The latest round of local elections takes place in the UK on Thursday 5 May, with 4,000 council seats in England being contested, 1,200 in both Scotland and Wales and all 90 seats of the Northern Ireland Assembly in contention.
Most of those seats were last fought in 2018, when Theresa May was still prime minister, Jeremy Corbyn and Sir Vince Cable were her challengers, Britain was still in the European Union and both the coronavirus pandemic and war in Ukraine were inconceivable to most.
Now, with lingering anger over “Partygate” compounded by the eruption of new Westminster sleaze allegations and concern over the cost of living crisis only growing, the public is widely expected to cast its ballots as a verdict on Boris Johnson’s scandal-ridden leadership.
The PM’s handling of the Covid pandemic is also likely to be a motivating consideration, as is the prospect of change represented by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, although some constituencies will be dominated by more specific issues of their own, from waste collection and infrastructure to immigration.
The deadline for registering to vote passed on 14 April in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and on 18 April in Scotland.
If you were registered in time, you should have received a polling card through the post informing you of the location of your nearest ballot box.
However, you are not required to bring the card with you to the polling station on Thursday as it is not considered proof of registration.
Instead, you will simply be expected to give your name to a volunteer who will cross you off their list before inviting you to proceed.
If you have lost your card and do not know where your polling station is, you can simply check out the Electoral Commission website and enter your postcode, where a wealth of tailored information is available.
For more on this year’s local elections, The Independent has all you need to know about voting, how you can find out about what is happening in your local area, more information on the national picture by region, as well as a guide to when the results will be announced.
We will be covering the local elections in depth this week and liveblogging both voting day itself and the aftermath on Friday once the results have been counted and compiled.
