What elections are taking place on 2 May and who can I vote for?

Published

2 weeks ago

April 24, 2024

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Everyone in England and Wales will have some sort of vote to cast on 2 May, with elections for local councillors, mayors, police and crime commissioners – and even one MP – taking place.

See what’s happening in your area with our postcode lookup:

Council elections

There are more than 2,600 council seats up for grabs in 107 council elections.

More than half of the elections are in district councils – which look after services such as bin collections, parks and planning – leaving county councils to fulfil the remaining responsibilities including road maintenance and schools.

There are seats up in 31 metropolitan boroughs. They look after a similar range of services to district councils in metropolitan counties, such as Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield in the metropolitan counties of Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire.

There are also elections in 18 unitary authorities, for example Dorset and Bristol. Unitaries cover all council services that district and county councils do together.

Here’s where the council elections are and who’s defending what. Click on the drop-down to see where the different types of each council are:

Labour and the Conservatives are defending a similar amount of council seats this time around – 985 Tory seats to Labour’s 965. But Labour are defending council control in more areas – 45 versus just 18 Conservative-held areas.

What happened last time?

The last time these seats were voted for in 2021 – after a delay of a year due to COVID – there were 248 Conservative gains and 264 Labour losses. The Greens added 47 councillors while the Lib Dems and Others/Independents lost a handful each.

There were also gains for the SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales in devolved parliament elections that aren’t up for grabs this year, suggesting that the parties managing their nations’ COVID response were rewarded at the polls.

The Conservatives also won a by-election in Hartlepool, which had been held by Labour since 1974, on the same day.

It was just the third time since the Second World War that a governing party had gained a seat in a by-election and the 16-point swing was the largest a governing party has ever secured.

That was Sir Keir Starmer’s first by-election as Labour leader. Since then the party have made seven gains at by-elections and risen to a 20-point lead in the polls.

So Labour will be hoping to translate that change in popularity to electoral success and regain a few of those councils they lost

It would consolidate on their council election gains from last year that made them the biggest party of local government for the first time in more than 20 years.

Mayoral elections

Voters in England will also choose 10 metro mayors next month, including in the East Midlands, North East and York and North Yorkshire for the first time.

There will be a mayoral election in London, currently held by Labour with Sadiq Khan, where voters will also have a chance to select 25 London Assembly members representing 14 constituencies.

In terms of mayors, the Conservatives currently hold Tees Valley and the West Midlands, through Ben Houchen and Andy Street respectively. Labour hold South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region.

The 10 mayors will represent almost half of the population of England.

It will be the first time since the introduction of these mayors in 2017 (London has had a mayor since 2000) that the voting system has changed to First Past the Post – the same system used for most other elections in the UK.

Previously there was a system that allowed second preference votes which would be reallocated to the two leading candidates after a first round of counting.

There is also a directly elected local mayor in Salford council.

What does this all mean for Rishi Sunak?

Sam Coates

Deputy political editor

@SamCoatesSky

Anticipating the political reaction to the 2 May elections is art not science.

Unseating Tory Ben Houchen would take a bigger swing than national polls – but not that much bigger.

Yet because of the current expectations of MPs and the various party HQs, the fall of the Tees Valley mayor would be a seismic symbolic shock to the political system.

No 10 is desperate put a Houchen re-election at the centre of a fightback narrative after 2 May, to shore up the PM’s position despite the wipeout-esque polls and fears of a vote of no confidence. But will it be enough?

The patchwork of results does not help the Tories – and nor does Sky’s Michael Thrasher annual benchmarking.

The Sky election analyst has said 500 losses would put the Tories on a par with the disaster they saw last year.

Coupled with losing Andy Street in the West Midlands and the Blackpool South by-election, may not be psephologically coherent on behalf of MPs – but would trigger unrest. Losing Houchen would trigger panic.

If 52 letters of no confidence are then submitted to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, Sunak would be subject to a vote – which he would probably win.

But on the back of that victory, he could call an earlier election to put his vision to the public sooner rather than later, fearing greater unrest because of the delay.

What happens to the PM after 2 May as a consequence of these results is the biggest question at the heart of this election.

Blackpool South by-election

Voters in Blackpool South don’t have any council elections this year, but there is the matter of a new MP to select.

Conservative Scott Benton resigned from parliament after undercover journalists posing as gambling industry investors filmed him offering to lobby ministers in exchange for money.

That triggered a recall petition which he lost, and so was forced to resign as an MP.

The seat had been in Labour hands since 1997, but was won by Benton in 2019 with a swing of 9.3 percentage points for a majority of 11.3%.

A resurgent Labour has achieved swings high enough to overturn that majority eleven times since 2021.

Police and crime commissioner elections

Everyone in Wales gets to vote for a new PCC on 2 May as there are votes for all four of the Welsh police force areas – North Wales, South Wales, Gwent and Dyfed-Powys.

There are also PCC elections almost everywhere in England. In London, Greater Manchester, and North, West and South Yorkshire, the mayor takes responsibility for policing. There are direct elections in 34 other police force areas.

PCCs are elected to hold chief constables to account, representing the communities they serve.

They are responsible for “the totality of policing” in an area, and aim to cut crime and deliver an efficient police service.

They don’t have a role in the day-to day running of the police, but can appoint and dismiss the chief constable, set the force budget and objectives, and bring together community safety and criminal justice partners to make sure local priorities are joined up.

The Conservatives have historically performed well at PCC elections, winning 30 of 35 in England last time out.

Turnout averaged at 33.2%, but was higher in Wales than England – this may have been because Welsh people were voting for the Senedd at the same time while not all English people had concurrent local council elections.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open-source information. Through multimedia storytelling, we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

Politics

UK considered using Iraq to process asylum seekers in Rwanda-type deal, leaked documents show

Published

2 hours ago

May 6, 2024

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UK considered using Iraq to process asylum seekers in Rwanda-type deal, leaked documents show

The government at one point considered using Iraq to process asylum seekers – like the Rwanda scheme – according to documents seen by Sky News.

This could have seen people sent from the UK to a country the government advises against all travel to.

The two countries already have a returns agreement – but only for people that are from Iraq.

Politics live: Follow the latest updates here

According to leaked correspondence between high-ranking officials, the Iraqi returns commitments were made with a “request for discretion” and no publicity.

The country was willing to move forward but did not want a formal or public agreement.

The current travel advice to Iraq on the Foreign Office website simply advises against “all travel to parts of Iraq”. However, according to the document, negotiations were fairly advanced and described in one table as “good recent progress with Iraq”.

Other government aims included enhancing cooperation with the Iranian Embassy in order to enhance returns arrangements for migrants and potential asylum seekers.

Returns agreements are also in the works for Eritrea and Ethiopia, according to documents about work undertaken by the Home Office and Foreign Office that relates to countries with the highest number of nationals arriving to the UK by small boats.

In a tranche of internal government documents seen by Sky News, even from the earliest stage of the Rwanda policy, Downing Street advisers knew there were serious problems with their proposals.

There are even private admissions that many people arriving here on small boats did so without the assistance of criminal gangs – despite their communications strategy.

Comparisons were also made to Australia’s response – to what Downing Street officials understood to be a comparable “smaller problem” than in the UK and admitted it had cost billions of Australian dollars in order for their returns processes to be fully operational.

In one document submitted to the Home Office, some of the highest-ranking officials at the time wrote that their guidance was to be “prepared to pay over the odds” to get the policy up and running. And that the initial offer from Rwanda was a “modest sum”.

Whitehall’s official spending watchdog has priced the cost of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda at £1.8m per person for the first 300 people the government deports to Kigali.

It also disclosed that since April 2022 the Home Office has paid £220m into Rwanda’s economic transformation and integration fund, which is designed to support economic growth in Rwanda, and will continue to make payments to cover asylum processing and operational costs for individuals relocated to Rwanda.

It will also pay further amounts of £50m over the next year and an additional £50m the following year.

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A government source said: “The Home Office is spending millions every day accommodating migrants in hotels – that’s not right or fair. We’re taking action to put an end to this costly and dangerous cycle. Doing nothing is not a free option – we must act if we want to stop the boats and save lives.

“The UK is continuing to work with a range of international partners to tackle global illegal migration challenges. Our Rwanda partnership is a pioneering response to the global challenge of illegal migration, and we will get flights off the ground to Rwanda in the next nine to eleven weeks.”

Politics

Bitfinex database breach ‘seems fake,’ says CTO

Published

24 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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<div>Bitfinex database breach 'seems fake,' says CTO</div>

Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino explained that if the hacking group was telling the truth, they would have asked for a ransom, but he “couldn’t find any request.”

Politics

Labour taking ‘Tory crown jewel’ feels like a momentum shift

Published

1 day ago

May 5, 2024

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Labour taking 'Tory crown jewel' feels like a momentum shift

It was a wafer-thin victory, but a huge win.

The symbolism of Labour taking the West Midlands mayor, a jewel in the Tory crown, could be felt in the room as Labour activists gathered in Birmingham to celebrate the win with their new mayor Richard Parker and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

There are moments on election journeys when the momentum shifts – and this win felt like one of them.

“We humbly asked [the voters] to put their trust and confidence in a changed Labour Party and they did. And that is a significant piece of political history that we’ve made here today,” said Sir Keir at his victory rally.

“So the message out of these elections, the last now the last stop before we go into that general election, is that the country wants change.

“I hope the prime minister is listening and gives the opportunity to the country to vote as a whole in a general election as soon as possible.”

This win gave them the boost that was missing when they won the Blackpool South by-election on a massive 26-point swing, but then failed to pick up the hundreds of council seats they were chasing.

This win, on just 1,508 votes or 0.25 per cent of the vote, was a body blow for a Conservative party that believed they could just about cling on. Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, is now the last Tory standing.

For Labour, then a moment to bookmark.

Just as Boris Johnson’s Hartlepool by-election win in 2021 was a low point for Sir Keir – he told me this week that he considered resigning over the loss because he thought it showed he was the barrier to Labour’s recovery – this too will feel devastating not just for Andy Street but for the PM too.

Labour has beaten him in a street fight. He’s bloodied with Sir Keir now emboldened.

“This was the one result we really needed,” said one senior Labour figure. “It’s been our top focus for the past week and symbolically a very important win.”

And Labour needed the boost, because, as Professor Michael Thrasher pointed out in his Sky News’ national vote share projection calculated from the local election results, Sir Keir was not picking up the sort of vote share that Tony Blair was winning in the run-up to the 1997 Labour landslide.

His latest calculation of a 35% vote share for Labour and 26% for the Tories, put Sir Keir winning a general election but short of a majority.

What the West Midlands mayoral win did for Sir Keir was to give him a clear narrative that he is coming for the Tories and will do what he needs to take them down.

It raises inevitable questions about what is next for Rishi Sunak. The prime minister had nowhere to go today, not one win to celebrate. The worst performance in council elections in 40 years, was already pretty much as bad as it gets before the loss of Andy Street. The former Conservative mayor was magnanimous towards the prime minister, saying the loss was his alone.

But colleagues will not be so generous. One former cabinet minister said this loss was “devastating”. “We’re done and there’s no appetite to move against him,” said the senior MP. Many Tories tell me they are now resigned to defeat and believe Mr Sunak and his team needed to own it, rather than the rest of the party.

The coming days might be bumpy, the mood will be stony. But Tories tell me not much will actually change for them.

For Sir Keir, he now needs to sell not the changed Labour Party, but his vision for changing the country. The West Mids mayor’s win was dazzling, but it could have so easily gone the other way. And as Mr Sunak fights to survive, Labour still has to fight hard to win.