Local elections 2024: Polls open for London mayoral elections and council contests across England today

It comes as The Impartial can reveal that the Tories additionally claimed that they’ve reported a Labour council group to Thames Valley Police in Milton Keynes, a hotly contested bellweather seat forward of the native elections there.

Voters in Cambridge used the again of a automobile as a polling station as employees had issues entering into the library constructing that they had deliberate to make use of.

Polling groups “remained calm and carried on” once they discovered themselves shut out of Milton Highway Library on Thursday, Cambridge Electoral Companies wrote on X, previously often known as Twitter.

They posted {a photograph} of a gray automobile with its boot open, with a polling station signal hung from its door handles and candidate info caught to the home windows.

“Voters at Milton Highway Library get to expertise the uncommon sight of voting from the again of a automobile as we’ve had issues entering into the constructing,” Cambridge Electoral Companies wrote on-line.

“Hopefully we’ll be in quickly however for now our polling employees are doing an excellent job making certain early voters can nonetheless forged their vote!”

In a screenshot of a Whatsapp dialog, printed by ITV political correspondent Harry Horton, Mr Hunt is seen asking for assist from members following a “little bit of drama”, including: “Seems I’ve no acceptable ID to vote tomorrow”.

It’s too late to forestall this yr’s normal election from the dangers of misinformation unfold through synthetic intelligence, an eminent laptop scientist has warned.

Dame Wendy Corridor, who co-chaired the Authorities’s 2017 AI overview, additionally prompt social media websites might restrict posts about politics on polling day as a method of stopping misinformation.

Elections the world over in 2024 may very well be impacted by AI-generated deepfake photographs and movies, the regius professor of laptop science on the College of Southampton prompt whereas chatting with BBC Radio 4’s At present programme podcast.

Requested in regards to the dangers of AI to the democratic course of, Dame Wendy instructed the BBC: “It’s virtually too late to do it for this yr now, to truly act in any concerted method.

“We should always have been eager about it earlier and I used to be apprehensive, I believe what the protection institutes are doing is extremely essential.

“However we must also preserve eager about how AI can be utilized for the dangerous in democratic elections and the usage of deepfakes.

“The cat is out of the bag actually, so we’re going to need to, I believe we’d like a number of public consciousness round this to make folks – and I do know that the media are eager about this – to make folks take into consideration the place have they acquired this info from, what’s the provenance of this info.

“As a result of there is no such thing as a time to vary legal guidelines or usher in huge technical fixes earlier than these elections begin taking place now.”

With the Conservatives braced for a dreadful displaying within the native elections, there’s one surefire strategy to push back any revolt inside the social gathering, says Andrew Grice. Sufficient of the foolish guessing video games, prime minister – announce the date this weekend:

In an unique interview with The Impartial, Lord Houchen warned that his potential defeat on this week’s native elections ought to be “a wake-up name” for Tory MPs.

And in a rare broadside at his personal social gathering, he stated voters have been pledging to help him, however not the Tories on the subsequent normal election.

Voters throughout England and Wales will take to the polls on Thursday for the most recent spherical of native elections. Alongside 1000’s of councillors, a document 12 metro mayors are to be elected – together with the high-profile Mayor of London.

Incumbent Sadiq Khan is hoping to safe a 3rd time period for Labour as he fights off Conservative candidate Susan Corridor. They’re amongst 11 candidates in complete, together with the controversial right-wing Reform UK social gathering’s Jeremy Cox.

Mr Khan has sought to deal with his succcesses when on the marketing campaign path. These embrace an growth to present rail and bus strains, in addition to frozen fares for Londoners.

Natalie Campbell, an unbiased candidate working for London mayor, has stated she is going to take a “CEO’s strategy” to main the capital as a result of the “party-political system is damaged”.

Ms Campbell grew up in north-west London, and she or he is the co-CEO of the social enterprise Belu Water. She been the chancellor of the College of Westminster since 2022.

Talking to The Impartial, she stated: “I completely love this metropolis, however I do know it’s not working anymore for most individuals.”

Voters head to the polls at this time in a sequence of native elections seen as the ultimate check of public opinion earlier than Rishi Sunak goes to the nation later this yr.

A lot of the seats up for re-election have been final contested in 2021, on the peak of Boris Johnson’s recognition because the Covid-19 vaccine was rolled out.

A complete of 11 mayoral contests are additionally going down, together with for the London mayoralty between frontrunners, Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan and Tory challenger Susan Corridor.

Conservative mayors Andy Road within the West Midlands, and Tees Valley’s Ben Houchen are additionally going through key re-election battles, with polls suggesting slender contests with their Labour opponents.

Forecasts have persistently put Mr Khan forward of Ms Corridor, with a ballot printed on Wednesday by Savanta giving him a 10-point benefit after his lead tapered over the marketing campaign.