Native elections 2024: Reside updates as polling stations open for London mayoral and council contests throughout England at present

It comes as The Unbiased can reveal that the Tories additionally claimed that they’ve reported a Labour council group to Thames Valley Police in Milton Keynes, a hotly contested bellweather seat forward of the native elections there.

Voters in Cambridge used the again of a automobile as a polling station as workers had issues moving into the library constructing that they had deliberate to make use of.

Polling groups “remained calm and carried on” once they discovered themselves shut out of Milton Street Library on Thursday, Cambridge Electoral Providers wrote on X, previously often called Twitter.

They posted {a photograph} of a gray automobile with its boot open, with a polling station signal hung from its door handles and candidate data caught to the home windows.

“Voters at Milton Street Library get to expertise the uncommon sight of voting from the again of a automobile as we’ve had issues moving into the constructing,” Cambridge Electoral Providers wrote on-line.

“Hopefully we’ll be in quickly however for now our polling workers are doing a terrific job making certain early voters can nonetheless forged their vote!”

In a screenshot of a Whatsapp dialog, printed by ITV political correspondent Harry Horton, Mr Hunt is seen asking for assist from members following a “little bit of drama”, including: “Seems I’ve no applicable ID to vote tomorrow”.

It’s too late to stop this 12 months’s common election from the dangers of misinformation unfold by way of synthetic intelligence, an eminent laptop scientist has warned.

Dame Wendy Corridor, who co-chaired the Authorities’s 2017 AI overview, additionally urged social media websites might restrict posts about politics on polling day as a method of stopping misinformation.

Elections the world over in 2024 might be impacted by AI-generated deepfake photographs and movies, the regius professor of laptop science on the College of Southampton urged whereas talking to BBC Radio 4’s As we speak programme podcast.

Requested concerning the dangers of AI to the democratic course of, Dame Wendy instructed the BBC: “It’s nearly too late to do it for this 12 months now, to really act in any concerted approach.

“We must always have been fascinated about it earlier and I used to be nervous, I believe what the protection institutes are doing is extremely essential.

“However we also needs to preserve fascinated about how AI can be utilized for the unhealthy in democratic elections and the usage of deepfakes.

“The cat is out of the bag actually, so we’re going to should, I believe we want a whole lot of public consciousness round this to make individuals – and I do know that the media are fascinated about this – to make individuals take into consideration the place have they obtained this data from, what’s the provenance of this data.

“As a result of there isn’t any time to alter legal guidelines or herald large technical fixes earlier than these elections begin occurring now.”

With the Conservatives braced for a dreadful exhibiting within the native elections, there’s one surefire solution to keep at bay any revolt inside the get together, says Andrew Grice. Sufficient of the foolish guessing video games, prime minister – announce the date this weekend:

In an unique interview with The Unbiased, Lord Houchen warned that his potential defeat on this week’s native elections needs to be “a wake-up name” for Tory MPs.

And in a unprecedented broadside at his personal get together, he stated voters had been pledging to assist him, however not the Tories on the subsequent common election.

Voters throughout England and Wales will take to the polls on Thursday for the most recent spherical of native elections. Alongside 1000’s of councillors, a file 12 metro mayors are to be elected – together with the high-profile Mayor of London.

Incumbent Sadiq Khan is hoping to safe a 3rd time period for Labour as he fights off Conservative candidate Susan Corridor. They’re amongst 11 candidates in whole, together with the controversial right-wing Reform UK get together’s Jeremy Cox.

Mr Khan has sought to give attention to his succcesses when on the marketing campaign path. These embrace an growth to current rail and bus traces, in addition to frozen fares for Londoners.

Natalie Campbell, an impartial candidate working for London mayor, has stated she’s going to take a “CEO’s method” to main the capital as a result of the “party-political system is damaged”.

Ms Campbell grew up in north-west London, and he or she is the co-CEO of the social enterprise Belu Water. She been the chancellor of the College of Westminster since 2022.

Chatting with The Unbiased, she stated: “I completely love this metropolis, however I do know it’s not working anymore for most individuals.”

Voters head to the polls at present in a sequence of native elections seen as the ultimate take a look at of public opinion earlier than Rishi Sunak goes to the nation later this 12 months.

Many of the seats up for re-election had been final contested in 2021, on the peak of Boris Johnson’s reputation because the Covid-19 vaccine was rolled out.

A complete of 11 mayoral contests are additionally happening, together with for the London mayoralty between frontrunners, Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan and Tory challenger Susan Corridor.

Conservative mayors Andy Avenue within the West Midlands, and Tees Valley’s Ben Houchen are additionally going through key re-election battles, with polls suggesting slender contests with their Labour opponents.

Forecasts have constantly put Mr Khan forward of Ms Corridor, with a ballot printed on Wednesday by Savanta giving him a 10-point benefit after his lead tapered over the marketing campaign.