Major test for Labour as polls open in English, Scottish and Welsh elections
Polling has opened across England, Scotland and Wales in a series of local, mayoral and parliamentary contests – the biggest electoral test Keir Starmer and the Labour government have faced since the 2024 general election.As millions of people across Great Britain go to the polls on Thursday, party leaders are poised for a set of results that could fundamentally change the political landscape nationally in Scotland and Wales, and across local authorities in England.The results will be closely watched by all parties, and are seen as the first major political test of an increasingly multiparty system.They come after months of Labour and the Conservatives languishing in the polls, and the growing popularity of smaller parties such as Reform UK, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats.The elections cover the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and 136 local councils in England, where 5,014 seats are being contested, including every one on all of London’s 32 borough councils, more than a dozen borough councils, six unitary councils, six county councils and three district councils.
A further 73 councils are holding elections for half or a third of the seats available.There are also six mayoral contests – in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford.The polls for local elections will be open between 7am and 10pm, with the first results expected at aabout 12.30am on Friday, and a glut of further results from about 3am onwards.About a third of councils should have declared results by around 7am, while the most significant results – including the mayoral results in London boroughs, and council results in Manchester and Leeds – starting to come in at lunchtime.
By the end of Friday about 80 more councils will have declared results, but the final councils – including Croydon and Tower Hamlets in London and Hastings in Sussex – won’t declare until Saturday afternoon.Results in Scotland and Wales should become clear by about 4pm on Friday, with more local election results announced in the late afternoon and early evening.Counting for mayoral elections will only begin on Friday, with Hackney and Newham expected to declare at 1pm, Watford at 2pm, Lewisham at 3pm, Croydon at 4pm and Tomer Hamlets at 6pm.After the May 2025 local elections, Labour held 34% of all council seats in England, down 2% from 2024.The Conservatives fell to 26%, down 4% from the previous year and the Liberal Democrats held 19%, up 1%.
The number of councillors represented by other parties increased from 11% to 12%.The Greens held 5% of seats, a similar share to 2024.Reform went from zero to 5% with the election of 677 councillors.In Scotland, 129 MSPs will be voted into Holyrood, where they will debate and pass laws on all devolved matters, including education, health and transport.Policy areas with a UK-wide or international impact, such as defence, foreign policy and immigration are decided in Westminster.
At the last Scottish parliament election in 2021 the SNP won 64 seats – one short of a majority – and the Scottish Conservatives came second with 31.Scottish Labour came third with 22 seats, the Scottish Greens took eight and the Scottish Liberal Democrats, four.Polls will be open in Scotland from 7am until 10pm.Unlike in previous years, counting of votes will be on Friday morning, with the first declarations expected at lunchtime and most results declared by the evening.Welsh voters will elect 96 representatives across 16 constituencies, with six members of the Senedd in each.
Electoral changes mean that a new proportional voting system will be in place.Voters will be asked to back a party rather than a candidate, with six Senedd members voted in based largely on the proportion of votes they get in a constituency.
How to save asparagus trimmings from the food-waste bin – recipe | Waste not
Asparagus butts are a particularly tricky byproduct to tame because they’re so fibrous. I usually cut them very finely (into 5mm-thick discs, or even thinner), then boil, puree and pass them through a sieve (as in my green goddess salad dressing and asparagus soup), but even then you’ll still end up with a fair bit of fibrous waste. Enter asparagus-butt butter: a recipe that defies all odds, making the impossible possible by transforming a tough offcut into an intense compound butter that’s perfect for grilling or frying asparagus spears themselves, or for eggs, bread, gnocchi or whatever you can think of. The short fibres brown and caramelise in the butter, and in the process become the highlight of the dish, rather than the problem.This transforms an unwanted byproduct into an intense expression of the plant’s flavour
Thoran and chaat: Romy Gill’s Indian-style asparagus recipes
Spring’s first asparagus always feels like a celebration, but there’s so much more to cooking those spears than just butter and lemon. Here, those tender stems combine with bold Indian flavours in two playful dishes. The thoran, inspired by Keralan home cooking, involves stir-frying asparagus with coconut, mustard seeds and curry leaves to create something warm and comforting (my friend Simi’s mum always used to drizzle it with a little lemon juice to give the flavours a lift). The chaat, meanwhile, tossed with tangy tamarind, yoghurt, spices, crunchy chickpeas and sweet pomegranate, is a delicious snack or side. Together, they show how versatile asparagus can be: easy to cook, vibrant and moreish even in unexpected culinary traditions
Australian supermarket sauerkraut taste test: one is ‘like eating the smell of McDonald’s pickle’
It’s ‘Gut Coachella’ for Nicholas Jordan and friends, who blind taste a line-up of 20 shredded and fermented cabbage productsIf you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us todayGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailI cannot tell you how many times I’ve been introduced to a fatty, salty hunk of meat and thought, “my god, I’m going to need a pickle”. I feel the same eating cheese toasties or deli sandwiches with rich mayo-based sauces. Where is the pickle, hot sauce, citrus or ferment? Even the most savoury, juicy slab of umami is a bit much without acidity to balance it.What is the point of sauerkraut without acidity? It’s just wet, salty cabbage, and what is that for, other than deflating my spirits and inflating my gastrointestinal system? Sauerkraut should be sour; it’s the hallmark of the very thing that created it – fermentation.Why am I saying all this? After eight friends and I tasted 21 supermarket sauerkrauts, I was shocked to find some lacked not just acidity but any vigour at all
Georgina Hayden’s quick and easy recipe for spanakopita orzo | Quick and easy
For me, it isn’t really spring until the first May bank holiday; the days are longer, the flowers are out, and an abundance of green graces our shelves. This spanakopita orzo is a celebration of all things light, bright and spring. It’s a great weeknight dinner that will instantly transport you to Greece.This dish should be oozy, like a good risotto, so if your orzo absorbs all the stock, add a little more hot water to give it that requisite creamy finish.Prep 15 minCook 25 min Serves 425g butter 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve1 bunch spring onions, trimmed and sliced2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced220g baby leaf spinach, chopped1
Spring soup and bean and cheese quesadillas: Thomasina Miers’ Mexican-inspired seasonal recipes
I have always loved the evident (though not proven) link between how foodie a country is and its love of soups. In Mexico, where nose-to-tail eating is a given, broths maintain a steadying presence in any self-respecting cantina, and soups are commonplace on most menus. We don’t eat a crazy amount of meat at home, but having homemade stock in the freezer is an ingenious fast track to flavour and goodness. Here, whether your stock is chicken or vegetable, homemade or shop-bought, the joy is in the gentle spicing, a scattering of herbs, zingy tomatillos and some lovely spring leaves.There are so many different herbs in Mexico that are impossible to find here, so I’ve used bundles of more common soft herbs to try to capture the lovely breadth of flavour in this soup
How to make the perfect Spanish broad bean stew – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …
I always feel sorry for broad beans, the lumpy cousin perpetually overshadowed by the charms of slender, elegant asparagus and sweet, bouncy, little peas. They’re in season at roughly the same time, but asparagus in particular gets all the glory, perhaps because so many of us are scarred by childhood experiences of large, grey wrinkly beans served in a floury white sauce (my own parents are so averse to the things that I vividly remember the first time I came across them on a Sunday roast as a teenager and had to ask a friend what they were).The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more
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