May elections live: millions cast their votes across England, Scotland and Wales

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Council of Europe sends team to monitor English, Scottish and Welsh elections

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor.

The Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections today are being monitored for the first time by delegates from the Council of Europe, the charter-based alliance of 46 European nations set up in 1949 to promote human rights, civic society and democracy.

The 17-strong delegation, which is also observing England’s council elections, has been split into teams in London, Edinburgh and Cardiff this week and are today visiting polling stations across Britain to watch the UK’s voting procedures.

Delegates from the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities have come from nations including Moldova, Switzerland, Poland, Albania, Ireland and Germany.

The congress has been scrutinising local council elections since 1990, carrying out close to 115 missions to date – including across the UK. Congress officials said the decision to expand their scope to include devolved elections to Holyrood and Cardiff Bay was taken in 2023.

After the visit, a rapporteur will report on the election’s procedures “but also with the general political situation in the country, including the state of fundamental rights and freedoms, the atmosphere which prevailed during the election campaign and any progress noted on the democracy front.”

Badenoch says Tory/Reform council pacts won't happen because Farage's party not 'serious' - after hinting they might

Yesterday Kemi Badenoch gave an interview to Sky News suggesting she would be happy to see Conservative councillors working with Reform UK councillors to deliver rightwing policies.

In an interview with the Sun published today, Badenoch rowed back on this. She said there would not be any deals because Reform councillors weren’t “serious”. She told the paper:

We’re not doing deals with Reform. I don’t want to see us helping Reform.

A lot of people in Reform are people we kicked out.

Conservative councillors don’t want to work with Reform because they’re not serious.

We have just opened comments below the line. Do tell us what you think about the elections, but please don’t tell us how you have voted. If you do, your comment will be removed.

That is because, under the Representation of the People Act 1983, it is an offence to publish information about how people have voted before the polls have closed.

The law was designed to stop people publishing exit poll information on the day in a manner that might sway a result. Obviously, online comments did not even exist in 1983, but there is no exemption for BTL commentary and so we can’t allow comments about how you voted to be published.

Starmer writes to civil servants saying he values their work, and wants them to be 'speaking truth to power'

As the results of the elections come in tomorrow, Keir Starmer may feel that he needs all the allies he can get. With that in mind perhaps, he released an email to all civil servants yesterday stressing how much he valued their work.

Referring to the sacking of Olly Robbins, he said the events of the last few weeks that they might find “unsettling” should not define the civil service.

He also said he wanted civil servants to speak truth to power.

To those who feel exposed by recent scrutiny, let me say this: I value the ‘speaking truth to power’ that is the hallmark of our system. I want a culture where information flows freely, where risks are flagged early, and where we work together to solve problems before they become crises.

Ben Bloch from Sky News has the full text of the email here.

Here are some more pictures marking the glorious ritual of going to the polling station for an election in Britain.

A polling station Taffs Well, South Wales, which is inside the changing rooms of the local football club. Photograph: Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans/Shutterstock

A polling clerk hanging up a sign reminding people to show ID as they turn up to vote in local elections at a mobile polling station in Walton-on-the-Naze, eastern England. Photograph: Chris Radburn/AFP/Getty Images

A notice. at a polling station in Emmer Green, Reading, saying what election tellers representing the political parties are and are not allowed to do. Photograph: Geoffrey Swaine/Shutterstock

A man jogging out of a polling station in Lewisham. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

A dog waiting outside Pollokshields Burgh Hall polling station in Glasgow, Scotland. Photograph: Robert Perry/Getty Images

Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, has voted in Llangristiolus, in Anglesey, where he is a candidate for the Bangor Conwy Môn constituency.

Rhun ap Iorwerth arriving at a polling station with his wife Llinos Iorwerth and daughters Elen and Siwan to vote in the Senedd election in Llangristiolus, Wales. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

A man leaving a polling station in Burrelton, Perthshire, Scotland this morning. Photograph: Andy Buchanan/AFP/Getty Images

Rhun ap Iorwerth urges people to vote Plaid Cymru for 'new leadership' in Wales with 'compassion and credibility'

And here is the eve-of-poll statement that Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, issued yesterday.

Service is a value which has always sustained Wales. It’s a value instilled in me from a young age by my parents, both teachers. It’s a value I’ve sought to pass on to my children - the gift of giving back to the people and places who gave us so much.

Tomorrow is a chance for the people of Wales to choose who serves our nation for the next four years. It’s Plaid Cymru’s deep sense of service to Wales - focusing just on our needs and our future - that first drew me to politics.

We’re a party with no master in Westminster, no instructions to follow or interference - we take our cue from the people of Wales. And as your first minister, service is a value that would guide me every day.

Plaid Cymru offers new leadership defined not by scripts signed-off by others, but by loyalty to the people and communities who have shaped me. New leadership which places compassion and credibility at its heart, and which replaces the old way of doing things with new humility and real ambition for Wales.

So tomorrow, Wales can seize that chance, we can vote for a party ready and willing to serve you, the people of Wales, and for a first minister who will always put national interest before self-interest. Vote for Plaid Cymru.

A sign outside a polling station at St James Church hall in Inverleith, Edinburgh. You are, of course, allowed to vote and pray. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

John Swinney urges Scots to vote SNP for 'better future', to keep Farage out and for 'fresh start with independence'

Here is the message to Scots from John Swinney, the first minister and SNP leader.

Polanski urges people to vote Green 'to make life affordable for everyone'

This is from Zack Polanski, the Green party leader.

A man with his dog outside a polling station in Wimbledon this morning. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Shutterstock

Davey urges people to vote Lib Dem to protect country from Reform UK and 'Farage's Trump-style politics'

Here is the message to voters from Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader.

The polls are open, and the choice is clear. We have less than 24 hours to stop Reform and defend the country we love from Nigel Farage’s Trump-style politics.

We’ve now seen what Reform looks like in power - banning journalists, scrapping renewables, closing care homes and raising council tax despite their promises. Our communities can’t afford that chaos.

Across the country, from Hampshire to Hull, the battle is now between the Liberal Democrats and Reform. We are the ones taking the fight to them and standing up for decency, tolerance, and the rule of law.

Liberal Democrats don’t do division, we do the hard work that actually gets things done. Whether it’s fixing the church roof, ending the GP surgery crisis, or finally cleaning up the sewage in our rivers, a vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for a local champion who works hard for their community. Don’t wake up tomorrow to a result you’ll regret.

Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria voted early today. Here they are arriving at the Westminster chapel polling station in Westminster.

Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria arrive at a polling station in Westminster. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

For years Westminster was a Conservative-run council, but it went Labour in 2022. This year, it’s a Tory target.

This is what Dave Hill and Lewis Baston say about Westminster in their excellent and exceptionally thorough London Decides guide to the elections in the capital.

In June 2025, a member of its crew leaped aboard the rival craft Reform: she has since been anointed her new party’s candidate for Mayor of London in far-off 2028. Another followed in November. There have been two other by-elections, one of them producing a Tory hold, the other a Labour hold. The net outcome is that Labour currently has 28 seats, the Tories 24 and Reform two. Several Westminster wards turn on tight margins and with Reform and the Greens trying to get in on the two-party act, every vote is going to count.

Badenoch urges people to vote Tory for 'better services and lower taxes', not 'chaos' under Labour and Reform UK

Here is the election message from Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative party.

Today, as they head to polling stations, millions of people across the country face a stark choice: between electing a Conservative council that delivers better services and lower taxes, and the chaos that Labour, Reform and the rest have to offer.

Under my leadership the Conservative party has changed. We know where we went wrong and we’re fixing it.

The next Conservative government will deliver cheaper energy bills, take back our streets with 10,000 more police officers, cut business rates for the high street, end the war on motorists, and abolish stamp duty on the family home.

We are the only party with the plan, the team and the backbone to deliver a stronger economy and stronger country.

These elections are on a knife edge. Every vote counts and yours could make the difference.

Vote Conservative today and back us to get Britain working again.

UPDATE: The reference to “chaos” is a bit reminiscent of this famous tweet from David Cameron during the 2015 general election campaign. After Britain voted for Brexit just over a year later, this became seen as one of the worst Twitter prophecies of all time.

Farage urges people to vote for Reform UK to get rid of 'gutless' Starmer

Here is Nigel Farage’s overnight eve-of-poll statement. The Reform UK leader said:

The Tories tried to remove the gutless Keir Starmer and failed.

The only way to finally remove the most unpopular and unpatriotic prime minister in our lifetime is to back Reform.

Together, we can continue the journey of getting our great country back on track.

Reform made history and won the local elections last year. If you really want change, go out and vote for it again today.

Starmer says Farage and Polanski not fit to lead in era of 'global instability' as voting starts in England, Scotland and Wales

Good morning. Voting has started in what looks set to be a seismic set of elections. In England people will be electing around 5,000 councillors, and six mayors; in Scotland, they are choosing 129 MSPs to serve in a new parliament; and in Wales they are selecting 96 members of the Senedd (MSs), under a new electoral system which also means the Senedd is getting much bigger. In the past, there were just 60 MSs.

Some English councils will count overnight, but most of them will start counting tomorrow morning, which is also when counting in Scotland and Wales begins.

Here is a Guardian guide to what’s at stake.

Here is an article by our data team explaining why the polling suggests the results will be particularly difficult for Labour.

And here is Patrick Greenfield’s First Edition briefing on five trends to look out for.

As the day goes on, I will post more on why the results we get tomorrow have the potential to upend British politics.

There probably won’t be much hard news today. But you never know, and there will be space for dogs at polling stations.

For the record, here is the statement that Keir Starmer released about the elections overnight.

Today when you put your vote in the ballot box you face a clear choice. Progress and a better future for the community you call home, with a Labour council working with a Labour government. Versus the anger and division offered up by Reform or empty promises from the Greens.

In tough times, you need politicians who will always stand up for you and your family. Time and again Nigel Farage and Zack Polanski have shown they are not fit to meet this moment of great global instability. Today I pledge firmly to you: whatever the pressure, Labour will always back you and your family and we will never waver from doing what is in Britain’s national interest.

Back action to ease the cost of living. Back our NHS. Back a better future for your local community.

Today, choose unity over division. Vote Labour.

I will post statements from the other main party leaders shortly.

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