What’s happening?
It’s the polling day test run: local elections to 88 councils – the full set in Scotland and Wales; 34 in England; Northern Ireland is spared this round – plus eight mayoral elections in England, six of them brand new offices. We have all you need to know as polls open for local and mayoral elections, and hasty conclusions are drawn by politicians and people on social media everywhere about what it all means.
Today’s voting will put a bit of a dampener on campaigning for next month’s main event – until the result start spilling in, that is.
Here’s our guide to who’s voting where and what results to expect when. Committed electo-philes should stick with our live coverage all through the night; others (I mean, you’re very welcome here, but it doesn’t really count if you grab a nap, so shape up before 8 June, please) can catch up with our early Friday morning roundup. Sign up here to have it served straight to your inbox.
You might think that the distraction of the polls would mean things will be calmer on the political front. Are you new to 2017? Scooting along behind Theresa May’s declaration of (let’s hope) metaphorical war on Brussels over what she called the EU’s “acts … deliberately timed to affect the result of the general election”, comes news that a boosted Conservative government after 8 June could seek a Commons vote on airstrikes in Syria. Plus there are reports that Spain has fresh plans for a post-Brexit Gibraltar.
All of which makes Nigel Farage’s explicit backing for Marine Le Pen in Sunday’s French presidential election the least startling news of the morning. Catch up with our report on last night’s debate between Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron – to which the two contenders did at least turn up.
Here, ITV says it will steam on with its leaders’ debate minus the two people who reckon they’ll be leading the country after the election. Both May and Jeremy Corbyn have said they won’t be there on 18 May; Nicola Sturgeon, Tim Farron, Caroline Lucas, Paul Nuttall and Leanne Wood will likely make up the guest list. Politico reports today that the BBC will host its own leader-lite leaders’ debate on 31 May, but will allow the PM and her opposite number to send a “senior figure” in their stead. Taking bets on Boris Johnson v Diane Abbott now.
After yesterday’s “not just like The Thick Of It, but literally a storyline from The Thick Of It” outing by David Davis and Philip Hammond, they might need to be kept out of the limelight until they’ve relearned the strong and stable handbook.
I'm not convinced the Conservatives thought this poster launch through. pic.twitter.com/lkHmuhovui
— Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) May 3, 2017
Get up to speed on today’s votes – and what they mean:
- Northern powerhouse or cardboard city – can a new mayor fix Manchester?
- Different worlds, 300 metres apart: how two areas sum up Tees Valley.
- ‘What election?’: West Midlands mayoral race struggles to overcome apathy.
- Labour party looks to local elections as foretaste of fortunes in June.
- SNP hope to finish the job and wipe Labour out of Glasgow.
Plus, elsewhere:
- EU immigration ‘likely to continue for some years’ after Brexit, says thinktank.
- Brexit talks leadership vacuum ‘leaves 45% chance of no deal’.
- Brexit may cost MPs and peers the power to pass laws, says former judge.
- Hospital waiting lists ‘will rise above 5 million’ as targets slide.
- Tories attack Labour over inheritance tax and spending plans.
Poll position
Panelbase follows recent general election poll trends that show a narrowing of the still-wide gap between the Conservatives and Labour. Excluding the don’t knows, this one puts the Tories on 47% (-2) and Labour on 30% (+3). Lib Dems are likely to be miffed on an unchanged 10%; Ukip similarly is stuck on 5%. The Greens dipped one point to 2%.
Diary
Quieter on the campaign front – at least until the results start coming in:
- At 7am, polling stations open for all councils in Scotland and Wales, 34 councils in England, and eight English mayors.
- From 8am we’ll see Scottish party leaders Nicola Sturgeon, Kezia Dugdale, Ruth Davidson and Patrick Harvie voting – separately and, let’s assume, differently.
- Polls close at 10pm; we’ll have all the results on our overnight live blog, so don’t go anywhere.
Talking point
The PM is keen to talk about … not much – apart from being strong on the EU and stable on other, unspecified things – but the Conservative manifesto is likely to have more on her old pet project: grammar schools. Our long read today looks at what a revival of the old demarcations might mean. With May’s own party already torn over whether the 11-plus is a pass or a fail, yesterday’s rebel Tory uprising over the new school funding formula is another reminder that she is on stronger, more stable ground when she doesn’t deal with details.
Read these
Writing in the Huffington Post, Labour’s Yvette Cooper says the PM’s lashing of the EU was wrongheaded:
The idea that the EU could try or succeed to influence our election result is a joke. No one here would fall for it, and frankly anything the EU tried would be counterproductive anyway. If anything, the behaviour of EU officials in the last week or so is a political gift to the prime minister in the middle of an election campaign. And Theresa May has seized on it to pursue the short-term interests of the Tory party rather than the long-term interests of the country. Both sides should get a grip and calm down. There is too much at stake for anyone to play games.
In the Guardian, Simon Jenkins says Corbyn should travel the Bernie Sanders route:
Corbyn should forget about what he would do in power or what it says in his manifesto. Go for broke. Invite a vote for moral outrage, nuclear disarmament and an end to neo-imperial wars. Attack chief executive salaries, crazy energy subsidies and vanity infrastructure projects. Promote universal incomes, prison reform and drug legalisation. We can all draw up our list – sensible or not – but radical ideas seldom get mentioned at elections for fear of frightening the centrist horses. We just get statistics on police and nurses and schools.
My impression is that Corbyn is passionate and sincere about things he believes in. It is the Blairite retreads in his own party that censor his passion. I don’t care what Labour would do ‘if in power’, because even if it got there it would be unlikely to do it. But I would like to know what drives its leader, what he cares about, what would be his response to events. I would like him to think the unthinkable.
And, intriguingly, the Sun offers eurosceptic MEP Daniel Hannan’s column on why Jean-Claude Juncker is a stumbling block to Brexit in French, German, Spanish and Dutch. Unie dans la diversité, vraiment.
Revelation of the day
Forget TV leaders debates: the real test of who deserves your vote is to watch as candidates unenthusiastically mutter along to Stevie Wonder’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered. Six would-be West Midlands mayors did just this for Sky News for no reason that I can ascertain, in what must surely be the most bathetic take on James Corden’s carpool karaoke. Conservative candidate Andy Street could not be convinced to squeak out even a little warble; Ukip’s Pete Durnell made the bravest attempt; Lib Dem Beverley Nielsen rattled her version out as a stump speech; and Siôn Simon – Labour candidate and Corbyn avoider – sang a Welsh folk song instead. He’s his own man, see.
The day in a tweet
... & how about this, incredibly, Juncker chief of staff, present at the dinner actually retweeted this, that EU people want PM to 'win big' pic.twitter.com/MOftomlq7I
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) May 3, 2017
And another thing
Would you like to wake up to this briefing in your inbox every weekday? Sign up here!
Comments are open on our live blog.
