Local elections 2023: Voter ID, contested seats and everything else you need to know about Thursday’s vote
Voters across much of England will head to the ballot box for local and mayoral elections on Thursday.
It will be the first time people in England will have to show photographic identification at voting stations before they can cast their ballot.
Sky News takes you through all you need to know about the upcoming local elections.
Where are they taking place?
Most local councils in England are holding elections – excluding the Greater London area as they were held in 2022.
The majority of councils held their last elections in 2019 so the four-year cycle means it is their turn again.
A total of 8,057 seats are up for grabs in 4,831 wards.
Mayoral elections will also take place in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and Middlesbrough.
Local elections in Northern Ireland will take place two weeks later on 18 May.
There are no local elections in Scotland and Wales.
Voter identification
The law was changed last year so voters in Great Britain now have to show photo ID before being issued a ballot paper in polling stations for general, local and police and crime commissioner elections, and referendums.
When a similar system was introduced in Northern Ireland in 2003, there was an almost five-point drop in expected turnout but normal patterns were restored in subsequent elections.
Most forms of existing photo ID will be accepted, including:
• UK, EEA and Commonwealth passports or driving licences
• Most concessionary travel cards
• Blue Badge
• Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) card.
Driving licences will count as valid photo ID
Voters can still use photo ID that it is out of date, as long as it still looks like them and the name is the same one used to register to vote.
For those who do not have an accepted form of photo ID, their photo no longer looks like them or they are worried about using an existing form, such as due to a gender marker, voters can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate.
The deadline for applying for a certificate for the English local elections is 5pm on 25 April, but people must have registered to vote before applying.
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Voter registration deadline
People who wish to vote, and are eligible, must be registered.
For those who have not previously registered to vote or, have moved house, the deadline for the 2023 local elections was 11.59pm on 17 April.
People who have changed their name but are already registered could either contact their local council’s electoral services team and request a name change, or register again.
Sir Ed Davey launched the Lib Dem local election campaign on 29 March
Voters who wanted to vote by post needed to apply to do so by 5pm on 18 April, and they also had to have registered to vote by the end of the day on 17 April.
Ballots were sent out about three weeks before polling day and they need to be with their local council by 10pm on polling day to be counted. If you cannot post it in time, you can take the pack to your local polling station or council on polling day.
Voters can also get a trusted person to vote on their behalf – a proxy vote. Applications for this closed at 5pm on 25 April.
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How many seats/councils are parties defending?
The Conservatives hold the highest number of seats and councils in England, with the party holding majority control of 85 councils and defending 3,365 seats – 42% of the total seats.
Labour has majority control of 50 councils and 2,131 seats while the Lib Dems have control of 16 authorities and are defending 1,223 seats.
A third of English councils – 74 – currently have no overall control.
The Greens are defending 239 seats and Independents or local parties have majority control over five councils.
A combination of UKIP/Brexit/Reform UK are defending 30 seats, according to Sky News analysis.
There will be ward boundary changes in 49 authorities – more than a fifth of all councils – and boundaries are being altered in eight metropolitan boroughs, 14 unitary councils and 27 districts.
Boundary changes make it much harder to predict how the vote will go as they can encapsulate a different demographic.
What are the different types of authorities?
There are several different types of local authorities. County councils are responsible for larger services across an entire county such as education, transport, social care and fire and public safety.
District, borough and city councils provide a second tier and cover a smaller area than county councils, with responsibility for services like recycling, housing and planning applications.
Sir Keir Starmer launched Labour’s local election campaign on 20 March
In some parts of the country, there is just one tier of local government providing all local services. There are unitary authorities, and London and metropolitan boroughs.
Parish, community and town councils operate at a level below district and borough councils, and in some cases under unitary authorities. They provide help on issues such as allotments, bus shelters, play areas, local grants and have the power to issue fixed penalty fines for litter, graffiti, fly posting and dog offences.
How are local councillors elected?
In England, councillors are elected on four-year terms to either single or multi-member wards using the first-past-the-post electoral system.
In most councils (67%), all their seats – the areas of responsibility within the council – are elected at the same time every four years.
Nearly a third of councils (31%) see a third of their council seats elected each year for three years out of every four.
A very small number (2%) have half their council seats elected every two years. None of those are up for grabs this year.
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.
It also comes as Hong Kong jailed 45 pro-democracy activists.
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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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.
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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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.
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“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.
World
Hong Kong jails 45 pro-democracy activists after accusing them of trying to overthrow the city’s government
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.
Another prominent activist Joshua Wong received a sentence of more than four years.
Joshua Wong was sentenced to more than four years Pic: AP
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.
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.
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A woman is taken away by police outside the court Pic: Reuters
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.
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