Elections 2022

The composition of hundreds of councils in England, Scotland and Wales is at stake in the 2022 local elections.

- Tower Hamlets in London due to declare the result of its mayoral election - In Wales, Labour looking to take control of Blaenau Gwent from a group of Independents - Labour is hoping to retake Southampton from Conservative control and make gains in Derby

Voters are taking to the polls across the UK today. New councillors and mayors will be elected as people choose who they want to run their local public ...

The first batch of results for the 2022 local elections is likely to be announced shortly after midnight once polls close, with locations including Bolton and Essex likely to be among the first. Local elections decide who will be responsible for services such as housing and rubbish collections, public transport and road maintenance - but they can also indicate which parties the public favours on a national level. Polling stations opened at 7am and Brits will be casting their votes throughout the day until they close at 10pm.

Polling stations open at 7am across Bristol in an unusual vote today (May 5)- to decide the system of local government which will run the city for the next ten ...

The commission said: "In the UK, pencils are traditionally used for the purposes of marking ballot papers and are made available inside polling stations for voters to use. People living within Bristol can vote to decide whether to scrap the mayoral system or to keep it. The referendum is being run in the same way as previous referendums and council elections - with polling stations open in the usual places. So important to get power more evenly shared around the country and Mayors vital part of that.— ALASTAIR CAMPBELL (@campbellclaret) @RoryStewartUKand I agreed on that if not on everything else !! https://t.co/mAHVzCg5H8 May 4, 2022 But ultimately, it will be the voters who decide whether to end Bristol's City Mayor position and replace it with a city run by 70 elected councillors instead. In the commission's media handbook, issued for the 2017 general election, a lengthy explanation was given. And the vote will not impact on Bristol's other directly-elected mayor, either. The referendum vote was called last year after a combination of Green Party, Lib Dem and Conservative councillors voted to have it. The change wouldn't happen until May 2024 - in two years' time - when Mr Rees said he intends to stand down anyway. It's not the first time such a referendum has been held. Back in 2012, Bristol was the only city in the country to vote in favour of having a directly-elected mayor run its local authority, and later that year George Ferguson was elected as mayor - followed by Marvin Rees in 2016. While much of the rest of the country hold local council elections - where people get to vote for councillors and representatives to elect them to positions of power in their council chambers - there is a different kind of vote happening in Bristol today.

All the seats were up for grabs at St Albans City & District Council and there was also an election for the mayor of Watford. Results are expected to come in ...

- Stevenage Borough Council - Watford Borough Council - Broxbourne Borough Council

Boris Johnson's Conservatives may face electoral drubbing amid Partygate and cost of living crisis. Follow latest news and reaction as counting begins.

And in Scotland, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar is confident of gains in the May elections, amid earlier predictions the party could come second to SNP. The polls have just closed in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Counting now begins to elect over 4,300 councillors in more than 140 local authorities. Margaret Howard, standing for re-election in the Broadwater ward in the east of the town, said. “It’s about people wanting green spaces for them and their families, and a town to be proud of. It includes everything from bringing the lido back into use to consulting on providing more dog-poo bins. Scotland also uses the single transferrable vote system of proportional representation, which makes it much harder for a single party to win an outright majority. Labour hopes to regain that lost ground and see its support reach around 25%, up from 20% in 2017. Labour on the other hand is hoping to take a number of council seats from the Tories - with Conservative jewels Wandsworth and Westminster in London looking on a knife edge. A Labour organiser predicted the council would fall into no overall control. Both were hoping for late turn out surge,” Jessica says. Because we believe Britain deserves better. A victory would not change the balance of power – the office of first minister and deputy are equal – and Sinn Féin is unlikely to gain a majority but it would be an important symbolical win for a party that was once regarded as the political arm of the IRA.