district.
The extradition bill was later dropped but it had ignited a movement demanding political change and freedom to elect their own leaders in Hong Kong.
China’s central government called the protests “riots” that could not continue.
Hong Kong introduced a national security law in the aftermath of the protests.
The US has called the trial “politically motivated”.
Dozens of family and friends of the accused were waiting for the verdict outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court.
British citizen and media mogul Jimmy Lai is due to testify on Wednesday.
Meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in Brazil, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told China’s President Xi Jinping he’s concerned about the health of Lai.
He faces charges of fraud and the 2019 protests. He has also been charged with sedition and collusion with foreign forces.