Local elections 2024: Counting begins as Tories brace for losses in England’s council and mayoral races – latest results live | Local elections 2024

The Guardian’s political correspondent, Eleni Courea, has excellent material on the key results to look for overnight. Here’s a snippet of her explainer:

The result of the parliamentary elections in Blackpool South will set the tone early. Labor is expected to win back the seat, which fell vacant after former Tory MP Scott Benton resigned after breaking standard rules in a lobbying scandal. Benton won the once solidly Labor constituency at the 2019 election with a majority of 3,690 votes.

Between about 1.30am and 4am on Friday, 39 councils are expected to announce their results, giving a partial picture of the overall result. Among the tips to declare around 3 am is Harlow, a key city and general election battleground where all 33 seats are up for grabs. Keir Starmer went to Harlow, which is now controlled by the Tories, for his pre-election campaign visit on Wednesday.

Overnight results should also come from Rushmore, Turok and Redditchall of which are controlled by the Tories but which Labor hopes to take.

You can read the full story here:

The former Conservative chancellor, George Osbornesaid that if Ben Houchenthe Conservative mayor of Tees Valley, loses his seat, then it will be ‘Armageddon’ as it will mean a ‘massive crushing defeat’ for the Tories.

In 2021, Houchen secured the job with almost 73% of the vote and was seen as the standard bearer of Boris Johnson’s equalization programme.

The latest polls show him and Labour’s Chris McEwan nearly head-to-head. Defeat for the Conservatives could be the upset that risks creating panic among Tory MPs that could prompt a vote of confidence in Rishi Sunak’s leadership.

Speaking on the Political Currency podcast, which he hosts with former shadow chancellor Ed Balls, Osborne said:

If Ben Houchen loses, it will be Armageddon – because at that point people will say “we are now headed for a massive landslide defeat”.

And there will be people in the Conservative Parliamentary Party who say: “change course, change leader”. They have already started talking about some policies they would come up with.

Not that I think they can change the political weather… You would never have guessed 20 years ago that the future of the Tory leadership would depend on how people voted in Teesside. But I think that’s the way it is right now.

Osborne also said it would be “very bad” if Andy Street, the incumbent mayor of the West Midlands, loses his race. He said the national conservative brand would be the reason for his defeat, not his local record as mayor.

Before the polls closed, Street had sent a two-page letter to voters in the West Midlands in which Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, showered him with praise and dismissed the Tories’ record at Westminster. Like Houchen, Street also faces a tough vote.

Osborne said:

If Andy Street loses in the West Midlands, that’s pretty bad… [if that happens] I think Andy Street will probably come out and explain why he got lost.

And it will be clear that he bucked the national polls as much as he could, but in the end the conservative brand brought him down. That would be bad for Sunak and it could provoke a lot of talk about the leadership race.

• Tees Valley Expected Result: 12.30pm Tees Valley (Friday Midday)

• West Midlands Expected Result: 3pm (Saturday afternoon)

It was just 10pm UK time and polling stations have already closed across the country.

Groups open from 7am for council, mayoral, police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales.

There were also partial parliamentary elections in Blackpool south. There are no elections in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and no local council elections in Wales.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the 2024 local elections.

It could be a long night for the locals Conservatives as the party braces for the potential of heavy election losses that could destabilize Rishi Sunak’s premiership.

The election, which is considered the ultimate test of voter opinion before the upcoming general electionsexpected later this year, cover more than 2,600 seats in 107 English councils (metropolitan, unitary and county).

Labor and the Conservatives are defending around 1,000 seats each, with pollsters predicting the Tories could lose around 500. Even Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is on record as saying the party expects to suffer “significant losses”.

As well as the election of councils in parts of England, 37 police and crime commissioners will also be elected in England and Wales, along with the mayor and assembly of London, nine combined-authority mayors and one single-authority mayor (Salford).

On top of all this, a by-election will elect the new MP for Blackpool South, after former Conservative MP Scott Benton resigned in the wake of a lobbying scandal. Labor is expected to win. Results are expected early Friday morning.

I’ll be taking you through the early hours and blogging until around 6am, bringing you the key results as they come in, with the latest reactions and analysis.

Here’s a breakdown of what we expect to be named overnight:

Advices:

• 12.30pm: Broxburn

• 1.30am: Hartlepool, Rochford, Sunderland

• 2am: Bolton, Gosport, Ipswich, Newcastle upon Tyne, North East Lincolnshire, South Tyneside, Wigan

• 2.30am: Chorley, Eastleigh, Fareham, Hart, Oldham, Portsmouth, Rushmoor, Southend-on-Sea

• 2.45am: Exeter

• 3am: Harlow, Kingston upon Hull, Lincoln, Sefton, Tameside, Thurrock

• 3.15am: Reading

• 3.30am: Colchester, Gateshead, Redditch, Stockport

• 4am: Peterborough, Plymouth

• 4.30am: Southampton

• 5.30am: Winchester

Police and Crime Commissioners:

• 1.30am: Cumbria

• 2.30am: Avon and Somerset

• 3.00am: Lincolnshire

You can read all live council results in our tracker here.