Local elections 2023: Tories suffer major losses as Labour make key gains - key results

Hello and welcome to NationalWorld's local elections live blog. We'll be bringing the latest results and analysis from Rishi Sunak's first test as Prime Minister.

More than 8,000 council seats in England are up for grabs across 230 local authorities, ranging from small rural areas to some of the largest towns and cities. Polls are also taking place to choose mayors in Bedford, Leicester, Mansfield and Middlesbrough.

We have a full guide on where the local elections are being held.

This year’s local elections will be the first contest at which voters will be required to present photo ID at polling stations in order to vote, my colleague Ethan Shone reports. Expired ID will be accepted, although councils are warning photos must still be a true likeness to the individual.

Most forms of existing photo ID will be accepted, including:

For a full list of accepted forms of photo identification, and more info on the Voter Authority Certificate, check the Electoral Commission’s website.

Campaigners have raised concerns about specific groups being disproportionately impacted by the introduction of a requirement for voter ID.

NationalWorld previously revealed that government-commissioned research published last year shows disabled people and people in poor or very poor health are much less likely to have a form of functional photo ID.

A major survey commissioned by the Cabinet Office in 2021 found more than 900,000 voters (2%) do not have a form of photo ID, while almost 2 million (4%) do not have ID in which they are still recognisable – with sick and disabled people particularly badly affected.

Among the 18+ disabled population surveyed, 3% said they did not already have a form of photo ID, one percentage point higher than for non-disabled people (2%). For people who said they had a severely limiting disability, it was 5%.

The results of local elections are not necessarily an indicator of how the next general election is likely to play out, due to the relatively low turnout, the greater importance voters may place on local issues and the differing incumbency factor in areas with councils run by parties that are in opposition in Westminster.

However, the major parties will still look to the results of May’s elections for signs of where they may need to improve and for early warning signs ahead of the next general election, my colleague Ethan Shone reports, which will take place in January 2025 at the latest. Doing well in local elections can help in national elections, as more councillors means more hardy campaigners who will help get out the vote in a general election.

The Conservatives stand to lose the largest number of seats, as they currently control 83 of the councils up for grabs, compared with 49 for Labour and 17 for the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives are also the largest party in more of the councils which currently have no overall control, meaning they may be best positioned to take over these councils if they can pick up additional seats.

The Tories will face strong opposition from Labour in many northern seats, while the Liberal Democrats will be hoping to build on a strong showing in last year’s local elections to challenge the Conservatives in the south. Sir Ed Davey’s party is thought to be targeting coastal constituencies and campaigning hard on the issue of water pollution.

One area which could be seen as a bellwether ahead of the next general election is the North East, where the Conservatives have made significant gains in recent years. Particularly in the Tees Valley area, where Conservative metro mayor Ben Houchen has proven popular, Labour will be hoping to take councils like Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, which both currently have no overall control.

Labour could also restore its control of Bolton Council, which it held for several decades before local independent councillors managed to take a number of seats and strike an agreement with the Conservatives as the largest party, while in Sheffield, a three way fight between Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens could see Labour regain overall control.

While local issues are often decisive in council elections, broader concerns relating to the cost of living and the NHS are also likely to be playing on voters’ minds as they head to the ballot box. Both major parties have been focusing on anti-social behaviour in recent weeks, with Labour criticising the Conservatives’ record over the 12 years. However, in areas where Labour runs the council, this focus on the state of communities and concerns like fly-tipping may backfire, as voters hold their local administrations responsible rather than the governing party in Westminster.

Bolton is the one to watch, Ian Jones, PA's data editor says, a key battleground with every council seat up for grabs and both Labour and the Conservatives hoping to do enough to win a majority, though it will be a harder task for Labour, who need 12 gains, than the Tories, who need five (estimated declaration time: 4am, Friday).

Labour should have no trouble holding its many north-west bedrocks, including Liverpool (5pm), Manchester (11.45am), Salford (3.30am) and Wigan (5pm), but will look to bump up its numbers in Hyndburn (2pm) and stay in control in Blackpool (3pm).

The party will be disappointed if it fails to win a majority at Cheshire West & Chester (7pm), where it currently holds 33 of the 70 seats. Another target is Wirral (5pm), where Labour needs 10 gains to turn minority control into overall control.

Elsewhere, the Greens are looking to overtake Labour to become the largest party at Lancaster (5.30pm).

Reports are starting to come in about voting issues, although in the North West it is not to do with photo ID ... yet.

Some South Ribble residents, who opted to vote by post in this year’s local elections, had still not received their ballot papers as polling day dawned on Thursday, our sister title the Lancashire Post reports.

Those affected have been invited to collect new voting packs from the authority’s headquarters in Leyland - a likely longer journey for them than if they had opted to vote in person.

Anybody who requested a postal vote but has still not received it is being urged to contact the council immediately.

Meanwhile, those whose forms arrived in the post only today will have to take them to their local polling station before the facilities close at 10pm in order for their vote to count.

You can read my colleague Paul Faulkner's full story here.

A number of would-be voters have been turned away on local elections day due to newly-introduced photo ID requirements, candidates have told NationalWorld.

For the first time ever, voters have been required to present photo ID, my colleague Imogen Howse reports. The new rule has been criticised by campaigners who have warned it could prevent people from voting - something which has happened in parts of the country.

Maddy Redpath, a Residents for Guildford and Villages candidate for Castle ward, has attended several polling stations across Guildford, Surrey, on voting day - and said she had seen “a fair few” people be turned away.

She told NationalWorld: “I saw four people turned away because they didn’t have ID, and one turned away because she had the wrong form of ID.”

What Redpath thought was “strange”, she told NationalWorld, was the fact that “no one seemed to be noting this down.”

She explained: “I thought they would have wanted to document this, so that they can report on how things went with the new rule.”

The Electoral Commission previously said that it will “not be possible to accurately quantify” the impact of the new rules by counting who does or doesn’t have ID at the ballot boxes - meaning the true number of voters who have been turned away may never be known.

Labour is keen to retake control of Middlesbrough (3pm Friday) and needs only two gains to achieve this. NationalWorld's Ethan Shone will be reporting on this, and the Middlesbrough mayoral race tonight.

A strong Labour showing in Darlington (3pm) and Sunderland (1.30am) would also point to a good performance in an area where the party needs to make ground at a general election.

Hartlepool (1.30am) could be the most intriguing contest in this part of the country, with both Labour and the Conservatives hoping to take control – and both needing six gains to do it. A win for Labour would have symbolic value, coming two years after the party suffered a disastrous parliamentary by-election defeat.

In Cambridge, NationalWorld understands a number of students were turned away for trying to use their student bus passes as ID. One of the criticisms of the voter ID law is that the accepted identification disenfranchises younger people. A lot travel cards for elderly people are accepted, such as an Oyster 60+ card and a Freedom Pass, while students cards are not allowed.

My colleague Ethan Shone has been in Middlesbrough for the last couple of days. He'll be covering the mayoral race (result expected at 1am) and council election (result expected 1pm).

Here are some of Ethan's thoughts on Middlesbrough and the local elections:

Middlesbrough has its difficulties. As one resident puts it, the town “comes near the top of all the league tables you don’t want to be near the top of”. It has a high crime rate compared with the rest of the region, one of the largest proportions of children in care, and some of the poorest wards in the country.

In the last decade or so a thriving creative scene has emerged, generally receiving strong support from the council and benefitting from proximity to institutions like the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA), Teesside University and the Northern School of Art.

Working with the council, the Middlesbrough Creative Partnership secured over £5m last year from the government’s Cultural Development Fund, which is being put to use toward the goal of making Middlesbrough “the most creative town in the country”.

Platform A Gallery, which is accessed from the town’s train station platform, provides studio space for a dozen artists, plus a gallery space which regularly hosts local, national and international exhibitions. The space has expanded steadily over time and has plans to continue doing so, with a print workshop next on the agenda. Down the road is an even larger creative space, The Auxiliary, which is in the process of refurbishing the large warehouse it originally leased but now owns.

The proprietors of both spaces say they’ve had good support from the council, which has helped them to access funding provided by bodies like Arts England, and occasionally chipped in with direct financial support. There are other galleries and creative spaces in the town, largely situated in the north of the town centre, where the council has also created a development zone, Boho, which hosts a number of businesses operating in the digital sector, including video game developer Double Eleven and software company Big Bite.

The Boho zone has been a central part of the council’s regeneration plans, and has attracted a fair amount of criticism, as well as praise. The latest addition to the zone is Boho X, a 60,000 sq ft Grade A office space set to feature a gym, café, rooftop bar, event space and a lecture theatre. The project is nearing completion, with handover expected in the coming months, but a much smaller structure erected nearby - a makeshift shack where a homeless person has taken up residence - has come to embody a common criticism of the development; that the council and the mayor in particular are more concerned with big, showy investment projects than the bread and butter of running a local authority.

Read Ethan's full piece here.

The local election in Southampton, Hampshire has been abandoned after Graham Galton, a Conservative councillor running for the Coxford ward, died following the opening of the polls.

Mr Galton was running for re-election to the city council, which he had served on for four years.

Southampton City Council said in a statement: “The returning officer has been advised of the death of Coxford ward candidate Mr Graham Galton, who was standing for election to Southampton City Council in today’s elections.

“Our condolences go to Mr Galton’s family.

“The law provides that where proof of death of a candidate is delivered to the returning officer after polls have opened, but before the declaration of result, the poll must be abandoned, and a new election must be held for that ward.

“Therefore, the returning officer has closed all the polling stations in Coxford ward and voters should not go to these locations.”