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Vote counting is under way after polls closed in local elections taking place across England and Wales.

More than 2,600 council seats across 107 councils are up for grabs in England, alongside 11 mayoral elections, a parliamentary seat and police and crime commissioners throughout England and Wales.

Polls opened at 7am and closed at 10pm.

Local elections: Follow the results live

Sky News will be covering the results overnight with a special programme hosted by Jonathan Samuels beginning at midnight, and coverage into the weekend.

The results unfolding in the next hours and days will give an indicator of public opinion on the political parties as the UK heads towards a general election.

Labour is hoping to make gains across the country, while the Conservatives will hope to minimise losses as they sit around 20 points behind the opposition in the polls.

More on Conservatives

Keen attention will be paid to the mayoral races being held in the West Midlands and the Tees Valley – Red Wall seats that the Conservatives won under Boris Johnson with mayors Andy Street and Lord Ben Houchen respectively.

Losses there could prove difficult for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – with rumours that if both turn red it could spark a leadership contest.

Labour‘s Sadiq Khan is hoping to win a record third term as the mayor of London, running against the Conservative’s Susan Hall, with 25 seats on the London Assembly also up for grabs.

Read more on local elections:
What does victory and defeat look like – Beth Rigby

How key areas are predicted to vote – Sam Coates

Sky’s election coverage plan – how to follow

Thursday into Friday: From 12am until 6am, Jonathan Samuels will be joined by political correspondents Tamara Cohen and Gurpreet Narwan, as well as teams from across the country.

Friday: Lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge and chief presenter Mark Austin will be joined by political editor Beth Rigby and deputy political editor Sam Coates throughout the day, as well as economics and data editor Ed Conway and election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher.

Friday night: From 7pm until 9pm, Sophy Ridge will host a special edition of the Politics Hub, offering a full analysis and breakdown of the local elections.

The weekend: Sophy Ridge will host another special edition of the Politics Hub on Saturday from 7pm until 9pm. And Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips will take a look back over what’s happened from 8.30am until 10am.

How do I watch?: Freeview 233, Sky 501, Virgin 603, BT 313, YouTube and the Sky News website and app. You can also watch Sky News live here, and on YouTube.

And the Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Beth Rigby, Jess Phillips and Ruth Davidson will go out on Friday, and Politics at Jack and Sam’s will navigate the big question of where the results leave us ahead of a general election on Sunday.

There are further mayoral elections in the East Midlands, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, the North East, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and York & North Yorkshire. An election is also taking place for the Salford city mayor.

A parliamentary by-election is taking place in Blackpool South to replace the former Conservative MP Scott Benton, who left parliament following a lobbying scandal.

The Tories are defending a majority of 3,690 – much smaller than several of those overturned by Labour in recent years.

In total, 37 police and crime commissioners are being elected across England and Wales – although two of those PCC roles are being absorbed into a mayor’s responsibilities, in South Yorkshire and York & North Yorkshire.

Speaking on the Political Currency podcast, former Conservative chancellor George Osborne said losing the West Midlands would be “pretty bad” for Mr Sunak, while losing the Tees Valley would be “armageddon”.

“There will be people in the Conservative Parliamentary Party saying, ‘Change course, change leader’,” he said, adding: “You would never have guessed 20 years ago that the future of the Tory leadership would depend on how people are voting in Teesside. But I think right now, that is the case.”

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The last time these council elections took place, the then prime minister Boris Johnson was riding high in the polls following the success of the vaccine rollout – taking his party to their best performance in the locals since 2008.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said it was going to be “difficult to achieve on that”.

Asked if this was an admission the party is less popular under Mr Sunak than it was under Mr Johnson, Mr Harper said it was the context of having a “vaccine bounce” and coming out of the pandemic that made the party popular in 2021.

And Mr Sunak was at the time “the chancellor, who found the money to pay for rolling the vaccine out”.

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Local elections: Why they matter

In last year’s local elections – which were for different areas – Labour snatched key battlegrounds from the Conservatives but not at a rate high enough to indicate the opposition was on course to win if a general election took place.

This key metric, known as National Equivalent Vote (NEV), will be tracked over the weekend by Sky News election analyst Professor Michael Thrasher.

Asked what success would look like, Labour’s shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden said his party is looking at the Blackpool South by-election “which is the only result where Rishi Sunak and the government are really on the ballot paper”.

A win there will show “real progress”, Mr McFadden said.

Asked about his party’s prospects in Tees Valley and the West Midlands, the veteran Labour MP said the Tories hanging on would “only be because they put as much distance as possible between themselves and Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party brand”.

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The Liberal Democrats will also hope to pick up some wins after targeting so-called Blue Wall areas that traditionally vote Conservative.

Speaking after the polls closed, party leader Sir Ed Davey said: “The message across the country today was loud and clear. Voters want an end to this appalling Conservative government.

“That is why, up and down the country, so many lifelong Conservative voters backed the Liberal Democrats today, because they know Liberal Democrat councillors will never take them for granted and fight for the issues they care about.”

How many seats/councils are parties defending?

The Conservatives are defending 985 seats, Labour 965 and the Liberal Democrats 410.

The Greens hold 107 seats, while independents have 112 and other parties the remaining 57.

Labour currently has majority control in 45 of the 107 councils. The Conservatives control 18 and the Lib Dems 10.

Just under a third, 34 councils, are under no overall control.

Key battlegrounds

After a survey of 9,000 people, this is how YouGov thinks these key votes will go
Image:
After a survey of 9,000 people, this is how YouGov thinks these key votes will go

When it comes to councils, areas to watch out for include Hyndburn, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Tamworth, Reigate and Banstead, Hull, Walsall, Colchester, Stockport, Sheffield, Solihull, North East Lincolnshire, Lincoln, Peterborough, Rugby and Thurrock.

Sky News and YouGov asked around 9,000 people how they intend to vote, and used this to forecast how these will change.

Labour looks set to make a number of gains – although some races are too close to call.

Follow our live coverage of the election results from midnight – find the full details here

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Make ‘significant adjustments’ to Online Safety Act, X urges govt

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X criticises Online Safety Act - and warns it's putting free speech in the UK at risk

The Online Safety Act is putting free speech at risk and needs significant adjustments, Elon Musk’s social network X has warned.

New rules that came into force last week require platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and X – as well as sites hosting pornography – to bring in measures to prove that someone using them is over the age of 18.

The Online Safety Act requires sites to protect children and to remove illegal content, but critics have said that the rules have been implemented too broadly, resulting in the censorship of legal content.

X has warned the act’s laudable intentions were “at risk of being overshadowed by the breadth of its regulatory reach”.

It said: “When lawmakers approved these measures, they made a conscientious decision to increase censorship in the name of ‘online safety’.

“It is fair to ask if UK citizens were equally aware of the trade-off being made.”

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What are the new online rules?

X claims the timetable for platforms to meet mandatory measures had been unnecessarily tight – and despite complying, sites still faced threats of enforcement and fines, “encouraging over-censorship”.

More on Online Safety Bill

“A balanced approach is the only way to protect individual liberties, encourage innovation and safeguard children. It’s safe to say that significant changes must take place to achieve these objectives in the UK,” it said.

A UK government spokesperson said it is “demonstrably false” that the Online Safety Act compromises free speech.

“As well as legal duties to keep children safe, the very same law places clear and unequivocal duties on platforms to protect freedom of expression,” they added.

Users have complained about age checks that require personal data to be uploaded to access sites that show pornography, and 468,000 people have already signed a petition asking for the new law to be repealed.

In response to the petition, the government said it had “no plans” to reverse the Online Safety Act.

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Why do people want to repeal the Online Safety Act?

Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage likened the new rules to “state suppression of genuine free speech” and said his party would ditch the regulations.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said on Tuesday that those who wanted to overturn the act were “on the side of predators” – to which Mr Farage demanded an apology, calling Mr Kyle’s comments “absolutely disgusting”.

Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it had launched an investigation into how four companies – that collectively run 34 pornography sites – are complying with new age-check requirements.

Read more from Sky News:
British children who drowned off Spain named
Man charged after children fell ill at summer camp

These companies – 8579 LLC, AVS Group Ltd, Kick Online Entertainment S.A. and Trendio Ltd – run dozens of sites, and collectively have more than nine million unique monthly UK visitors, the internet watchdog said.

The regulator said it prioritised the companies based on the risk of harm posed by the services they operated and their user numbers.

It adds to the 11 investigations already in progress into 4chan, as well as an unnamed online suicide forum, seven file-sharing services, and two adult websites.

Ofcom said it expects to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months.

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Inside Jeremy Corbyn’s new party and the battle for leadership

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Inside Jeremy Corbyn's new party and the battle for leadership

Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn may be the figureheads of a new left-wing party, but already there is a battle over leadership.

The confusion behind the initial launch speaks to a wider debate happening behind closed doors as to who should steer the party – now and in the future.

Already, in the true spirit of Mr Corbyn’s politics, there is talk of an open leadership contest and grassroots participation.

Some supporters of the new party – which is being temporarily called “Your Party” while a formal name is decided by members – believe that allowing a leadership contest to take place honours Mr Corbyn’s commitment to open democracy.

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Jeremy Corbyn open to ideas on new party name

They point out that under Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, members famously backed plans to make it easier for local constituency parties to deselect sitting MPs – a concept he strongly believed in.

His allies now say the former Labour leader, who is 76, is open to there being a leadership contest for the new party, possibly at its inaugural conference in the autumn, where names lesser known than himself can throw their hat into the ring.

“Jeremy would rather die than not have an open leadership contest,” one source familiar with the internal politics told Sky News.

More on Jeremy Corbyn

However, there have been suggestions that Ms Sultana appears to be less keen on the idea of a leadership contest, and that she is more committed to the co-leadership model than her political partner.

Those who have been opposed to the co-leadership model believe it could give Ms Sultana an unfair advantage and exclude other potential candidates from standing in the future.

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Corbyn’s new political party isn’t ‘real deal’

One source told Sky News they believed Mr Corbyn should lead the party for two years, to get it established, before others are allowed to stand as leader.

They said Ms Sultana, who became an independent MP after she was suspended from Labour for opposing the two-child benefit cap, was “highly ambitious but completely untested as leader” and “had a lot of growing into the role to do”.

“It’s not about her – it’s about taking a democratic approach, which is what we’re supposed to be doing,” they said.

“There are so many people who have done amazing things locally and they need to have a chance to emerge as leaders.

“We are not only fishing from a pool of two people.

“It needs to be an open contest. Nobody needs to be crowned.”

Read more:
Where insiders think Corbyn’s new party could win
PM would be foolish not to recognise threat party poses

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Corbyn’s new party shakes the left

While Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana undoubtedly have the biggest profiles out of would-be leaders, advocates for a grassroots approach to the leadership point to the success some independent candidates have enjoyed at a local level – for example, 24-year-old British Palestinian Leah Mohammed, who came within 528 votes of unseating Health Secretary Wes Streeting in Ilford North.

Fiona Lali of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who stood in last year’s general election for the Stratford and Bow constituency, has also been mentioned in some circles as someone with potential leadership credentials.

However, sources close to Mr Corbyn and Ms Sultana downplayed suggestions of any divide over the leadership model, pointing out that their joint statement acknowledged that members would “decide the party’s direction” at the inaugural conference in the autumn, including the model of leadership and the policies that are needed to transform society.

A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn told Sky News: “Jeremy will be working with Zarah, his independent colleagues, and people from trade unions and social movements up and down the country to make an autumn conference a reality.

“This will be the moment where people come together to launch a new democratic party that belongs to the members.”

Sky News has approached Ms Sultana for comment.

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DeFi Education Fund urges Senate to strengthen crypto dev protections in draft bill

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DeFi Education Fund urges Senate to strengthen crypto dev protections in draft bill

DeFi Education Fund urges Senate to strengthen crypto dev protections in draft bill

DeFi Education Fund called on the Senate Banking Committee to frame a key crypto market bill in a more tech-neutral way and strengthen crypto developer protections in a recent letter.

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