What elections are taking place on 2 May and who can I vote for?
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?
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.
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Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has told Sky News that Britain is ready for a change of government after scolding the Conservatives over their handling of the economy and immigration after Brexit.
While insisting his petrochemicals conglomerate INEOS is apolitical, Sir Jim backed Brexit and spent last weekend with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at Manchester United – the football club he now runs as minority owner.
“I’m sure Keir will do a very good job at running the country – I have no questions about that,” Sir Jim said in an exclusive interview.
“There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run,” he added. “I think most of the country probably feels it’s time for a change. And I sort of get that, really.”
Read more: Sir Jim’s mission to succeed at ‘the one challenge the UK has never brought home’
Sir Jim was a prominent backer of leaving the European Union in the 2016 referendum but now has issues with how Brexit was delivered by Tory prime ministers.
“Brexit sort of unfortunately didn’t turn out as people anticipated because… Brexit was largely about immigration,” Sir Jim said.
“That was the biggest component of that vote. People were getting fed up with the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton.
“I mean, no small island like the UK could cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK.
“I mean, it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police, everybody.
“The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence.
“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”
UK needs to get ‘sharper on the business front’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has indicated an election is due this year but Monaco-based Sir Jim is unimpressed by the Conservatives’ handling of the economy.
“The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front,” he said. “I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.
“There’s two parts of the economy, there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side. And the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.
“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago.
“But today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think that isn’t healthy for the British economy… particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing based, and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like, why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea?
“That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea, in energy.
“And what we need is competitive energy. So I mean, in America, in the energy world, in the oil and gas world, they just apply a corporation tax to the oil and gas companies, which is about 30%. And in the UK we’ve got this tax of 75% because we want to kill off the oil and gas companies.
“But if we don’t have competitive energy, we’re not going to have a healthy manufacturing industry. And that just makes no sense to me at all. No.”
‘We’re apolitical’
Asked about INEOS donating to Labour, Sir Jim replied: “We’re apolitical, INEOS.
“We just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK and we’ve talked to the government about that. It’s pretty clear about our views.”
Sir Jim was keener to talk about the economy and politics than his role at struggling Manchester United, which he bought a 27.7% stake in from the American Glazer family in February – giving him an even higher business profile.
Old Trafford stadium in Manchester. Pic: AP
Push for stadium of the North
He is continuing to push for public funds to regenerate Old Trafford and the surrounding areas despite no apparent political support being forthcoming. Sir Keir was hosted at the stadium for a Premier League match last weekend just as heavy rain exposed the fragility of the ageing venue.
“There’s a very good case, in my view, for having a stadium of the North, which would serve the northern part of the country in that arena of football,” Sir Jim said. “If you look at the number of Champions League the North West has won, it’s 10. London has won two.
“And yet everybody from the North has to get down to London to watch a big football match. And there should be one [a large stadium] in the North, in my view.
“But it’s also important for the southern side of Manchester, you know, to regenerate.
“It’s the sort of second capital of the country where the Industrial Revolution began.
“But if you have a regeneration project, you need a nucleus or a regeneration project and having that world-class stadium there, I think would provide the impetus to regenerate that region.”
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said he won’t be standing at the next general election but will keep campaigning for the Conservative Party.
In a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which he posted on X on Saturday night, Mr Heaton-Harris said after 24 years in politics, it had been an “honour and a privilege to serve”.
He thanked the people of Daventry, Mr Sunak and former Tory leaders, including Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, “for putting their trust in me”.
Mr Heaton-Harris, who has been serving as Northern Ireland secretary since September 2022, said: “I started as a campaigner and I’ll be out campaigning for @Conservatives at the next election because we are the only party that has and can deliver for the whole of the United Kingdom.”
He joins an exodus of Tory politicians who have announced they will be leaving Westminster at the next general election.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
More than 100 MPs from across the Commons have said they will not be standing.
Those who have announced their intention to leave parliament range from the longest-serving female MP, Labour’s Harriet Harman, to one of those only elected at the last election in 2019, Conservative MP Dehenna Davison.
Of the more than 60 Tory MPs stepping aside, high profile names include former cabinet ministers Ben Wallace, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Kwasi Kwarteng.
Back in March, Mrs May, 67, said she too had taken the “difficult decision” to quit the Commons after 27 years representing her Maidenhead constituency.
The last possible day for a general election is Tuesday 28 January 2025.
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