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Rishi Sunak faces another big test on Thursday 2 May when thousands of councilors face re-election amid predictions of more destruction Tories.

Millions of registered voters in England and Wales will have the opportunity to vote at least once, although there are no elections in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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Local elections

Some 2,600 seats in 107 of England's 317 councils are contested, with the Conservatives and Labor defending just under 1,000 each. Either a third, half or all of the councilors in a given authority will stand for election.

Councils are elected to four-year terms to represent their ward, set policy and oversee the provision of a wide range of services. in society.

Mayoral elections

Directly elected mayors devolve authority over the local economy, transport infrastructure, environment and planning.

Labour's Sadiq Khan is seeking re-election as mayor of London, as are mayors of the six combined authorities, including Labour's Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester and Andy Street, the Tory mayor of the West Midlands, as well as Salford.

< p>Mr Khan's main rival is Conservative candidate Susan Hall. Polls show the incumbent president is on track to win a historic third term, despite anger over his criminal activities, green transport schemes and months of pro-Palestinian protests.

Three regional mayors will also be sworn in for the first time in the East Midlands, North East, York and North Yorkshire.

Police and Crime Commissioners

England and Wales are divided into 39 police districts, each headed by a unique commissioner Police and Crime (PCC).

PCCs are elected every four years, and 37 people will be up for re-election on May 2. They are the public face of the forces they control. and have primary responsibility for setting budgets, reducing crime and holding officers to account.

The Mayor is also responsible for policing London, Manchester and the three combined authorities of Yorkshire.

Greater London Authority

While none of the capital's 32 boroughs hold local elections, Londoners will be asked to vote for two of the 25 members of the London Assembly — one from their borough and the other from a city-wide list.

Their main role is to monitor the work of the mayor and his executive team.

What does this all mean?

Most of these positions were last contested in 2021 in a very different national political climate.

With Boris Johnson in 10th place, helped by the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, the Conservatives gained huge success and recruited more than 200 advisors.

But in the 2023 local elections, Labor became the party with the most councilors for the first time in 20 years, after months of political turmoil and infighting between the Conservatives.

Labour is now expected to do well, while the Tories are likely to lose seats, with national polls showing Sir Keir Starmer's party ahead by around 20 percentage points.

Analysis by election experts Michael Thrasher and Colin Rallings suggests the Conservatives could lose up to 500 seats, about half of those they defend, if they repeat their poor performance in last year's local elections.

But Lewis Baston, Having written about the election more than three times, the decade noted that the last time one-third of the seats were contested was in 2019, 2022 or 2023 due to boundary changes, indicating that the Conservative results may be better than some forecasts.< /p>

The deadline for declaring general elections on the same day as local residents has now passed.

Few insiders believe late autumn polls will be enough for the Tories to reverse the current deficit.

The local election results will be the final signal for Mr Sunak and Sir Keir before the election campaign begins — and could fuel Tory questions about the prime minister's future if his party suffers significant losses.

The local election results will be the final signal for Mr Sunak and Sir Keir before the election campaign begins — and could fuel Tory questions about the prime minister's future if his party suffers significant losses.

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