Right here is the most recent version of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly UK podcast. John Harris has been to Doncaster, the one council the place elections are going down at the moment below Labour management. A minimum of one ballot suggests it will lose to Reform UK.
It’s a pleasant day for voting in England. Yesterday the Inexperienced celebration stated it was more likely to be “the most popular native election day on report”. Listed here are two footage of individuals arriving to vote.
At 10.30am an vitality minister will reply to an pressing query from Labour’s Gareth Snell, MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, asking for a press release on “the federal government’s strategy to lowering vitality costs for vitality intensive industries”.
Within the Commons Jonathan Reynolds, the enterprise secretary, is taking questions. Requested by the Inexperienced MP Ellie Chowns if he agreed {that a} new commerce take care of the EU ought to embody a youth mobility scheme, linking the UK with the EU’s emissions buying and selling schme and aligning on chemical rules.
In his reply, Reynolds stated he didn’t wish to touch upon the small print of the negotiation. However he stated that he did need it to deal with the “limitations” Chowns talked about and he stated he wished the UK to have “the perfect and most frictionless commerce attainable with the EU”.
Good morning. It’s began. Individuals are already voting within the 2025 native elections. They’re England-only, and there are round 1,600 council seats up for grabs (in another years, there are greater than 8,000 seats up for election in England alone), and so in some respects it’s a minor set of native elections. However you’ll by no means discover a political commentator prepared to say an election will not be essential and this yr there may be a lot to get enthusiastic about. That’s partly as a result of it’s Labour’s first electoral take a look at for the reason that common election (and no governing celebration in fashionable instances has seen its recognition collapse so rapidly, as John Curtice pointed out this week). However principally it’s as a result of two-party politics has collapsed, there at the moment are 5 political events which can be aggressive in England and the rise of Reform UK means a realignment of the best is already occurring. These elections will present how developed that course of is.
Immediately individuals are voting for:
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Greater than 1,600 councillors in 14 county councils, eight unitary authorities, one metropolitan council, and within the Isles of Scily.
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Six mayors – two of them are regional mayors the place Labour received final time (West of England, and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough), two of them are regional mayors the place elections are being held for the primary time (Larger Lincolnshire, and Hull and East Yorkshire), and two of them are single-authority mayors the place Labour received final time (Doncaster, and North Tyneside).
Right here is Peter Walker’s morning preview story.
And, in his First Version briefing, Archie Bland units out what would depend as a very good end result for all the principle events.
On polling day itself not loads usually occurs. However we’ve at all times bought canine at polling stations.
And there could also be some non-election politics too. Right here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Jonathan Reynolds, enterprise secretary, takes questions within the Commons.
After 10.30am: Lucy Powell, chief of the Commons, takes questions on subsequent week’s Commons enterprise.
11.30am: Downing Road holds a foyer briefing.
Midday: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions from MSPs.
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