Elections 2026 live: counting under way after votes in England, Scotland and Wales | May 2026 elections
Reform win in first outcomes to be declared
Reform UK has received in one of many first outcomes to be declared, with Philippa Nicholson profitable in Brentwood’s Hutton South ward.
She received with 987 votes – 41% forward of the Conservatives on 785 votes.
Reform additionally received a seat in Chorley, with Martin Topp securing 778 votes in Chorley East, forward of Labour on 677.
Key occasions
Here are some extra pictures from counts round England:
The Labour group chief in Harlow, which is anticipated to be one of many first councils in England to declare its native election end result, has mentioned he’ll “lose some really good councillors, some hard-working councillors, this evening”.
James Griggs informed the Press Association that “there’ve been some mistakes” since Labour received the overall election – and the Harlow constituency in Essex – nearly two years in the past.
He mentioned:
It’s simple to concentrate on one mistake, or one or two errors, no matter they might be, and overlook concerning the lots of of actually good bits of supply from the manifesto from simply two years in the past.
Loads of the stuff will take some time to come back by means of – it’s taking time, there’s loads of repairing to do after the injury of the 14 years in austerity.
Labour is defending 5 seats out of 11 up for election in the Harlow Council ballot.
On the entrance web page of tomorrow’s Times newspaper is a narrative claiming that Ed Miliband has “privately suggested to Sir Keir Starmer that he should consider setting out a timeline for his departure”. A spokesperson for the secretary of state for power and web zero mentioned: “We do not accept this account.”
Asked about it on the BBC, David Lammy warns Labour MPs towards taking part in “pass the parcel” by eradicating Starmer as PM.
I feel Ed Miliband has mentioned that he doesn’t recognise that.
But look, let’s be clear, Keir Starmer received a mandate for 5 years to ship for the British individuals, and now some individuals are suggesting that we must always go away and play move the parcel.
The Tories did that with chief after chief after chief.
He added:
Yes, there are questions that we now have to reply, however there isn’t a, there isn’t a circumstances in which the reply to the questions that the British individuals are elevating is to alter the chief but once more.
That just isn’t what’s developing on the doorstep. What they need is supply. What they need is hope. What they need is change, and that’s what we’ve obtained to ship.
Reform UK MP Richard Tice, who it’s rumoured might make an look on the rely in Newcastle-under-Lyme, has simply posted this on X:
Early constructive vibes by means of the day being strengthened by early indicators as counting underway in some areas.
Huge because of all our superb candidates, supporters and activists.
And large because of the large numbers who’ve voted Reform.
We are making historical past.
Neha Gohil
In the run-up to yesterday’s elections, candidates and political events described a local weather of abuse, together with loss of life threats and intimidation whereas campaigning.
Labour’s Dan Jarvis, the safety minister, condemned “the rising tide of vile abuse, harassment and intimidation aimed towards elected officials and candidates” on-line and in particular person. “Anyone engaging in this sort of behaviour is directly attacking our democracy and we all must do more to stop it becoming normalised,” he mentioned.
A spokesperson for the Green social gathering mentioned some candidates had acquired loss of life threats or been “yelled at or chased down the street”, and some had withdrawn from campaigning in sure areas on account of harassment.
“Anecdotally, this has been the worst year in memory,” the spokesperson mentioned. They mentioned the social gathering had been “a focus at this election more than ever before”, with “some wildly false claims being made about the party and its representatives, which some members of the public have accepted on face value”.
Read extra right here:
We’re getting statements from among the political events now as we look ahead to outcomes.
For the Conservatives, social gathering chairman Kevin Hollinrake mentioned:
We have run an brisk and constructive marketing campaign, showcasing that we now have a transparent plan to get Britain working once more and that we now have the crew to ship it… We know that so quickly after a historic common election defeat and contesting wards received throughout the Party’s polling highs, that this will likely be a tough set of elections for us. But we are going to proceed to rebuild and to point out the general public that we now have modified, to reveal that solely this new Conservative social gathering is a reputable different.
Liberal Democrat chief Ed Davey mentioned:
People are deeply disillusioned with a Labour authorities that has been too timid to repair the nation, however they’re additionally appalled by the rise of Reform and Nigel Farage’s Trump-style politics. While these on the extremes of the fitting and the left wish to burn every little thing down, Liberal Democrats wish to repair what’s damaged. Every Liberal Democrat native champion elected at the moment will struggle tirelessly for the communities they serve.
Green social gathering chief Zack Polanski mentioned:
I’ve travelled throughout England and Wales and I’m listening to the identical all over the place I’m going – confidence that we’ll win extra councillors than ever earlier than. The information from the doorstep is that we’ll be taking seats from not simply Labour however the Tories and Lib Dems too, from all throughout the nation. Voters are responding to the truth that Greens are the one social gathering taking the cost-of-living disaster significantly, with actual plans to chop payments, scale back rents and present genuinely reasonably priced houses, in addition to tackling the local weather and nature disaster.
A Plaid Cymru spokesperson mentioned:
Throughout this election, we now have heard a transparent urge for food for change. People need a authorities that may get up for Wales and focus relentlessly on the important thing points affecting their lives. People have informed us they’ve been impressed by Rhun ap Iorwerth’s management and pushed by a want for a constructive different to Reform UK’s chaos and division.
Analysis: outcomes set to have transformative impression on British politics
Andrew Sparrow
In case you missed it on Thursday, my colleague Andrew Sparrow wrote this wonderful information to why these elections could possibly be so transformative for British politics:
We don’t have any outcomes but, however until all of the opinion polls, and all the council byelections that have taken place over the past 12 months, and all of the parliamentary byelections which have taken place for the reason that common election, change into fully unreliable guides to how individuals vote at the moment, then we have already got a tough thought of what the end result will seem like. It will likely be sufficient to remodel the political panorama of Britain – in at the least seven methods.
1) The full arrival of five-party politics in England
Two-party politics has been in decline in British politics for greater than half a century. Its excessive level was in 1951, when 97% of people that voted in the UK common election opted for both the Conservative social gathering or Labour. In recognition of the Lib Dems, individuals used to speak about England having a two-and-a-half social gathering system. Scotland and Wales have had robust nationalist events for years, and Reform UK simply received the English native elections final 12 months. Under Zack Polanski, the Greens have now been hovering in the polls and that is the primary English election the place speaking about “main” events and “minor” events now not is sensible. (How can it, when the “minor” events with least parliamentary illustration, Reform UK and the Greens, have been the 2 best-performing events in some polls?) Those phrases describe the parliamentary scenario however not politics exterior, the place 5 events are aggressive throughout England and it’s in all probability extra helpful to assume in phrases of legacy events and disruptor events.
2) Reform UK’s emergence as a GB-wide social gathering
When Nigel Farage was main Ukip, it appeared like an English nationalist social gathering. Scotland appeared to have a wholesome resistance to Faragism and on one event, in 2013, he needed to be locked in a pub in Edinburgh for his own protection. The Brexit social gathering additionally by no means actually succeeded in Scotland (though it did make inroads into Wales), however under its new title, Reform UK, it’s competing with Plaid Cymru for first place in Wales, and with Labour for second place in Scotland. It ought to simply win the English locals, and so it’s the solely social gathering with a sensible likelihood of coming first or second in England, in Scotland and in Wales. That is why Farage is boasting about his being the “only true national party”.
3) Wales going nationalist
Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist social gathering, is broadly anticipated to be the biggest social gathering in the Senedd after the elections and, until Labour and Reform UK kind some extraordinary model of their very own Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Plaid would be the solely social gathering with a sensible likelihood of forming a authorities. Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid chief, can be the primary non-Labour first minister of Wales since devolution. Assuming the SNP stay in energy in Scotland (nearly sure), and with Sinn Féin the biggest social gathering at Stormont, this could imply nationalists main the three non-English nations in the UK.
This doesn’t imply Welsh independence is on the playing cards. Although formally dedicated to independence, Plaid has by no means given any critical thought to how independence is likely to be achieved and a authorities that attempted to implement it could discover it much more sophisticated and much less well-liked than the mission has been in Scotland, the place independence was rejected in a referendum in 2014. But, after that vote, the Scottish parliament obtained new powers, and the Scottish authorities began to make use of them to diverge from UK authorities tax coverage. The Welsh authorities has fewer devolved powers than its Edinburgh counterpart, however with Plaid in energy in Cardiff over time that will change.
4) Labour assist collapsing – particularly in London
If Plaid win in Wales, will probably be the primary time Labour has misplaced an enormous election there for greater than 100 years. It can be anticipated to lose huge in London, the place it’s the dominant social gathering in native authorities and the place on the final election it received 59 of the 75 parliamentary seats. In reality, it’s on target to do badly all over the place, recording its worst end result since at the least the Nineteen Seventies. Here is the forecast from Britain Elects, who produce election forecasts for the New Statesman and who’ve a great report.
Tomorrow you could hear discuss from Labour figures of the 1968 London elections. Taking place after devaluation the earlier 12 months, they have been an utter catastrophe for Labour, which misplaced 17 of the 20 boroughs it managed in the capital. They nearly all went Tory. The upside for Labour individuals searching for a constructive message out of this at the moment is that the social gathering recovered and, two years later, Harold Wilson referred to as a common election that he thought he would possibly win. But he misplaced. And Wilson didn’t need to deal with Reform UK, or the Greens, or five-party politics, or extended austerity, or social media, or any of the opposite components that make Starmer’s scenario completely different.
5) Local authorities getting extra pluralist
Local authorities in Britain was dominated by the 2 largest legacy events, the Conservatives and Labour. That image ought to take a substantial jolt this weekend. The Liberal Democrats assume they are going to be at the least the second largest social gathering in native authorities by the point of the subsequent election, in phrases of councillor numbers, and maybe even the most important. And Reform UK and the Greens may have a signficantly larger presence. This chart, from an excellent preview of the elections by Dylan Difford on Substack, reveals how councillor numbers have modified over current years.
And Open Council Data has full figures.
6) Failure of first previous the put up
It is more and more clear that the election system used in UK parliamentary elections, and for native elections in England and Wales, doesn’t work in five-party politics. It features nicely for two-party politics, however in multi-party politics it may simply result in a celebration profitable a far bigger proportion of the seats than it deserves based mostly on the proportion of the votes it received. This famously occurred on the final common election when Labour received 34% of the vote however 63% of the seats. Less well-known is how that is more and more taking place at native authority degree too. Rob Ford has additionally written a terrific Substack guide to the elections, and he consists of this chart displaying how in some instances final 12 months Reform was profitable three-quarters of the seats on a council with lower than half the votes. Ford says:
The essential query for the Greens this 12 months, as for Reform final 12 months, is whether or not they can push their assist in goal areas above the ‘tipping point’ the place first previous the put up goes from sandbag to springboard. For Reform final 12 months, because the graph under illustrates, that tipping level got here round 30% – in councils the place Reform received above 30% they have been typically over-represented in seats, usually taking enormous majorities.
The Guardian has an editorial at the moment saying this technique should change.
7) Labour’s fightback problem
We don’t know but how Labour will react to the outcomes. Keir Starmer could face a management problem. Even if he doesn’t, the social gathering goes to need to provide you with a response that goes past ‘Keep calm and carry on’. Elections operate as transmission mechanisms; they ship blunt messages to authorities and – until the polls are 100% mistaken – the message tonight will likely be that one thing wants to alter.
So it would.
Here are among the newest pictures from vote counts in England:
Meanwhile, as polls closed, deputy PM David Lammy mentioned the elections had been “tough”.
He mentioned:
I don’t wish to sugarcoat it, the message from the doorstep is it is a powerful election cycle.
This is a mid-term set of elections with individuals involved about the price of dwelling and eager to see the federal government go sooner with faster tempo.
Lammy added that whereas Labour had run a “positive campaign”, the social gathering’s “message of delivery” had been “drowned out by the politics of grievance”.
Lucy Powell, deputy Labour chief, added:
These elections are powerful and came about in a tough context. After over a decade of Britain being held again, working individuals up and down the nation rightly wish to see the entire of our United Kingdom firing on all cylinders in their pursuits. Labour has began to ship on that promise and we’re decided to make it occur all over the place for everybody.
Keir Starmer has thanked social gathering activists after polls closed.
In a put up on X, the prime minister mentioned:
To all of the Labour members and volunteers who’ve supported native campaigns throughout the nation: thanks.Together we are going to construct a stronger and fairer Britain.
These elections are broadly seen as the most important check for his premiership for the reason that common election.
What to look out for in Scotland
Libby Brooks
Libby Brooks is the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent
Although the incumbent Scottish National social gathering is cruising in direction of a gravity-defying fifth time period in workplace, the wonderful element of the outcomes and the next make-up of the Holyrood chamber stays exceptionally unpredictable.
Polls this week confirmed Reform UK, which has gained appreciable momentum in Scotland over the previous 18 months, was neck and neck for second place with Scottish Labour, whose score have suffered from rising public dissatisfaction with the UK Labour authorities, regardless of its chief, Anas Sarwar, taking the career-defining choice to name for Starmer to face apart in February.
Many constituency seats are in the steadiness, and the SNP is in no way assured a majority. It might then flip to the Scottish Greens – who’re anticipating a robust displaying thanks in half to a Polanski bounce, though the Green Party of England and Wales is a separate entity – for assist to create a pro-independence majority at Holyrood.
The SNP chief, John Swinney, has pledged to carry a vote searching for the powers to carry a second independence referendum on the primary day of a brand new parliament – although the UK authorities has constantly refused earlier calls for and he can supply no different route.
While the primary full council end result in England isn’t anticipated till 2am, there could also be some smaller outcomes from midnight.
I’ll convey you updates right here, however to see the complete outcomes for England, Scotland and Wales you may head to our outcomes tracker:
What to look out for in Wales
Bethan McKernan
Bethan McKernan is the Guardian’s Wales correspondent
This week the Welsh parliament will develop from 60 to 96 members under a brand new, extra proportional electoral system. Labour is anticipated to lose management of the Senedd for the primary time since devolution in 1999, with Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth anticipated to grow to be the brand new first minister, placing Welsh independence firmly on the agenda.
Coalition arithmetic makes it extremely unlikely Reform will be capable to kind a authorities, even when it wins probably the most seats. If the numbers enable, Plaid Cymru will kind a minority authorities with out coming into formal coalition agreements with Labour or the Green social gathering.
Labour’s predicted losses are so catastrophic that some polls put the social gathering in fourth place, after the Greens. Several polls counsel Eluned Morgan, the Labour first minister, will lose her seat.
The Senedd’s new listing system has razor-sharp margins, making predictions very tough. As little as 0.06% of the vote might resolve the final (sixth) seat in every constituency, based on the pollsters More in Common.
Which outcomes are we anticipating first?
Aletha Adu
Aletha Adu is a Guardian political correspondent
The early hours of Friday morning will produce solely a handful of declarations however they may form the temper of the whole elections.
Hartlepool is likely one of the first main exams of whether or not Reform UK can convert polling momentum into actual council positive aspects. The declaration information itself flags the opportunity of Reform making important advances there as one of many key storylines of the night time.
If Reform performs strongly, Labour strategists will fear much less about remoted native setbacks and extra concerning the emergence of a sturdy anti-establishment challenger able to consuming into Labour’s previous coalition in cities the social gathering as soon as thought of protected.
Oxford might supply an early signal of how fragmented progressive and anti-Tory voters have grow to be, with Labour, the Greens and Liberal Democrats all competing for comparable voters. The declaration information refers to “a mess of different liberal winners in Oxford”.
Dudley issues as a result of it sits in politically risky Midlands territory the place Labour faces strain from Reform amid frustration over immigration, dwelling requirements and mistrust of Westminster politics.
You can see a full election outcomes timeline right here:
Polls closed in England, Scotland and Wales
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s dwell protection of election outcomes in England, Scotland and Wales.
Thursday’s votes lined the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and 136 native councils in England, the place 5,014 seats have been contested, together with each one on all of London’s 32 borough councils, greater than a dozen borough councils, six unitary councils, six county councils and three district councils. An additional 73 councils held elections for half or a 3rd of the seats obtainable.
There have been additionally six mayoral contests – in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford.
So, there’s a lot to come back…
We’re anticipating the primary outcomes in England between midnight and 2am, however counting in Scotland and Wales doesn’t start till round 9am – so these outcomes are some way off.
As ever, we’ll convey you the most recent information, color and response all through the night time.
Feel free to get in contact – hamish.mackay@theguardian.com – in case you spot any errors. My colleague Andrew Sparrow will take over at 6am, and feedback will open from 8am.
