Local elections: voters head to the polls across England – UK politics live

Voters head to polls in local elections in England

Good morning. It’s started. People are already voting in the 2025 local elections. They are England-only, and there are around 1,600 council seats up for grabs (in some other years, there are more than 8,000 seats up for election in England alone), and so in some respects it’s a minor set of local elections. But you will never find a political commentator willing to say an election is not important and this year there is plenty to get excited about. That is partly because it is Labour’s first electoral test since the general election (and no governing party in modern times has seen its popularity collapse so quickly, as John Curtice pointed out this week). But mostly it is because two-party politics has collapsed, there are now five political parties that are competitive in England and the rise of Reform UK means a realignment of the right is already happening. These elections will show how developed that process is.

Today people are voting for:

• More than 1,600 councillors in 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities, one metropolitan council, and in the Isles of Scily.

• Six mayors – two of them are regional mayors where Labour won last time (West of England, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough), two of them are regional mayors where elections are being held for the first time (Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire), and two of them are single-authority mayors where Labour won last time (Doncaster, and North Tyneside).

• One MP – in Runcorn and Helsby, where there is a byelection.

Here is Peter Walker’s morning preview story.

And, in his First Edition briefing, Archie Bland sets out what would count as a good result for all the main parties.

On polling day itself not a lot normally happens. But we’ve always got dogs at polling stations.

A dog walker passing a polling station in Runcorn, Britain, this morning. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

And there may be some non-election politics too. Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, leader of the Commons, takes questions on next week’s Commons business.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.

If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.

If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.

I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.

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One of the signs that Bluesky is functioning as a decent alternative to Elon Musk’s X is the fact that it has become a decent source for #dogsatpollingstations. Here are some of the nicer pictures I have seen there this morning.

Met confirms counter-terrorism police investigating Kneecap over 'kill MP' and 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah' comments

The Metropolitan police has confirmed that counter-terrorism police are investigating footage that appears to show Irish language rap band Kneecap calling for politicians to be killed, and shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.

In a statement, the Met said:

On April 22, we were made aware of an online video believed to be from a music event in London in November 2024. Following this, we were made aware of a further video, believed to be from another music event in London in November 2023.

Both videos were referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offences linked to both videos.

The investigation is now being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command and inquiries remain ongoing at this time.

Two days ago Kneecap apologised for the ‘kill MP’ comment, which it said had been “deliberately taken out of all context”. It also said it did not support Hamas or Hezbollah.

As Kevin Rawlinson reports, dozens of artists – including Pulp, Paul Weller and Primal Scream – have defended Kneecap, saying the attempt to silence or deplatform them is an attack on artistic freedom.

Solar panels to be fitted on all new-build homes in England by 2027

Almost all new homes in England will be fitted with solar panels during construction within two years, the government will announce after Keir Starmer rejected Tony Blair’s criticism of net zero policies, Eleni Courea reports.

Here is a Guardian guide to where local elections are taking place today.

Unite leader Sharon Graham says her members want net zero, but also want 'secure jobs' as part of transition

The Daily Mail is no great fan of trade unions, or the Jeremy Corbyn-supporting Unite union in particular. It is not that fond of Tony Blair either. But at the moment they seem to hate Ed Miliband and net zero even more, and so today the paper has – perhaps for the first time? – splashed on a story quoting Unite approvingly. It is prompted by the statement Unite issued yesterday about Blair’s comments about net zero.

Daily Mail splash today Photograph: Daily Mail

In interviews this morning, Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, stressed that her union is not opposed to the goal of reducing carbon emissions to net zero. But what she does want is an assurance that good jobs are available for workers who lose out when oil and gas production gets run down.

She told Times Radio:

Workers want net zero, my members have no problem with net zero. The problem that we’ve got is that there is no investment currently about how we get to that and also secure jobs …

We don’t have the vision yet of what we could be realising. We could be … the European capital for the production of green steel. We can be the people that make the wind turbines. We can be the one of the world producers of SAF [sustainable aviation fuel]. This country’s got the skills, we’ve got the know-how, we’ve got the workers that can do that. Why are we delaying even further getting that infrastructure in place? It’s totally and utterly wrong.

Here is the latest edition of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly UK podcast. John Harris has been to Doncaster, the only council where elections are taking place currently under Labour control. At least one poll suggests it will lose to Reform UK.

It’s a nice day for voting in England. Yesterday the Green party said it was likely to be “the hottest local election day on record”. Here are two pictures of people arriving to vote.

A man entering a polling station in Runcorn this morning. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

A woman leaving a polling station in Hull this morning. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images

At 10.30am an energy minister will respond to an urgent question from Labour’s Gareth Snell, MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, asking for a statement on “the government’s approach to reducing energy prices for energy intensive industries”.

In the Commons Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, is taking questions. Asked by the Green MP Ellie Chowns if he agreed that a new trade deal with the EU should include a youth mobility scheme, linking the UK with the EU’s emissions trading schme and aligning on chemical regulations.

In his reply, Reynolds said he did not want to comment on the details of the negotiation. But he said that he did want it to address the “barriers” Chowns mentioned and he said he wanted the UK to have “the best and most frictionless trade possible with the EU”.

Voters head to polls in local elections in England

Good morning. It’s started. People are already voting in the 2025 local elections. They are England-only, and there are around 1,600 council seats up for grabs (in some other years, there are more than 8,000 seats up for election in England alone), and so in some respects it’s a minor set of local elections. But you will never find a political commentator willing to say an election is not important and this year there is plenty to get excited about. That is partly because it is Labour’s first electoral test since the general election (and no governing party in modern times has seen its popularity collapse so quickly, as John Curtice pointed out this week). But mostly it is because two-party politics has collapsed, there are now five political parties that are competitive in England and the rise of Reform UK means a realignment of the right is already happening. These elections will show how developed that process is.

Today people are voting for:

• More than 1,600 councillors in 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities, one metropolitan council, and in the Isles of Scily.

• Six mayors – two of them are regional mayors where Labour won last time (West of England, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough), two of them are regional mayors where elections are being held for the first time (Greater Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire), and two of them are single-authority mayors where Labour won last time (Doncaster, and North Tyneside).

• One MP – in Runcorn and Helsby, where there is a byelection.

Here is Peter Walker’s morning preview story.

And, in his First Edition briefing, Archie Bland sets out what would count as a good result for all the main parties.

On polling day itself not a lot normally happens. But we’ve always got dogs at polling stations.

A dog walker passing a polling station in Runcorn, Britain, this morning. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

And there may be some non-election politics too. Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, leader of the Commons, takes questions on next week’s Commons business.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.

If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.

If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.

I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.