LIVE: Latest updates from across Yorkshire and beyond as local election results roll in

Good morning and happy polling day. Welcome to our local elections live blog.

Voters across England and Wales are electing thousands of councillors, 11 mayors, including in London and Greater Manchester, as well as numerous police and crime commissioners. There’s also a Westminster by-election in Blackpool South which we’ll be keeping you abreast of.

Find out if elections are going on in your area, and what happened last time, with our interactive map here. This will be updated as the results come in this evening, all the way through until Saturday night (wish me luck). We’ll be bringing you expert insight and analysis from all our reporters across the country.

Send any thoughts, opinions or photos of dogs at polling stations to [email protected].

This is one of the first elections across the UK which will require voters to bring photo ID with them. In April 2022 MPs passed a new law making voter ID mandatory. The move was highly controversial, with widespread concerns that many could find themselves disenfranchised because they do not own ID.

The introduction of voter ID was designed to prevent voter personation, the crime of impersonating someone else when voting. But the Electoral Reform Society says the crime is “vanishingly rare” – there were only three convictions and six cautions between 2015 and 2020, according to the Electoral Commission – and that photo ID is a “solution looking for a problem”.

To vote today voters will need to bring specific photo ID to vote. The ID does not need to be in date, but the photo will need to be a true likeness. It will be up to polling station clerks to judge whether your ID looks like you.

If you have any issues voting please contact us [email protected].

The full list is as follows:

The local election counts are not all declared overnight, like they are in a general election. Instead, they slowly roll in until Saturday evening. There are however a number of key races that will declare tonight:

The first result I’ll be looking out for tonight is Hartlepool, which should declare around 1.30am. It seems a lifetime ago, that the Conservatives won the Hartlepool by-election, when it appeared as if Boris Johnson was set to be in power for a decade. That was only three years ago - how times change.

Labour needs to win just four of the 12 seats up for grabs to win the majority off the Conservative-Independent coalition. Read my colleague Nic Marko’s excellent preview for the Hartlepool Mail for more information.

Bolton is the next race to look out for at 2am. Labour leads the authority with a minority administration, but will be looking to take full control. It’s worth keeping an eye on how the Reform UK candidates do. The pro-Brexit party is not standing in many council races, but it is in Bolton - and this could be a good barometer of its influence ahead of the general election.

For Labour to win a majority at the general election, it will be looking to make gains in Harlow at 3am and Redditch at 3.30am. These are two bellwethers to keep an eye on. For the Lib Dems, if Ed Davey’s party is on a really good night it could take Stockport, expected at around 3.30am.

You can keep up to date with all the results via our interactive map.

As well as the thousands of council seats up for grabs, there are 11 mayoral races, including in the capital London. The key ones for Rishi Sunak are in the West Midlands and Tees Valley, where high profile Tory mayors Andy Street and Ben Houchen are looking to be re-elected.

Given the national opinion polls and the fact that both areas were previously Labour strongholds, Keir Starmer’s party should really be winning both of these mayoralties. However, the incumbents have good name recognition, and are tipped to be re-elected.

If the Tories were to lose in the West Midlands and on Teesside, Sunak could be in trouble with the plotters in his own party. It is thought this may spur them on try and make their move and depose the Prime Minister ahead of the general election - so these two races could have implications beyond each region.

In an ironic twist, Tom Hunt, the Conservative MP for Ipswich, who voted through the strict voter ID laws, has had to arrange for an emergency vote as he doesn’t have the right photographic identification. ITV’s Harry Horton broke the news. It’s another good reminder to take photo ID with you to the polling station.

The Government intends to make veterans’ ID cards a valid form of voter identification after former service personnel were turned away from polling stations, Downing Street said.

Veterans minister Johnny Mercer apologised to those who had been unable to use their veterans’ ID card to vote in the local elections on Thursday, vowing to “do all I can” to have it added to the list of valid identification.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “It is our intention for the new Veteran Card, which was rolled out in January, to be added to the official list.”

Polls have closed in the local, mayoral and PCC elections across England and Wales, as well as in the Blackpool by-election. I’m Ralph Blackburn, NationalWorld’s politics editor, and I’ll be keeping you company for the next few hours as the results slowly start to come in. We should soon get a bit of a gauge from the parties as to what their expectations are soon - I’ll bring you those comments as soon as we get them.

It might not surprise you to learn that Boris Johnson, the architect of the new voter ID laws, actually struggled to vote today. He was initially turned away from his polling station as he failed to bring any ID with him, Sky News reported. It’s understood Johnson eventually came back and was able to vote.

I’d be keen to hear about your experiences of using voter ID. At my polling station in London, there was barely a glance at my driver’s licence before handing over the voting slips. If you had any issues email [email protected].

Less than two hours before polls closed, Labour activists in London received a text message urging them to vote as the party’s data showed the race to become mayor was “so close”. This came after Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s attack on Tory candidate Susan Hall shocked commentators, and raised the question that Keir Starmer’s party might be worried about holding the capital.

I would still expect Khan to win a third term as mayor, when the result is announced on Saturday - but these two things together perhaps show some jitters at Labour HQ.

Pat McFadden, Labour’s National Campaign Coordinator, sounds positive. In a statement released minutes ago he said “we expect to see Labour gains that show we’re making progress in the places we need to win the next general election”.

McFadden commented: “We are proud of the positive campaign we have run, focused on turning the page after fourteen years of decline under the Conservative Party.

“These elections have been about offering change. We have set out our plan to get Britain building again, take back our streets, and bring opportunity to every corner of the country, while the Conservatives have once again stayed silent on the issues that matter.

“The most important election of the night is the historic by-election in Blackpool, caused by yet more Tory chaos and scandal. It’s the only election today where voters have had the opportunity to directly reject Rishi Sunak’s party in Westminster.

“It’s going to be a long night and the full picture of results from local elections may not be clear until over the weekend, but we expect to see Labour gains that show we’re making progress in the places we need to win the next general election.”

Susan Hall, the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London, does not sound confident. Whenever someone throws in a “no matter the result”, it’s not promising.

She said: “Thank you to everyone who voted today and all who came out and helped, I’m forever grateful. No matter the result, I’ll never stop listening to you and fighting for a better London for all of us.”

Remember we won’t find out the London mayoralty until Saturday afternoon.

South Tyneside, in the North East, is one of a number of councils that will declare the result tonight (most are tomorrow). My colleague Ryan Smith says the boxes have started arriving, we’re expecting to know the seats by around 2am. It already has a Labour majority, and it is unlikely to change hands.

With reporters across the country, NationalWorld’s local insight is unrivalled - so make sure you stay with us. The saying goes all politics is local, and that appears to be the case in South Tyneside. Despite Labour polling well nationally, the leader and deputy leader are under pressure due to a long-running bin strike.

My colleague Ryan Smith writes in to say: “The first ballot boxes are just starting to arrive here at Temple Park Leisure Centre, in South Shields, on what promises to be an exciting local election night with both the leader of South Tyneside Council, Cllr Tracey Dixon, and the deputy leader, Cllr Audrey Huntley, bidding to defend their seats.

“Tonight's election comes against a backdrop of an ongoing industrial dispute between South Tyneside Council and its refuse staff, which has caused disruption to bin collections in the borough since around September 2023.

“It is an issue that undoubtedly will have been in the forefront of voter's minds as they headed to the polls today and it will be interesting to see if it impacts the outcome of this election.

“Away from South Tyneside and looking at the North East region as a whole, it is an historic election as the public have had their say on who will be the first North East Mayor as the brand new devolution deal comes into effect; however, that result will not come until some time on Friday, 3 May.”

You can follow Ryan on X (Twitter) here.

The Electoral Commission has said “most voters” were able to cast their ballots despite the ID requirements.

“Our initial assessment of the elections is that they were well-run, and millions of voters were able to exercise their democratic rights,” a spokesman said.

“This is a testament to the efforts of electoral administrators, who work tirelessly to ensure the smooth delivery and integrity of polls.

“A number of new measures from the Elections Act were in force at these elections, including voter ID for the first time in Wales and parts of England. The electoral community has been working hard to prepare voters for these changes. Most voters who wanted to vote were able to do so.

“We will now begin to collect evidence from voters, electoral administrators, partner organisations, and campaigners to understand their experiences of the elections and identify any potential obstacles to participation.”

Britain Elects, the UK’s largest poll aggregator run by Ben Walker and Lily Summers, predicts the Tories will lose around half the seats they were defending. Remember the Conservatives won almost 1,000 seats at the local elections in 2021, yet Britain Elects forecasts them to lose 478. It expects Labour to gain 273 seats, the Lib Dems 129 and the Greens 52.

Speaking of the Greens, they’re hoping to win an outright majority in Bristol - where all 70 seats are up for election. I visited their campaign launch in the South West city almost a month ago, I found an organised party whose activists had swelled with former Jeremy Corbyn supporters.

New member Colin Gillie told me why he ditched Labour and joined the Greens in January. He said the response to the war in Gaza, the U-turn on the child benefit cap and the references to Thatcher all put him off Sir Keir Starmer.

“We need some ambition,” he told me. Rebecca Bentley-Price, 25, also joined the party in January. She said she got into politics because of Jeremy Corbyn, but couldn’t stick with Labour after its slow calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. “I’ve got to go with my principles,” she explained

You can read the full piece below.

I reported earlier that Labour messaged London activists shortly before the polls closed warning them that the mayoral race was “so close”. Sadiq Khan has now put out a statement, and he does sound a bit cagey.

He said his campaign and Labour activists “sent out a message of fairness, of equality and of hope”. He added: “Whatever the results this weekend might bring, I am so proud of that."