Ones to Watch - Local Elections 2024 Edition

Every registered voter across England and Wales will have the chance to vote on 2nd May 2024. 107 council areas have elections. If you don’t have council elections in your area this year, you will have the opportunity to either vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner, in combined authority elections, or be in London and able to vote for the London assembly and the mayor of London.

Some ‘lucky’ voters will have the trifecta of local elections - council contests, police crime commissioner elections and the opportunity vote for a combined authority mayor! Ahead of polling day on Thursday heres a snapshot of some of the most interesting contests as judged by the SMG team:

West Midlands Mayoral

Downing Street will be paying close attention to key combined authority mayoral contests - in particular the West Midlands contest which most pollsters put at ‘too close to call’. Conservative Mayor Andy Street is looking to secure a third term having first been elected in 2017 with 50.4% of the vote and again in 2021 with a slightly increased second round vote share of 54%.

Tees Valley Mayoral

Conservative Mayor Ben Houchen won the last mayoral contest in 2021 with a whopping 72.8% of the vote. Polling this time around suggests this time around its going to be a much closer affair with Labour’s Chris McEwan coming within 7 points of the incumbent Houchen.

Hartlepool Council

Hartlepool has been something of a bellwether for years now, both in council elections and parliamentary elections. It has been under no overall control since 2019 but gains from Labour have put the party just 2 seats from full control.

Hull

The Lib Dems took control of Hull Council in 2022 and have made further gains since. Their majority however is not bulletproof and a good showing from Labour could change the balance of power - even with only a third of seats up for election.

Stockport

Stockport Council has been run by minority administrations since 2011. Both Labour and the Lib Dems are within touching distance of forming a majority. Recent elections have seen the Lib Dems make more gains than Labour putting them in prime position to close the gap and form the authority’s first majority in 13 years.

London - West Central

Assembly members will be elected in 14 GLC constituencies including West Central. West Central has consistently returned Conservative assembly members but with Labour winning City of Westminster in the last council elections theres a chance it could swing for the first time ever.