Local elections 2023: Voter ID, how you can register, contested seats and everything else you need to know about the May vote
Voters across much of England will head to the ballot box for local and mayoral elections on 4 May.
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.
Voters in Northern Ireland have been required to show photo ID since 2007.
But this is the first time since the law came into play voters in the rest of the UK will have to provide photo ID.
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Voters can still use photo ID that it is out of date, as long as it still looks like them and the name is the same one used to register to vote.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.
Voter registration deadline
People who wish to vote, and are eligible, must make sure they are registered.
For those who have not previously registered to vote or, have moved house, the deadline for the 2023 local elections is 11.59pm on 17 April.
People who have changed their name but are already registered can either contact their local council’s electoral services team and request a name change, or they can register again.
You can register online – it takes fives minutes and you need your National Insurance number.
For those who cannot do it online they can download a paper form.
Sir Ed Davey launched the Lib Dem local election campaign on 29 March
Voters who want to vote by post need to apply to do so by 5pm on 18 April, and must also have registered to vote by the end of the day on 17 April.
Ballots will be sent out about three weeks before polling day and needs 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 – and must apply for this by 5pm on 25 April, after first registering to vote.
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.
Porn star Stormy Daniels has described to jurors an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter she claims she had with Donald Trump in 2006.
Ms Daniels was testifying at the former president’s criminal trial over hush money she was paid to keep silent about the alleged encounter during the presidential race.
But it was not all bad news for Mr Trump. On the day the court heard from Ms Daniels, his trial in Florida on charges of illegally keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving office, scheduled to start on 20 May, was postponed indefinitely by a federal judge.
Ms Daniels, 45, speaking at the “hush money” trial, said she tried not to think about having sex with him while it was allegedly taking place.
Trump trial as it happened: Raging ex-president calls for mistrial over ‘difficult to control’ witness Stormy Daniels
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Stormy Daniels recalls bedroom encounter with Trump
Mr Trump, 76, stared straight ahead when she entered the courtroom and occasionally shook his head and whispered to his lawyer.
After the lunch break, Mr Trump’s defence lawyers demanded a mistrial over what they said were prejudicial and irrelevant comments.
The judge rejected the defence’s request and said defence lawyers should have raised more objections during the testimony.
Later in the day, the Trump team used its opportunity to question Ms Daniels to paint her as motivated by personal hatred of the former president and hoping to profit off her claims against him.
“Am I correct that you hate President Trump?” defence lawyer Susan Necheles asked.
“Yes,” Ms Daniels acknowledged.
Donald Trump in court. Pic: Reuters
Stormy Daniels in Manhattan in 2018. Pic: AP
Hush money payment
In the final weeks of Mr Trump’s 2016 Republican presidential campaign, his then-lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen paid Ms Daniels $130,000 (£103,000) to keep quiet about what she described as an awkward and unexpected sexual encounter with Mr Trump at a celebrity golf outing in Lake Tahoe in July 2006.
Mr Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2018 related to the payments and served more than a year in prison – with federal prosecutors saying he acted at Mr Trump’s direction.
Mr Trump, the Republican candidate for president again this year, has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up the payment and denies having sex with Ms Daniels.
Trump’s ex-personal lawyer Michael Cohen served more than a year in prison. Pic: AP
Imbalance of power
Ms Daniels described how an initial meeting at the golf tournament, where they discussed the adult film industry, progressed to a “brief” sexual encounter she said Mr Trump initiated after inviting her to dinner and back to his hotel suite.
She said she did not feel physically or verbally threatened during the encounter, but she perceived an imbalance of power, with Mr Trump being “bigger and blocking the way”.
She said she found it “hard to get my shoes” after it ended “because my hands were shaking so hard”.
“He said, ‘Oh, it was great. Let’s get together again, honey bunch’,” Ms Daniels said. “I just wanted to leave.”
Read more:
This was Donald Trump with his trousers down – no doubt | James Matthews
Daniels expected to return to witness stand
Mr Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payments.
Speaking outside of court at the end of the day, Mr Trump said: “This was a very big day, a very revealing day. As you see their case is totally falling apart.”
Ms Daniels is expected to return to the witness stand when the trial resumes tomorrow.
There are moments, more than others, that scream the humiliation of it all.
Take this, before Tuesday’s proceedings got underway. “No descriptions of genitalia or anything but it’s important to elicit that she had sex with him.”
It was the prosecution’s assurance prior to questioning Stormy Daniels after Donald Trump’s lawyers had objected, in advance, to her testifying to the details of sexual acts.
It would be that kind of day in this kind of trial.
Trump trial as it happened: Stormy Daniels accused of car park ‘threat’ lie
In a dingy New York courtroom, this was the president and the porn star, together again, in a reunion most reductive for Mr Trump.
He might have secured guarantees on anatomical detail but, from the moment the court heard “The People call Stormy Daniels” this was Mr Trump with his trousers down, no doubt.
Ms Daniels told her story, of growing up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of a single mother. She edited her high school newspaper, enjoyed ballet dancing and horses and had ambitions to be a technician.
By the time she met Mr Trump, aged 27, we learned she was an adult film actress and director, star of the likes of 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up.
By her telling, the Trump encounter was more Austin Powers – the penthouse suite, the satin pyjamas and the spanking with a rolled-up magazine.
“Bullshit,” Mr Trump was heard to mutter. His problem is that this kind of bullshit sticks.
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Stormy Daniels recalls bedroom encounter with Trump
Whatever his lawyers’ protestations about Ms Daniels’ credibility – and there are holes – that’s hardly the headline for a watching, voting, public.
What will they take from court to the polling booth in November? Quite apart from the imagery, what message does it send to key demographics?
An affair with a porn star, whilst married, is a poor fit with the principles of evangelicals, so critical to the Trump vote in 2016. Suburban women might also reel from this tawdry peek backstage at the presidency.
How much will Mr Trump worry? About $130,000 (£103,000) worth. It is the premium he paid to stop the story coming out in the first place.
Sadly, for him, the insurance policy has run out.
World
Israel-Hamas war: Hostages’ families urge PM Benjamin Netanyahu to take a deal to get their loved ones home
There is anxiety in Museum Square in Tel Aviv – a space which has turned into a commemoration centre for the 132 hostages still held by Hamas.
A place for quiet contemplation, as well as for crowds who gather hand-in-hand to solemnly sing Israel‘s national anthem.
An agreement to get the hostages out of Gaza is far from certain.
The crowd sings Israel’s national anthem in Tel Aviv
Israel-Gaza war: Latest updates
There is so much confusion around any potential deal.
But most people here want their prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come to an agreement and get the captives back home.
We had a chance encounter with Yehuda Cohen.
His 19-year-old son Nimrod Cohen, an Israeli soldier, was taken on 7 October.
Mr Cohen’s message to Israel’s leadership was simple – take a deal.
Right now, however, he is not very hopeful.
“Nothing is moving, we will feel better when something will start moving, that a deal will be on the table, agreed and hostages will start being released,” he said.
Yehuda Cohen, father of Nimrod Cohen
Nimrod Cohen is among the hostages
Mr Cohen had particular criticism for Mr Netanyahu.
He said of the PM: “He has his own considerations, mainly his private considerations – he wants to survive, he’s thinking only about himself.”
Mr Cohen even challenged Mr Netanyahu in person a few weeks ago about whether a ceasefire would guarantee the release of all the hostages. He did not get an answer.
Simona Steinbrecher, mother of Doron Steinbrecher
Doron Steinbrecher
Read more:
How Israel seized key border crossing
Netanyahu’s choice – accept ceasefire deal or gamble on Rafah incursion
Doron Steinbrecher, a 31-year-old veterinary nurse, lived at Kibbutz Kfar Aza when Hamas took her away.
The only proof of her abduction was a solitary message on WhatsApp.
“They’ve arrived, they have me,” she wrote.
Her mother Simona Steinbrecher thinks of little else all day.
She says any deal should be accepted to get her daughter back home.
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But she admits: “I’m afraid the deal won’t be done, so I don’t even let myself think about it.
“Until someone tells me – Simona, your daughter has come back, I don’t think about it.”
Seven months into this conflict, following Hamas’ killings and kidnappings, the latest talk of an agreement – however near or far it could be – simply provides no relief for so many hostage families.
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