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  "path": "/politics/local-elections-latest-polling-stations-polls-open-england-councils-wales-senedd-scotland-holyrood-voting",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-07T06:00:09.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
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  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nPolls have opened for millions of people across England, Scotland and Wales as voting at the local, Holyrood and Senedd elections gets underway.\n\nAll seats in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments are up for election - as well as 136 councils including all London boroughs, and six mayoralties in England.\n\nMore than 5,000 seats will be up for grabs across the 136 local authorities, of which 46 are set to declare results from just after midnight.\n\nVoting ends at 10pm.\n\nLabour is fielding the most candidates in England, with around 4,900, followed by Reform with 4,800, and Conservatives with 4,700.\n\nThe party either controls or leads the majority of the council areas where voters are going to the polls in England.\n\nThe results will determine who controls public services including, social care, waste collection and transport.\n\nAll adults aged 18 and over can vote in the council elections if they are either a British or Irish citizen, or a qualifying foreign national.\n\nEveryone voting in person in the local elections in England will need a valid photo ID, but there is no such requirement in Scotland and Wales - where the minimum voting age is 16.\n\n**_FOLLOW BELOW FOR LIVE UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY..._**\n\n### When can we expect the first results from today's voting?\n\n\n\n\nViewers and readers hoping to find out the results of today's council elections can tune into GB News or GBNews.com tonight - with the first declarations expected in the early hours of Friday.\n\nStaff will be working hard in Broxbourne in Hertfordshire and Halton in Cheshire to reveal the results of those two council elections first at around 1am.\n\nMost of the local authorities counting overnight have only a third or half of their seats up for grabs, which means those councils where a party currently has a large majority, like Broxbourne or Halton, may not see a change in overall control.\n\nHowever, some councils' leading parties are defending slim majorities - including in Harlow and Redditch - and are also due to finish counting at this time.\n\nThrough the night, big councils across the North West, London and the South East will all declare their results - with Southampton set to round off our overnight coverage at around 6.30am tomorrow.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Polls open for millions in England, Scotland and Wales as crunch elections underway"
}