Markus Andrews

Voters across the UK are heading to the polls in local elections taking place in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.Polling stations opened at 7am on Thursday and will close at 10pm, with most of the results known by the end of Friday.During the campaign, Oliver Dowden, the Conservative Party chairman, accused the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats of forging an electoral pact which he said was designed to ensure the Tories suffered losses in England.In a letter to Labour leader Keir Starmer, leaked to the Mail on Sunday last week, Mr Dowden accused the party of denying “voters a proper democratic choice”.He claimed Labour was putting forward fewer candidates in the south of England than it did in the 2018 elections, in seats where the Lib Dems are stronger. More

The government has shelved plans to bring in legislation that would ensure restaurant and other hospitality workers get to keep the tips they are given.The bill, which was endorsed by the government as recently as September, will not be included in the Queen’s Speech, according to insiders cited by the Financial Times.In September business minister Paul Scully said it would become “illegal” to withhold tips and a new law would “ensure tips will go to those who worked for it”.He said the legislation was necessary because of the move towards tipping on cards saw employers exert more control over tips that were taken.The idea had first been proposed by Sajid Javid when he was business secretary in 2016 and was due to eventually become law.“Every year this government promises action to ensure fair tipping, and then does precisely nothing to deliver on that promise,” Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham told the newspaper.Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said it would “betray some of the lowest paid and most vulnerable workers in Britain” to ditch the plan, adding: “They will have conned working people.”Under existing rules tips cannot be counted towards minimum wage laws, but some employers withhold a share of them.But the situation is complicated as in other cases tips are redistributed between front of house and back of house staff to ensure non-customer-facing workers also get a share. A spokesperson for the business department would not confirm or deny that the bill had been dropped, but encouraged restaurants to adopt “industry best practice”. “Workers should absolutely get the tips they deserve, and customers should have reassurance that their money is rewarding staff for their hard work and good service,” the spokesperson said. More

Boris Johnson is poised to pull back from an imminent confrontation with the EU over the controversial post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.It comes after the government reportedly threatened a new law at next week’s Queen’s speech to override parts of arrangement, but the Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis signalled last night this would not happen.According to The Times, the prime minister, who signed the agreement in 2019, is also said to be giving talks with the EU “one last chance” and will use the upcoming election result in Northern Ireland to urge the bloc to agree reform.It comes as voters in Northern Ireland head to the ballot box today to vote on the next 90 members of the Assembly representing 18 constituencies — before crucial talks begin over forming the next Stormont executive.Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has urged the government to act on unionists’ concerns around the post-Brexit trading arrangements, criticising them as harmful to the union and calling for Northern Ireland’s position in the UK internal market to be protected.Earlier this week Sir Jeffrey said he wanted to lead the DUP into a new executive, but stressed issues around the Protocol needed to be “resolved now” and urged the UK government to take “decisive action”.Asked whether the government is planning to introduce a new law allowing it to waive elements of the controversial protocol, Mr Lewis signalled on Wednesday evening it would not be in the Queen’s Speech on 10 May.He told an interview with ITV’s Robert Peston: “Our focus is on resolving the issues with the Protocol, ideally we want to do that by agreement with the European Union.”Pressed on whether an announcement would come next week, the cabinet minister replied: “No… we’ve not said that”.“What we’ve been clear about is at the moment, the Protocol is causing problems in civic society, it’s causing problems with the Good Friday Agreement,” he added. “Our duty to the people of Northern Ireland is to resolve those issues. Yes, we want to do that with the EU and that’s what Liz Truss has been focused on”.Mr Lewis later tweeted: “We will do whatever it takes to protect the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. It is clear that the Protocol does not have the support of the unionist community and is not working for people and businesses in Northern Ireland.“We have to address the outstanding issues and we want to do that by agreement with the EU, but as we have always made clear, we will not shy away from taking further steps if necessary.”The European Commission has previously stressed that it is “fully committed” to working with the UK government to “find long-lasting solutions for Norther Ireland”, including certainty for business.A spokesperson added last month: “Only joint solutions can do that: jointly-agreed solutions. And if you look at it, this approach is working. Only a couple of days ago we reached the solution on medicines for Northern Ireland which was agreed in record time. It’s important to underline that.“As you know, last October, we came forward with a number of serious, wide-ranging solutions for Northern Ireland. We’ve been working on them since and our intention is to continue working on these solutions with the UK over the coming weeks.” More

People in Britain are voting Thursday in local elections that will decide the makeup of local authorities across the country — and possibly the fate of embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson.Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. in contests for thousands of local council seats in England, Scotland and Wales. Voting ends at 10 p.m. (2100GMT), with most of the counting taking place Friday. Opinion polls suggest the governing Conservatives will lose hundreds of seats in elections that are considered a barometer of public opinion.In Northern Ireland, voters are electing a new 90-seat Assembly, with polls suggesting the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein could win the largest number of seats, and the post of first minister, in what would be a historic first.The local-authority elections will decide who collects garbage, fixes potholes and handles other essential services across the country. Conservative Party Chairman Oliver Dowden said the elections “are about one thing: who do you want running your council?”But many voters also have other things on their mind. Across the U.K., the elections are dominated by increasing prices for food and fuel, which have sent household bills soaring.Opposition parties are demanding the government do more to ease the cost-of-living crunch — driven by the war in Ukraine, COVID-19 pandemic disruption and economic aftershocks from Britain’s exit from the European Union. Both left-of-center Labour and the centrist Liberal Democrats advocate a windfall tax on energy companies, which have reported record profits amid rocketing oil and gas prices.Johnson’s Conservative government argues taxing big firms like Shell and BP would deter much-needed investment in renewable energy that’s key to meeting Britain’s climate commitments.The election also comes after months of turmoil for Johnson, in which he became the first prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law in office. He was fined 50 pounds ($62) by police for attending his own surprise birthday party in June 2020 when lockdown rules barred social gatherings.Johnson has apologized, but denies knowingly breaking the rules. He faces the possibility of more fines over other parties — police are investigating a dozen gatherings — and a parliamentary investigation into whether he misled lawmakers about his behavior.The prime minister also faces discontent within his own party. A bad result for the governing party on Thursday could lead Conservatives to try to replace Johnson with a less tarnished leader.Labour leader Keir Starmer said the government was consumed by “a constant drip-drip of sleaze and scandal.”“Their failure to get on with their jobs would be shameful at any time,” Starmer wrote in the Daily Mirror newspaper. “But during a once in a lifetime cost-of-living crisis, it’s a disgrace.” More

Polling stations have opened across the UK, with voters beginning to cast their ballots in thousands of councils seats in England, Scotland and Wales, and the assembly elections in Northern Ireland.More than 4,000 councillors in 146 councils are standing for elections in major English cities, including Manchester and Leeds, while all of London’s 32 boroughs, including key Labour targets – Wandsworth and Barnet – up for grabs.Last contested in 2017, all of Scotland’s 32 councils and all 22 in Wales are also holding elections, with polls due to close at 10pm.While many votes will be determined on local issues, the election will also be the first major electoral test for Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer since the Partygate scandal emerged and the cost-of-living crisis, as energy firms report considerable profits.Many of the seats being contested in England, however, were last fought over in May 2018, when Theresa May, who was still feeling the repercussions of her ill-fated general election gamble in 2017, was vying for seats with the former Labour leader Jeremy CorbynWriting for The Independent, the polling expert professor Sir John Curtice claimed: “At first glance, the omens are not good for Boris Johnson.“His party shows no sign of recovering the poll lead it enjoyed in this parliament until his probity and ethics became the subject of controversy. On average the Conservatives currently trail Labour by six points. That represents as much as a nine-point swing since the 2019 general election.”He suggested the election could “well produce Tory losses of a few hundred seats – but it would not necessarily look like a tsunami that threatened to sweep Johnson out of Downing Street”.Oliver Dowden, the Tory Party chairman, looked to emphasise to the electorate the local choice they are making amid reports that some candidates had attempted to distance themselves from Westminster during campaigning.In a statement to mark polls opening, Mr Dowden said: “The elections today are about one thing: who do you want running your council? More

Labour is expected to make gains in key election battlegrounds in England but likely at a slower pace across its former northern heartlands, new predictions suggest.The latest modelling from YouGov has arrived just hours before voting opens for the series of local authority, parish and mayoral elections. Ahead of the first big test of public opinion since the dawn of the Partygate scandal and cost of living crisis, pollsters have surveyed voters in 16 key battleground councils in England to gauge current voting intention.At it stands, Labour currently controls 67 councils to the Conservatives’ 46. In order that Sir Keir Starmer’s pitch for prime minister be taken seriously ahead of the general election, it is imperative that Labour makes serious gains and shows strong progress in these elections.The soaring cost of amenities and Whitehall’s lockdown-busting parties are expected to be the issues at the forefront of voters’ minds as they head to the polls today. But how might they impact the outcome?The 16 councils chosen by YouGov – a mixture of marginal administrations, no overall controls, and ‘all out’ electoral contests – were split and modelled in three separate groups.The projections, as presented by Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates, show Labour are on track to make potentially significant gains in London. At present, Labour is defending 2018’s strong set of local election results in London, winning 44 per cent of the vote and more than 1,100 councillors last time round. But YouGov’s latest modelling suggests that Labour will improve further still in the capital, with Labour swing predictions including Wandsworth, Westminster and Barnet – areas described by the broadcaster’s Sophy Ridge as the “Conservative jewels”.They are also expected to keep hold of and increase their presence on Croydon Council.Below the Midlands, Labour may make some slower progress, but pollsters predict it is less likely to be winning key battleground councils.YouGov currently expects Milton Keynes to stay in No Overall Control (NOC), but said Labour seem to be defending marginal Hastings and could win Southampton from Tory control.Crawley and Worthing in Sussex, meanwhile, remain hotly contested.But the picture beyond the south looks less promising for Labour, with little sign of progress in its former so-called red wall in the north of England.Pollsters say the councils of Bolton, Wirral, and Kirklees look set to remain in no overall control due to strong independent presence and more sturdy Tory backing.Labour’s chances of holding onto its slim majorities in Bury and Calderdale are promising, YouGov adds, but it faces a perilous battle with the Lib Dems over Hull.Across the board, however, the Greens and independent/smaller party candidates are expected to make notable improvements. Polling stations across the UK open at 7am on Thursday 5 May. More

Millions of voters will head to the polls across the UK in a matter of hours, with local elections being held across England, Scotland and Wales.In England there are over 4,300 seats being contested – including all London boroughs – while all of Scotland’s 32 councils and 22 Welsh councils are up forgrabs.They will coincide with Northern Ireland’s assembly election, with voters deciding on 90 members, representing 18 constituencies, to send to Stormont.Here The Independent looks at the estimated timings for key declarations for the local elections.Thursday 10pmVoting closes across the UK.Midnight to 3am The first slew of results will begin trickling in from around 1am, with Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Exeter, Basildon, Bolton, and South Tyneside all set to declare before 2am.The result for Sunderland – a Labour-run council since 1974 – is expected is also expected to drop at 2am, with the Conservatives aiming to cause a shock and make enough gains to leave the council in no overall control.Other results before 3am include Halton, Bolton, Broxbourne, Brentwood, Hart, Rushmoor, Tameside, Tamworth, Wigan, Worcester, Amber Valley, Chorley, Croydon, Harlow, Hartlepool, Plymouth, Redditch, Rochford, Sandwell, Sefton, Sunderland, Thurrock, Wirral, Oldham, Cumberland, Fareham, Ipswich, Lincoln, North East Lancashire, Peterborough, Preston and Stevenage.3am to 5amMore results from London will begin filtering in with the safe Tory council of Westminster due to declare at 3am.At the same time results are also expected from Sheffield, which Labour lost to no overall control at the last election. The party will be hoping to gain seats from the Liberal Democrats to win back the council.Elsewhere, Eastleigh, Epping Forrest, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southend-on-Sea, Tandridge, Hammersmith & Fulham, Waltham Forest, Wolverhampton, Colchester, Kingston-upon-Hull, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Coventry, Dudley, Ealing, Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Salford, Sutton, Bexley, and Hounslow are all expected before 5am.5am to 7amThe London borough of Wandsworth, a council in Tory hands for more than four decades, is one of Labour’s key targets and is expected to declare at 5.30am. The Labour group leader on the council told The Independent this week: “It will come down to a few votes here and there in key wards.”The result for Derby City Council is also expected to be announced in the early hours of Friday morning. In 2018 voters in the area elected more Tory councillors than Labour for the first time since 1990 and Sir Keir Starmer should be aiming to make inroads.Havering, Kensington & Chelsea, Merton, Southampton, Southwark, Richmond-upon Thames, Enfield, Stockport, Brent, and Barnsley are also expected to declare.9amA brief moment of respite from results, as counting begins for a further 71 councils in England and all councils in Scotland and Wales. Ballots will also begin to be counted in Northern Ireland for the 90 members of the Assembly.Midday to 2pmResults likely to resume, with the first results from Scotland too. Expected declarations include Gateshead, Moray, Cambridge, Cannock Chase, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Huntingdonshire, Orkney Islands, Perth & Kinross, Shetland Islands, Solihull, Walsall, Westmorland & Furness, Calderdale.2pm to 4pmResults come through rapidly by this point. The Conservative-Labour battleground, Newcastle-under-Lyme, is due to finish counting, alongside East Renfrewshire – a three-way battle between the Tories, Labour and the SNP.In Wales, Labour is looking to take control of Blaenau Gwent from a group of independents, while Flintshire is a test of Tory popularity in an area in which they did well at the 2019 general election. Between 2-3pm, Carmarthenshire, Castle Point, Cheltenham, Conwy, Crawley, Dumfries & Galloway, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Elmbridge, Inverclyde, Maidstone, Rossendale, Runnymede, Slough, West Oxfordshire, Worthing, Wrexham, Argyll & Bute, Burnley, Clackmannanshire, East Lothian, Fife, Havant, Reigate & Banstead, Scottish Borders, Three Rivers, and Woking, should declare.More results from 3pm are expected to include Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Blaenau Gwent, Bromley, Caerphilly, Camden, Denbighshire, East Ayrshire, Flintshire, Hyndburn, Knowsley, Manchester, Merthyr Tydfil, North Ayrshire, Reading, South Ayrshire, South Cambridgeshire, Stirling, Torfaen, Trafford, Welwyn Hatfield, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian, Ceredigion, East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Isle of Anglesey, North Lanarkshire, Rochdale, West Lancashire, and Highland.4pm to 6pmResults from Glasgow are expected, and as Colin Drury writes, the SNP is seeking to take complete control of the city council for the first time. Westminster watchers will also be observing the results of Wakefield after the resignation of the MP Imran Ahmad Khan, who was convicted last month of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.While Labour is expected to hold the council, the pollster Peter Kellner suggests if Labour “wins a clear lead in the wards that make up the parliamentary seat, it could signal a Labour gain” in the upcoming Wakefield by-election – currently expected in June. Khan won the traditionally Labour voting seat at the 2019 general election as part of Boris Johnson’s red wall gains.Also expected to declare are Adur, Birmingham, Blackburn with Darwen, Haringey, Hastings, Midlothian, Milton Keynes, Mole Valley, Norwich, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Rugby, Somerset, South Lanarkshire, St Albans, Leeds, Pendle, Tunbridge Wells, Basingstoke & Deane, Bridgend, Cardiff, Gosport, Gwynedd, Harrow, North Yorkshire, Powys, St Helens, Swansea, Swindon, Watford, Wokingham, Pembrokeshire, Renfrewshire, Bradford, Greenwich, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Winchester, and Kingston-upon-Thames.Friday eveningThe vast majority of the results should be in by this point, with Kirklees, North Hertfordshire, Hackney, Newham, Cherwell, Vale of Glamorgan, and Bury expected to declare after 6pm.SaturdayThe final result in the local elections should be in around midday on Saturday, with the London borough of Tower Hamlets declaring. The results are also expected in the Northern Ireland assembly elections, with a small chance of running into Monday.After the elections, the 90 newly elected members of the assembly will meet within eight days and the crucial process of the elections of a new speaker with cross-community support and the position of first minister will begin.The result could bring in a historic change, with a recent poll by the Belfast Telegraph putting Sinn Fein on course to be the largest party at Stormont and select its first minister for the very first time. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, however, said he was “not bothered” by the shock poll and claimed to be confident his party would still win the assembly election. It could be the beginning of a long-running process, with 24 weeks available to form an executive. More

Boris Johnson has suffered a grassroots Tory revolt on the eve of crucial local elections, while being warned that he faces fresh questions about his leadership as soon as the results are in.As millions were set to go to the polls, some party candidates took the extraordinary step of rebranding themselves “local Conservatives”, pleading with voters not to “punish” them for the Partygate scandal.The prime minister was also subjected to an attack by two of his former councillors, who released letters urging voters to back other parties, accusing the prime minister of “spreading lies” and “taking us for fools”.The leader of one grassroots Tory group told The Independent that anger about the No 10 parties, topped up by fears over rising living costs, pointed to the party’s supporters staying at home on Thursday.“People most affected by lockdown – those who missed weddings and funerals – still consider it a scandalous disgrace, and now they are feeling the impact of higher taxes and energy costs as well,” said John Strafford, head of the Campaign for Conservative Democracy.Mr Johnson was also warned that “conversations” about whether he should quit as prime minister will resume among Conservative MPs once the elections are out of the way.“This isn’t for today, this is a big decision – important questions for Friday and for the weeks after that,” Tobias Ellwood, a former defence minister who has demanded a no-confidence vote, told the BBC.Elections guru Sir John Curtice, in an article for The Independent, said the Conservatives were on course to lose “hundreds” of seats in the first big test of public opinion since the parties scandal broke.However, he pointed out that the seats up for grabs were last contested in 2018, when a Theresa May-led party tied with Labour on 35 per cent apiece – which could limit Sir Keir Starmer’s gains. “This could well produce Tory losses of a few hundred seats, but it would not necessarily look like a tsunami that threatened to sweep Mr Johnson out of Downing St,” Sir John predicted.At Westminster, Conservative MPs are expected to await any further Partygate fines along with Sue Gray’s stalled inquiry report before deciding whether to move against the prime minister – unless the local election results are disastrous.On Thursday, the seats of more than 4,000 councillors in 146 councils will be up for grabs in major cities including Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds, and in all 32 London boroughs.All 32 councils in Scotland and all 22 in Wales will be holding elections – as well as the Northern Ireland assembly, where the nationalist Sinn Fein party is poised to secure a historic victory.On the campaign trail, Mr Johnson suffered the embarrassment of his candidates calling themselves “local Conservatives” on election leaflets, in London, Birmingham, the southwest and the northeast.One read: “This Thursday, please don’t punish local Conservatives for the mistakes made in Westminster, we are local and proud of where we live and, like you, we want the best for Hartlepool.”Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “It speaks volumes that Boris Johnson’s own Conservative candidates are ashamed to be associated with him and [his] trying to pull the wool over voters’ eyes.“With no answers to the cost of living crisis, Tory candidates are trying to hide from their own government’s record.”Two former Conservative councillors turned on their party and urged voters to back opposing candidates, in letters released before the polls.In Elmbridge, Surrey, Alan Kopitko warned that the party was “not the Conservative party I joined”, writing: “In their relentless pursuit of power at any cost, they are spreading lies and misinformation.”And Barry Macleod-Cullinane, former deputy leader in Harrow, London, said: “We now know that Boris Johnson broke the law and has lied repeatedly to parliament and to us. He’s taking us for fools – and we can’t let him get away with it.”Mr Strafford said the views of his organisation’s members suggested that opposition to Mr Johnson had shrunk from two-thirds to “50-50” thanks to admiration of the prime minister’s stance on Ukraine.But he warned: “Large numbers of Tory voters just won’t turn out, but they won’t vote Labour or Liberal Democrat either – which could lead to some strange results in red-wall areas.”Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said even the cost of living crisis had failed to drown out dissatisfaction about Mr Johnson’s leadership on the doorstep.“Some people are really upset with a prime minister who is not a decent man. People expect the British prime minister to be someone of integrity, of honesty, who abides by the law,” he told Sky News.Mr Johnson also doubled down on his opposition to a windfall tax on oil and gas companies – even dismissing comments from BP, which said it would not cut its investment plans for the UK.The prime minister insisted that green investment was “a much, much better solution than clobbering them and dissuading them, stopping them from making that investment”. More