Local elections live: Millions vote across England in major test for Labour, Reform and Tories

Those heading to the polls today are doing so in a haze of record-breaking heat, with the Met Office confirming Thursday as officially the hottest start to May on record in the UK.

A temperature reading of 28C was recorded at Kew Gardens in southwest London, beating the previous record of 27.4C in Lossiemouth, Moray, on 1 May 1990.

Four combined-authority mayors are being elected today, for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull & East Yorkshire and the West of England.

Two of these are brand new roles, in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull & East Yorkshire.

Labour is the incumbent party defending the other two mayoral roles, for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and the West of England.

In addition, two single-authority mayors are being elected, in Doncaster and North Tyneside, both of which are currently held by Labour.

One enjoyable aspect of UK elections is the variety of locations which can serve as polling stations.

In Whitehall Gardens, Cambridge, voters can cast their ballots at a caravan:

Local councillors are usually obscure figures, passionate local activists hoping to improve their areas or ambitious party loyalists wanting to climb the electoral ladder.

But among the thousands of councillors standing across the country on Thursday, a few names stand out.

From Olympians to ousted ex-MPs, The Independent looks at how the main parties are hoping star power will help their candidates over the line in one of the most unpredictable sets of local elections in British history.

Our political correspondent Archie Mitchell reports:

Reform leader Nigel Farage told a rally in Staffordshire on Wednesday night that the elections would see his party eclipse the Conservatives as the main opposition party in England.

Predicting a political “earthquake”, he claimed: “Tomorrow is the day that two-party politics in England dies for good.”

In order to vote in local elections in England, people must be:

• Registered to vote
• Aged 18 or over on the day of the election
• Registered at an address in the area you want to vote in
• Not legally excluded from voting

The age-old tradition of dogs at polling stations shows no sign of abating today. Here are some of the latest pictures:

In an analysis piece for The Independent, Hannah Bunting, director of the University of Exeter’s Elections Centre, writes:

These elections in 23 English local authorities are about selecting the representatives that will serve communities, both in day-to-day essential operations, and during council reorganisations amid plans for decentralisation of British democracy.

Yet attention is also being paid to the challenge Reform have set themselves – can they continue the transition from anti-establishment outsiders to a winning party engine?

There are 1,641 local councillor vacancies up for election this week, in 1,401 wards. Reform are contesting more seats than any other party. In fact, there’s only a handful without their candidate on the ballot, amounting to 99.3 per cent coverage.

This is a major step forward for the party. Ukip contested 80 per cent of this set of seats near the height of its popularity 12 years ago.

With dozens of councils, mayoralties and a high-stakes parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby up for grabs, the results could reshape the political map in ways that will reverberate far beyond Thursday night.

So, which seats really matter? How much trouble are the Tories in? Can Reform turn headlines into votes? And how fragile is Labour’s new electoral coalition?

Join The Independent’s chief political commentator John Rentoul live at midday tomorrow as he answers your questions on all the key contests, party strategies, and what the results tell us about Britain’s fast-changing political landscape: