Polls close in elections across England, Scotland and Wales | May 2026 elections
Polls have closed in England, Scotland and Wales for local, mayoral and parliamentary elections and the first results will be announced within a few hours.
More than 30 million people across Britain were given the opportunity to vote on Thursday in what is seen as the biggest test for Keir Starmer since the 2024 general election. The results in the three countries could fundamentally change the political landscape and have repercussions for the prime minister.
In what is seen as the first truly multi-party contest, Reform UK and the Green party are expected to make significant gains at the expense of Westminster’s two biggest parties in England, while the Liberal Democrats could turn parts of local government yellow and increase the total number of councilors for an unprecedented eighth local election in a row.
The elections cover 136 local councils in England and there are 5,014 seats contested; these include every seat in London’s 32 borough councils, more than a dozen borough councils, six unitary councils, six borough councils and three district councils. A further 73 councils are holding elections for half or a third of the available seats.
The first results are expected around 12.30pm and a new abundance will arrive from 03.00am. Around a third of councils are due to report results by 7am on Friday, while the most important results, including mayoral results in London boroughs and council results in major cities such as Manchester and Leeds, are expected to start arriving at midday.
Around 80 more councils will announce results by the end of Friday, but the final councils, including Croydon and Tower Hamlets in London as well as Hastings in Sussex, will not be announced until Saturday afternoon.
Results in Scotland and Wales will be clear at around 4pm on Friday, with local election results due in the afternoon and early evening.
Counting for the mayoral elections will only begin on Friday; Hackney and Newham are expected to announce at 13.00, followed by Watford at 14.00, Lewisham at 15.00, Croydon at 16.00 and Tower Hamlets at around 18.00.
Labor strategists will await the results with some trepidation as the party settles for potentially record-breaking losses. Some estimates suggest Labor could lose more than 1,800 seats (75% of the seats it defends). While it faces pressure from Reformation along the former “red wall” in the north-east, Midlands and north-west of England, the party is challenged by Greens and independent candidates in London, where four years ago Labor had its best performance since 1971.
Labor could lose wealthy boroughs such as Wandsworth and Westminster to the Conservatives and Merton to the south-west increasingly dominated by the Liberal Democrats. Reformation is campaigning heavily in London’s largely Conservative outer ring, in places such as Bexley, Bromley, Barking, Hillingdon and Havering, as well as Labour-run Barking and Dagenham.
Zack Polanski’s Green Party has expressed confidence it will win the Labour-run councils of Lambeth, Islington, Southwark and Hackney, and has campaigned heavily in Lewisham and Camden, where Starmer is an MP.
The Green Party is also hoping to capitalize on its recent success in by-elections in Gorton and Denton and is targeting Manchester city council, where a third of councilors are up for election. Continuous campaigns are also carried out in other cities with high student populations, such as Cambridge, Oxford, Leeds, Sheffield and Reading.
Reform is expected to deliver gains in English councils, including traditional Labor strongholds such as Sunderland and traditionally Tory enclaves such as Essex; Anything beyond the control of a number of councils is likely to be seen as poor performance.
Reform is neck-and-neck with Plaid Cymru in the Senedd elections in Wales and could emerge as the SNP’s main opposition at Holyrood.
The struggle on the right will be most clearly seen in the six county councils that last went to the polls during Boris Johnson’s 2021 “vaccine rollout”. Reformation expects to take control of the council in Essex and aims to win over traditionally Tory-dominated Norfolk and Suffolk. The Liberal Democrats hope to make progress in Hampshire, West Sussex and establish two new councils in Surrey at the expense of the Conservatives.
While attention has focused on rebel parties, the Liberal Democrats have a chance to become the largest party in English local government.
In Scotland, Labor could be pushed into third place behind the SNP and Reform. Polls before the vote suggested the SNP was heading for a fifth term in office, but it is unclear whether any party can win the 65 seats needed for a majority in the 129-member Scottish parliament.
In Wales, where a new proportional voting system will be implemented, voters will elect 96 politicians from 16 constituencies, with six members of the Senedd (MSs) elected in each. In Wales, Labor faces the prospect of historic defeat after coming first in every general election since 1922 and every devolved election since 1999. Plaid Cymru and Reform UK are neck-and-neck in the latest poll, but coalition maths makes Reform look very unlikely to form a government.
