London (AFP) – Voters in England went to the polls Thursday to choose local councillors in the first electoral test for Prime Minister Theresa May since she lost her parliamentary majority last year.
May’s Conservative party is braced for defeats in London, where all 32 local councils are up for grabs, and which is a traditional stronghold of the opposition Labour party.
But elections are taking place across England, including in cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, with a total of more than 4,300 seats being contested.
Turnout is usually low — only around one third of voters bothered in last year’s local elections, compared to 69 percent in the national vote in June.
Since then the government has been rocked by divisions over Brexit, as well as a recent scandal over its treatment of Caribbean citizens who emigrated in the 1960s and 1970s, and which led to the resignation of a senior minister on the weekend.
National issues often factor in the local elections, which offer a chance to send a mid-term message to the government, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is certainly hoping for a boost.
EU citizens are able to vote, unlike in general elections, and some campaigners have been pressing Brexit as an issue.
However, questions of local tax rates, bin collection and the state of the roads also dominate many campaigns, making analysts wary of drawing too many national lessons from the results.
Polls opened at 7:00am (0600 GMT) and close at 10:00pm, and although some results will come in overnight, the full picture will not be clear until Friday.
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