Local elections 2022: Labour holds Sunderland as first councils declare in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – live updates

Rowena Mason

A bit of analysis on the vote in Sunderland here from the Guardian’s deputy political editor Rowena Mason:

Sunderland was one of the few areas in the whole country where the local Conservatives had believed they could potentially gain on Labour. But Keir Starmer’s party managed to hold on, causing sighs of relief in the party’s HQ.

Labour sources were quick to point out that both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak had visited the council area in the last week, seemingly making little difference.

However, it wasn’t pure good news for Labour, as its vote share there was down around 3%, and the Lib Dems were the only party to gain wards – one from the Tories and one from Labour.

More initial results of the night are beginning to trickle it: the Conservatives have held Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, according to Sky and the BBC, while Labour have held Halton in Liverpool.

The BBC is also reporting that Labour has held Wigan and South Tyneside, while the Conservatives have held Redditch in Worcestershire and Harlow in Essex.

Some Labour excitement over Sunderland:

Labour holds Sunderland

Archie Bland

In Sunderland, there were real fears for Labour that they could lose overall control of the local council for the first time since its foundation in 1974 – a result that would have been a hammer blow for Keir Starmer.

But in the end, the party retained control comfortably, with the only seats changing hands going to the Lib Dems – one from the Conservatives, one from Labour.

Labour’s Phil Tye, who increased his majority in Silksworth, put his victory down to people’s fears over the cost of living.

Some of the areas we’ve been in which haven’t been so good for Labour in the past, people are absolutely fuming about it.

They’re pig sick of it. I would say there are some people angry about Partygate, but it’s not huge – it’s strange, but people just accept that he’s a buffoon. People seem much more focused on the cost of living.

The Conservative leader of Rutland county council in the East Midlands has resigned, accusing the government of having “ignored” and “side-lined” the council over council tax concerns.

In a statement, Oliver Hemsley said he would leave the Conservative group effective immediately, but intended to complete his four-term term as an independent and would remain as leader.

The position we find ourselves in over Council Tax has been years in the making we had inequalities that have been compounded year on year and even though Government has been asked to look at this we have been ignored, side-lined and given no further improvements in our spending power,” he said in a statement.

He issued the statement after the close of polls, although the next elections in Rutland are not expected to be held until next year.

Jessica Murray

An update from the Guardian’s Jessica Murray: I’m stationed at the election count in Dudley tonight, where Labour are hoping to fight back after they suffered major losses in the West Midlands town in 2021.

They lost 12 seats in the elections last May, giving the Conservatives a majority on the council following a six-year period of no overall control.

The result in Dudley is seen as a bellwether for the mood across the country, with the council having swung between Labour and Conservative control multiples times over the last few decades.

Labour activists say they are feeling confident, and think anger over Downing Street lockdown parties has helped swing votes in their favour.

But Conservative council leader Patrick Harley previously said he thinks the scandal will only have a “small” impact, and he still expects his party to gain seats.

The first results are expected around 4am.

Almost three quarters of those who voted in Thursday’s elections think the government hasn’t done enough to help with the rising cost of living, according to a new poll published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) tonight.

Among Conservative voters 53 per cent thought the government had not done enough. The snap poll surveyed 2,500 voters and also showed that the cost of living crisis was top of voters’ concerns followed by the NHS and public services.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said the public had sent a “clear distress signal”:

Everyone should have enough to pay their bills. But years of standstill wages, and cuts to social security, have left millions at the mercy of soaring bills and prices.

On local elections day today, the public have sent out a clear distress call. They want the government to do more to help families get through this cost of living emergency.

Chris Curtis, head of political polling at Opinium, said:

We are still waiting to see the results come in, but one thing from this election is already clear. The issue at the top of voters’ minds as they cast their ballots was the cost of living crisis, and hardly anyone thinks the government is doing enough to tackle it.

In Scotland, the Scottish Sun’s political editor Rachel Watson says the Conservatives are braced for “heavy losses”, citing senior sources who say they “fully expect to come third” – behind the SNP and Labour – for the first time in six elections.

She also quotes a source as saying: “It’s pretty apparent what’s happening, it’s all down to Partygate and Boris.”

Josh Halliday

One of the trickiest contests for Labour is in Sunderland, where it risks losing control of the council for the first time since it was founded in 1974, says the Guardian’s North Of England correspondent Josh Halliday.

Labour has a majority of only six councillors on the 75-seat authority, meaning it could easily fall into no overall control when ballots are counted.

Such a result would be a huge blow to Keir Starmer, whose path to Downing Street relies in part on winning back voters in “red wall” areas where Labour has been losing support for years.

One Labour councillor I spoke to earlier said he would be surprised if his party lost control of Sunderland city council – but he sounded markedly more downcast than when I asked him the same question a fortnight ago.

“It’s clearly going to be a very competitive election,” he said. “I’d be surprised if we didn’t survive but that’s not to say it can’t happen.”

He added:

There are enough clues on the doorstep and judging by the scale of the postal vote, that’s gone extremely well and we’re getting a big turnout. That said, neither party can be overly confident about which way many seats will go.

A Labour organiser predicted the council would fall into no overall control. He said the Conservatives had flooded the city with canvassers from across the region in recent days to try secure a major scalp on what could be a difficult night for Boris Johnson across the country.

He said:

Partygate doesn’t come up as much as you’d think and for those who have brought it up they’ve said things like ‘You’re all as bad as each other’ or ‘that’s politics’.

Another Labour councillor said the council leader, Graeme Miller, was nervous about losing his own seat. She said the canvassing had been “manic” in recent days as Labour tries to cling on.

Results from Sunderland are expected to be among the first to come in tonight.

Severin Carrell

And an update from our correspondent Severin Carroll in Scotland, where voters will be electing more than 1,220 councillors across all of Scotland’s 32 local authorities once counting starts at 7am on Friday morning.

This election is unlikely to produce any shocks or seismic changes: recent polls show the Scottish National party, which has been in power in the devolved Scottish parliament for 15 years, still has a commanding lead at around 45% of the vote.

At national level, the main story will be whether the polls correctly forecast Labour will come second, replacing the Conservatives as the putative challengers to the SNP’s dominance.

Tory support has been hit hard by voter anger over the Partygate scandal at Downing Street, while some middle ground pro-UK voters feel comforted by Keir Starmer’s centrist leadership of UK Labour.

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. Most councils, including the largest cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, will either be run by coalitions or minority administrations. Others are dominated by independents.

In 2017, the SNP won 431 seats, the Tories took 276 after unexpectedly gaining 164 councillors, while Labour lost 133 seats to take only 262 places. Labour hopes to regain that lost ground and see its support reach around 25%, up from 20% in 2017.

While we wait for election results, here’s a brief recap of the situation in Northern Ireland, where the day’s most significant elections – for the devolved government in Stormont – are taking place although results will not begin to come in until later on Friday.

Sinn Féin are predicted to become the largest party in Stormont – meaning a republican party would claim the post of first minister for the first time since the power-sharing deal set out in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

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.

One of the most recent polls put Sinn Féin on 26%, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) on 20% and the centrist Alliance on 14% with smaller nationalist and unionist parties accounting for most of the rest.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has refused to say whether he will nominate a deputy first minister in the event of Sinn Féin claiming the top office.

He has also said his party will not enter a new Stormont executive unless the government in Westminster takes action on the Brexit protocol that saw checks introduced on goods crossing the Irish Sea, effectively introducing a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

DUP first minister Paul Givan resigned over the issue in February, plunging the devolved government into renewed turmoil – the power-sharing arrangement with Sinn Féin had been restored just two years earlier.

Most voters in Northern Ireland favour remaining in the UK and Sinn Féin leader Michelle O’Neill has been careful not to push the matter of Irish reunification during the election campaign, instead focusing on issues such as the rising cost of living and health care.

An immediate referendum on reunification is therefore unlikely – but the party will certainly hope that a victory will give it momentum towards that eventual goal.

Due to the voting system Northern Ireland uses – the single transferable vote (STV) proportional representation electoral system – and the fact that counting does not begin until Friday morning results are not immediately expected.

For more in depth insight into the election in Northern Ireland, check out this dispatch written by the Guardian’s correspondent Rory Carroll earlier this week:

The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope is predicting a Labour victory in Wandsworth tonight, citing a “local Labour source”. If that’s the case it would be the first time since 1974. Results are not expected until around 5 or 6am.

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg is also reporting that the Tories seem “pretty sure” they have lost the council.

Rowena Mason

Labour were downplaying expectations of huge gains when polls closed but made the case that the party would show “steady progress”.

Anneliese Dodds, chair of the Labour party, said:

We are proud of the positive campaign we have run, based on a practical plan to tackle the cost of living crisis and the crime blighting our communities. Because we believe Britain deserves better.

It’s going to be a long night and there will be ups and downs – we hold the majority of the seats up for election in England, so never expected big gains.

These results will show the progress we have made thanks to Keir’s leadership since the disastrous 2019 election result. Labour is a renewed and confident party, making headway in England, Scotland and Wales.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey meanwhile said he was “optimistic” that the party would gain ground in areas across the blue wall, “where voters are fed up of being taken for granted by the Conservatives”.

After knocking on hundreds of doors this election one thing is clear: people are sick of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives. They have had enough of seeing their taxes hiked, sewage dumped in their rivers and local health services run into the ground.

People deserve a strong local champion who will stand up for their community, and a government that helps them with the cost of living emergency.

As votes are being counted, here’s some insight from the Guardian’s chief political correspondent, Jessica Elgot, who says Westminster, controlled by the Conservatives since its creation in the 1960s, is looking “a bit dicey for the Tories”.

Another London council that is being closely watched is Wandsworth, where the Tory majority shrank to six in the last elections in 2018, the smallest it’s been since 1982.

“Neither side prepared to call Wandsworth but key ward was teeming with activists from both sides trying to get out the vote. Both were hoping for late turn out surge,” Jessica says.

Labour winning Wandsworth would be “very symbolic” but doesn’t mean a lot in terms of the next general election.

It’s Barnet and Westminster where they don’t hold the parliamentary seats where the data is more interesting – as well as wards in eg Chingford

Meanwhile Labour are “feeling good” about Barnet but Croydon is on a “knife-edge for the mayoralty”, with Tories expecting gains and things are “not great” for Labour in Tower Hamlets, where activists think that the party of former mayor Luftur Rahman may lose them seats.

The Conservatives are meanwhile saying they their vote is holding up in places like Bolton although they may not take Sunderland, while Labour is hoping to take some Tory seats in Bury but also expecting to lose some to independents.

In conclusion, says Jessica:

The main theme I’ve heard from almost everyone I’ve talked to during the day is that turnout has been a big issue – but we’ll see what the figures really tell us.

First results aren’t expected until about 2am but some of the key seats are likely to be among the first to report.

From 2am we should start seeing some interesting results trickle through, including in Bolton, which should give a good early indicator as to whether Labour is making any comeback in the north of England.

Wandsworth, in London, is expected to report between 5am and 7am.

For a closer look at which councils to watch out for, read this explainer from my colleagues Jessica Elgot and Antonio Voce:

As mentioned earlier, Worthing is one of the seats experts will keep a close eye on to see how well the local elections are going for Labour or whether the Conservatives really do need to worry.

My colleague Heather Stewart went to West Sussex to speak to voters and campaigners on the ground and found an optimistic Labour party amid signs Partygate has taken a toll on Tory support in the ‘blue sea wall’.

Here’s an excerpt from her report:

Margaret Howard, standing for re-election in the Broadwater ward in the east of the town, said. “This morning I had a Tory say he had voted Conservative for 40 years, but it’s time for a change. We have had lots of switchers,” she says.

“Some are because of the local picture, because they know about the community work that’s being done locally, and some it’s because they don’t like what’s happening nationally – but we don’t mind either way.”

Cooper, who leads the Labour group on the council, explains that they have put together a local manifesto, based on conversations with voters over five years. It includes everything from bringing the lido back into use to consulting on providing more dog-poo bins.

“It’s about people wanting green spaces for them and their families, and a town to be proud of. It’s not really rocket science, but it’s things that everybody can get onboard with,” says Cooper.

Going into these local elections, Labour was level pegging with the Conservatives, on 17 seats apiece.

The Tories have been running a minority administration in Worthing since Labour deprived them of their majority in a byelection last December – triggered by the resignation of a Conservative councillor, Tim Wills, who was accused by the anti-fascist campaign group Hope Not Hate of privately supporting the far-right group Patriotic Alternative.

With 14 seats up for grabs on Thursday, Labour has high hopes of taking control.

Peter Kellner, the former president of YouGov, wrote a piece for the Guardian earlier this week looking at the key councils to watch in this year’s local elections.

He explained how strategists will focus on a handful of councils – including Wakefield, Wandsworth and Worthing – to gauge the depth of Boris Johnson’s woes, and the actual probability of a Keir Starmer victory.

You can read his full piece on which local elections to look out for here:

And for a cheat sheet on what seat is up where and who won it last time round, Britain Elects have this handy tool:

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. In Scotland all 32 councils and in Wales all 22 councils also held elections.

It could be a long night for local Conservatives amid criticism of the government’s handling of the cost of living crisis and renewed scrutiny over Partygate.

Some candidates styled themselves “local Conservatives”, and in some cases they urged voters not to punish them for “mistakes made in Westminster”.

Leaflets delivered in Hartlepool said: “This Thursday, please don’t punish local Conservatives for the mistakes made in Westminster. We are local, and proud of where we live.”

In many parts of the country, including Birmingham, St Albans, and in the Esher and Walton constituency of the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, Tories were listed as “local Conservative”, even on the ballot paper.

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. 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.

We’ll bring you all the results as they come in, with latest reactions and analysis.