Local elections 2022: When to expect the results

Results will begin trickling in from the early hours of Friday morning

Over 4,300 seats are being contested in England alone (Reuters)

Millions of voters will head to the polls across the UK in a matter of hours, with local elections being held across England, Scotland and Wales.

In England there are over 4,300 seats being contested – including all London boroughs – while all of Scotland’s 32 councils and 22 Welsh councils are up forgrabs.

They will coincide with Northern Ireland’s assembly election, with voters deciding on 90 members, representing 18 constituencies, to send to Stormont.

Here The Independent looks at the estimated timings for key declarations for the local elections.

Thursday 10pm

Voting closes across the UK.

Midnight to 3am

The first slew of results will begin trickling in from around 1am, with Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Exeter, Basildon, Bolton, and South Tyneside all set to declare before 2am.

The result for Sunderland – a Labour-run council since 1974 – is expected is also expected to drop at 2am, with the Conservatives aiming to cause a shock and make enough gains to leave the council in no overall control.

Other results before 3am include Halton, Bolton, Broxbourne, Brentwood, Hart, Rushmoor, Tameside, Tamworth, Wigan, Worcester, Amber Valley, Chorley, Croydon, Harlow, Hartlepool, Plymouth, Redditch, Rochford, Sandwell, Sefton, Sunderland, Thurrock, Wirral, Oldham, Cumberland, Fareham, Ipswich, Lincoln, North East Lancashire, Peterborough, Preston and Stevenage.

3am to 5am

More results from London will begin filtering in with the safe Tory council of Westminster due to declare at 3am.

At the same time results are also expected from Sheffield, which Labour lost to no overall control at the last election. The party will be hoping to gain seats from the Liberal Democrats to win back the council.

Elsewhere, Eastleigh, Epping Forrest, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southend-on-Sea, Tandridge, Hammersmith & Fulham, Waltham Forest, Wolverhampton, Colchester, Kingston-upon-Hull, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Coventry, Dudley, Ealing, Hillingdon, Nuneaton & Bedworth, Salford, Sutton, Bexley, and Hounslow are all expected before 5am.

5am to 7am

The London borough of Wandsworth, a council in Tory hands for more than four decades, is one of Labour’s key targets and is expected to declare at 5.30am. The Labour group leader on the council told The Independent this week: “It will come down to a few votes here and there in key wards.”

The result for Derby City Council is also expected to be announced in the early hours of Friday morning. In 2018 voters in the area elected more Tory councillors than Labour for the first time since 1990 and Sir Keir Starmer should be aiming to make inroads.

Havering, Kensington & Chelsea, Merton, Southampton, Southwark, Richmond-upon Thames, Enfield, Stockport, Brent, and Barnsley are also expected to declare.

9am

A brief moment of respite from results, as counting begins for a further 71 councils in England and all councils in Scotland and Wales. Ballots will also begin to be counted in Northern Ireland for the 90 members of the Assembly.

Midday to 2pm

Results likely to resume, with the first results from Scotland too. Expected declarations include Gateshead, Moray, Cambridge, Cannock Chase, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Huntingdonshire, Orkney Islands, Perth & Kinross, Shetland Islands, Solihull, Walsall, Westmorland & Furness, Calderdale.

2pm to 4pm

Results come through rapidly by this point. The Conservative-Labour battleground, Newcastle-under-Lyme, is due to finish counting, alongside East Renfrewshire – a three-way battle between the Tories, Labour and the SNP.

In Wales, Labour is looking to take control of Blaenau Gwent from a group of independents, while Flintshire is a test of Tory popularity in an area in which they did well at the 2019 general election.

Between 2-3pm, Carmarthenshire, Castle Point, Cheltenham, Conwy, Crawley, Dumfries & Galloway, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Elmbridge, Inverclyde, Maidstone, Rossendale, Runnymede, Slough, West Oxfordshire, Worthing, Wrexham, Argyll & Bute, Burnley, Clackmannanshire, East Lothian, Fife, Havant, Reigate & Banstead, Scottish Borders, Three Rivers, and Woking, should declare.

More results from 3pm are expected to include Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Blaenau Gwent, Bromley, Caerphilly, Camden, Denbighshire, East Ayrshire, Flintshire, Hyndburn, Knowsley, Manchester, Merthyr Tydfil, North Ayrshire, Reading, South Ayrshire, South Cambridgeshire, Stirling, Torfaen, Trafford, Welwyn Hatfield, West Dunbartonshire, West Lothian, Ceredigion, East Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Isle of Anglesey, North Lanarkshire, Rochdale, West Lancashire, and Highland.

4pm to 6pm

Results from Glasgow are expected, and as Colin Drury writes, the SNP is seeking to take complete control of the city council for the first time. Westminster watchers will also be observing the results of Wakefield after the resignation of the MP Imran Ahmad Khan, who was convicted last month of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy.

While Labour is expected to hold the council, the pollster Peter Kellner suggests if Labour “wins a clear lead in the wards that make up the parliamentary seat, it could signal a Labour gain” in the upcoming Wakefield by-election – currently expected in June. Khan won the traditionally Labour voting seat at the 2019 general election as part of Boris Johnson’s red wall gains.

Also expected to declare are Adur, Birmingham, Blackburn with Darwen, Haringey, Hastings, Midlothian, Milton Keynes, Mole Valley, Norwich, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Rugby, Somerset, South Lanarkshire, St Albans, Leeds, Pendle, Tunbridge Wells, Basingstoke & Deane, Bridgend, Cardiff, Gosport, Gwynedd, Harrow, North Yorkshire, Powys, St Helens, Swansea, Swindon, Watford, Wokingham, Pembrokeshire, Renfrewshire, Bradford, Greenwich, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham, Monmouthshire, Neath Port Talbot, Newport, Winchester, and Kingston-upon-Thames.

Friday evening

The vast majority of the results should be in by this point, with Kirklees, North Hertfordshire, Hackney, Newham, Cherwell, Vale of Glamorgan, and Bury expected to declare after 6pm.

Saturday

The final result in the local elections should be in around midday on Saturday, with the London borough of Tower Hamlets declaring. The results are also expected in the Northern Ireland assembly elections, with a small chance of running into Monday.

After the elections, the 90 newly elected members of the assembly will meet within eight days and the crucial process of the elections of a new speaker with cross-community support and the position of first minister will begin.

The result could bring in a historic change, with a recent poll by the Belfast Telegraph putting Sinn Fein on course to be the largest party at Stormont and select its first minister for the very first time. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, however, said he was “not bothered” by the shock poll and claimed to be confident his party would still win the assembly election. It could be the beginning of a long-running process, with 24 weeks available to form an executive.