UK

English local elections on May 1 mark the first time widespread voting has happened in the UK since last year’s general election. They are therefore the first big test for the Labour government – but also for Reform’s Nigel Farage. Farage has led his party into elections before, but not since becoming an MP.Reform achieved 14.3 per cent of the vote in July 2024 and opinion polls put them at around 25 per cent now. Farage has declared his party is therefore the “opposition to the Labour government”.These elections in 23 English local authorities are about selecting the representatives that will serve communities, both in day-to-day essential operations, and during council reorganisations amid plans for decentralisation of British democracy. Yet attention is also being paid to the challenge Reform have set themselves – can they continue the transition from anti-establishment outsiders to a winning party engine?There are 1,641 local councillor vacancies up for election this week, in 1,401 wards. Reform are contesting more seats than any other party. In fact, there’s only a handful without their candidate on the ballot, amounting to 99.3 per cent coverage. Nigel Farage speaks in Dover, Kent More

Almost all new homes in England will be fitted with solar panels within two years under plans to be announced by ministers, it has emerged. The plans would see housebuilders mandated to install solar panels on the roofs of new properties by 2027, which the government argues will slash energy bills and boost its net zero drive. The change would reportedly add around £3,300 to the cost of building a semi-detached or terraced house, rising to around £4,000 for a detached property, while saving an average household more than £440 per year on energy bills. The plans, seen by The Times, would force 80 per cent of new homes to have solar panels equivalent to 40 per cent of a building’s ground area. Another 19 per cent would have slightly fewer, and just 1 per cent of new homes would not have any solar panels. Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband is seeking to prevent solar panels from China being used by a state energy company (Danny Lawson/PA) More

Brexit’s disastrous impact on the NHS led to 1,485 extra deaths per year, according to a new academic study. Researchers from the University of Surrey say that after the 2016 leave vote, EU nurses left and were replaced by less experienced or skilled staff, which had a knock-on effect for patients. Professor Giuseppe Moscelli, the lead investigator of the study, said: “Brexit has had real life-or-death consequences for patients in our hospitals… (as the loss of staff) led to a measurable decline in care quality.” (Jeff Moore/PA) More

Rachel Reeves is being investigated by parliament’s standards commissioner, it has emerged, less than 24 hours before voters go to the polls in England’s local elections. The probe, understood to be into free theatre tickets, comes as a blow to Labour ahead of what are expected to be a difficult set of elections. Earlier this year, Ms Reeves was forced to announce she would not accept future “freebie” concert tickets after her decision to accept a seat in a box to watch singer Sabrina Carpenter reignited a furious row. A spokesperson for Reeves said: ‘The chancellor’s interests are fully declared and up to date’ More

Local councillors are usually obscure figures, passionate local activists hoping to improve their areas or ambitious party loyalists wanting to climb the electoral ladder. But among the thousands of councillors standing across the country on Thursday, a few names stand out. From Olympians to ousted ex-MPs, The Independent looks at how the main parties are hoping star power will help their candidates over the line in one of the most unpredictable sets of local elections in British history. Stiliyan PetrovStiliyan Petrov, the son of an ex-Aston Villa and Bulgaria captain of the same name, is standing for Reform UK in the May local elections.The premier league player’s son More

England’s local elections on 1 May represent a key test for all the major parties.In what could be a new era of multi-party politics, Labour and Reform are almost neck-and-neck in the latest national opinion polls, with the Tories lagging behind.And it is the latter who face the most difficult challenge. The last time this particular set of council elections was held was at the height of Boris Johnson’s “vaccine bounce”. Since then, Partygate and a series of other scandals have reversed the party’s fortunes, leaving it out of power in Westminster for the first time since 2010. But Labour could also struggle in certain seats. Despite its momentous rise to power at the general election last summer, the party has made a series of controversial decisions since then, including scrapping winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners and sweeping welfare and international aid cuts, that could trigger a backlash from voters. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’s Reform will discover whether its momentum in the opinion polls continues or has started to stall. As well as council elections, there are also a number of mayoral positions up for grabs, and a parliamentary by-election. Here are the key seats to look out for in the early hours of Friday morning and beyond – and why they matter. Greater Lincolnshire A recent YouGov poll suggested that the Reform candidate, former Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns, is well ahead in this contest.One of two new mayoral positions being contested for the first time, it is seen as likely to be a two-horse race between the Tories and Reform. While Mr Farage’s party has picked an ex-Tory, the Conservatives have stayed local, with the leader of North Lincolnshire council Rob Waltham. Andrea Jenkyns with Nigel Farage at a press conference in London’s Mayfair on Thursday More

The UK is “constantly looking at our own resilience” to prepare for possible blackouts, a cabinet minister has said in the wake of large power outages which affected Spain and Portugal this week. Environment secretary Steve Reed added that the UK must wait to see what caused the blackouts before learning lessons to help strengthen the UK’s energy network.Widespread power cuts brought Spain and Portugal to a standstill on Monday as traffic lights switched off and people were left unable to access cash machines.Steve Reed said the UK is ‘constantly looking at our own resilience’ More

PMQs: Keir Starmer congratulates Mark Carney for Canada election victorySir Tony Blair’s former political secretary has warned that “Labour are toast”, as the party prepares to lose seats to Reform UK at the polls tomorrow.John McTernan has said there’s “nothing that can be done” in the next 24 hours that can drastically change Labour’s fate in local elections on Thursday.He told Times Radio: “You look at all the focus groups, if you go to any of them, what do people associate the Labour Party with? Taking winter fuel payments away from pensioners.“Why are they attacking pensioners? Why are they now attacking the disabled? That’s what people are saying. It’s on the doorstep in Runcorn. It’s on the doorstep everywhere.”The comments come after Sir Tony U-turned on his attack on the government’s net zero policies.Polls are predicting sweeping victories for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, as voters across 23 local authorities decide on some 1,641 council seats, while six mayoralties are also being contested. Alongside local elections, the first by-election of this parliament, for Runcorn & Helsby, will see Farage’s party trying to overturn Labour’s victory last summer. Rupert Lowe’s solicitors deliver legal papers to Reform UK on eve of electionNigel Farage and Reform UK have had an unwelcome eve of election gift from their former MP Rupert Lowe after his solicitors announced they had delivered legal papers on the party.The Great Yarmouth MP was ousted from the party in March over alleged bullying allegations and a claim had threatened chairman Zia Yusuf.But Mr Lowe has announced that he is suing Mr Farage, Mr Yusuf and party chief whip Lee Anderson for defamation over the incident.Independent MP Rupert Lowe (Jordan Pettitt/PA) More