Local elections 2016: What are they, are they important - and why is everyone talking about Jeremy Corbyn?

Elections are being held across Britain on 5 May. Here’s everything you need to know about them

Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn leaves after delivering a speech at The Clarence Centre for Enterprise & Innovation on May 3 (Getty)

What are the May 5 elections?

The devolved governments – the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, Welsh Assembly, and London Assembly are all being elected.

The Mayor of London is also elected, as are some local councils in England, and police and crime commissioners.

Why are these elections important?

The Mayor of London election is arguably the highest directly elected office in the UK with a personal mandate. Whichever party wins it not only gets to run the capital but also gains a high-profile figure.

The devolved elections are important to the places they take place in because a lot of important services like health and education are devolved the Scottish, Northern Irish, and Welsh governments – they’re not run from Westminster.

The local elections are of course important to people’s local communities – they decide who runs local councils. But more importantly for national politics, they’re often seen as a barometer of opinion mid-election cycle.

Why is everyone talking about Jeremy Corbyn?

Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is under attack by internal opponents within his own party – and a bad showing in these elections could give them an opening to try and get rid of him.

Will a bad showing by the Conservatives hurt David Cameron the same way?

Probably not – he’s stepping down anyway soon, and has less organised resistance against him in his own party who would look to exploit a defeat.

He has however personally associated himself with his party’s campaign in London which has had to deny accusations of “racism” against Labour’s Sadiq Khan.

What are the big things to watch out for?

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale (left) and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (Getty Images)

In Scotland, the SNP are going to come first – but the battle for second place and third place between Labour and the Tories is looking very close. A third place finish for Labour in its former heartland would be humiliating and symbolic.

In Wales, the question is whether Labour can hang on as a majority government – or whether it will have to do a deal with another party to stay in power. They will likely come first there, however.

In London, taking back the mayoralty would be a big win for Labour – they’ve been out since Ken Livingstone lost in 2008.

How many seats Labour loses or gains in the local council elections will also be important – but this is harder to interpret objectively and everyone is going to be spinning the result to try and further their interests.

The Northern Ireland political system operates in a bit of a bubble so its result won’t affect the UK-wide parties in any big way.

If the SNP win will Scotland go independent?

No, but there’s a good chance the might hold another independence referendum, which they might win in future.