Will voting provide a foretaste of June 8?

This spring, local and general elections are being contested just weeks apart – a highly unusual political event. Here, the Press Association finds out whether the local elections will be an indicator for how people will vote in June and what to look out for on the night. Q Where are the local elections taking place?

A Today, elections will take place at 88 councils – all of those in Scotland and Wales and 34 in England, including 27 counties. There are 15,403 candidates contesting 4,851 seats. Of these, 107 will be unopposed. There are also mayoral elections in Doncaster and North Tyneside as well as in six new devolved English super-regions. These large areas will see mayoral elections for the first time. These mayors will enjoy powers over issues ranging from policing to housing. Some results will be declared in the early hours of tomorrow but most will come in during the day.

Q Will the electorate vote the same way in local elections and the General Election?

A The Conservatives are expected to win the most votes in both elections. People usually vote for the opposition during local elections but this rule of thumb generally only holds true when the poll occurs in between general election cycles, according to Anthony Wells, research director at polling company YouGov. He told the Press Association: “It matters who is in power and who is out of power, but that’s the sort of thing that is going to be upset by being very close to a General Election.” He added the two times in modern politics that both local and general elections have happened weeks apart (1983 and 1987), the same party won both.

Q Are the Conservatives expected to win a landslide in both elections?

A No – Mr Wells said he expects the Conservatives to win the most votes in the local elections but by a smaller percentage than in the General Election. Polling data from April in Wales show the Conservatives winning by two percentage points in the local elections and then by 10 points in the General Election a month later. This mirrors what happened in 1983 when the Tories took just a three-point lead in the local elections nationally, and then Margaret Thatcher won a landslide majority the next month.