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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Peter Walker Senior political correspondent

First major ballot box test for Labour as polls open in English local elections

Reform Sir Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer and the actor Ross Kemp smile at each other as they talk on the phone
Keir Starmer and the actor Ross Kemp join the national phone bank at Labour party headquarters in London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Polling has opened across England in a series of local, mayoral and parliamentary races that will be the first major electoral test of Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

The elections cover 24 councils across England, as well as six mayoralties and a byelection in the formerly Labour-held seat of Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.

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