Parties are waiting for the results as the votes are counted
COUNTING will get under way today after voting took place in Wales’ local elections 2022 yesterday.
Councillors and ruling groups are up for re-election in all of Wales’ 22 councils.
The first results for Wales are expected to come around 2pm with the last expected to be at around 9pm – although there may be recounts.
In Wales, changes have been made to the boundaries and how many councillors stand in some wards. It means there is now a total of 1,234 councillors who represent Wales, however, more than 70 have already been elected because no-one stood against them.
Council seats in Scotland, London and many parts of England are also up for grabs, and Northern Ireland is electing its new Assembly.
In England, more than 4,000 councillors in 146 councils are standing for election in major cities including Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and all 32 London boroughs.
All 32 councils in Scotland are also holding elections.
Meanwhile, tensions are high in Northern Ireland for the Stormont election, where voters are going to the polls across 18 constituencies to elect 90 MLAs. Opinion polls have suggested Sinn Fein is likely to top the poll, while the Alliance Party is tipped to see a surge in support.
This year’s elections are also likely to be a verdict on Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, in particular their handling of such national issues as Covid-19 and the cost of living.
Going into this latest election, the only Conservative-controlled council in Wales was Monmouth, where the party won 25 seats in 2017, a gain of six on the previous election. Labour came second with 10 seats with five independent councillors and three Lib Dems completing the council.
There, the group leader was one of a relatively small group of Conservatives who was vocal in his criticism of the Prime Minister’s conduct, so there is some talk that could cushion any local loss of votes. In January, Richard John said that the Prime Minister had lost people’s trust.
Speaking to BBC Wales, Mr John said: “The members of the public that I’ve been talking to are just sick to death of this. And they feel that there’s been a complete and almost irreparable breakdown in trust between the public and the prime minister, and I’m not sure if he can repair that.”
He said Tory party members are “genuinely torn because the prime minister has generally navigated the pandemic well”.
The “red wall” seats, traditional Labour heartlands where votes switched in the previous General Election from Labour to the Conservatives will also be closely watched. In Wales, Wrexham, Ynys Môn, Bridgend, Vale of Clwyd, Clwyd South and Delyn all turned from red to blue.
A poll released earlier this week projected that it could be a good night for Labour. The poll, by Electoral Calculus and Find Out Now, suggested Labour will take back Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil – two councils they lost five years ago – and gain Carmarthenshire and Flintshire. The poll suggested Labour would also take back Blaenau Gwent, the third council it lost in 2017.
First Minister and Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford cast his vote yesterday with wife Clare at St Catherine’s Hall in King’s Road, Pontcanna, Cardiff – within his Cardiff West constituency.
Mr Johnson arrived at a polling station in Westminster on foot early yesterday morning, appearing in good spirits despite predictions that the Conservatives could lose hundreds of council seats.
The Prime Minister, showing his party colours with a light blue tie and shirt, waved to reporters on his way in and out of Methodist Central Hall.
One member of the public looked perplexed at the commotion, wondering aloud: “Is that Simon Cowell?”
Mr Johnson was not with his wife Carrie but was accompanied by their dog Dilyn, taking part in a tradition of recent years of people taking their pets with them when they vote.
The excited Jack Russell cross leapt up and licked a photographer attempting to get a shot of the Prime Minister.
Social media users shared photos of their dogs at polling stations across the UK since they opened at 7am.
After voting, Mr Johnson tweeted a video in which he said he voted for his party because “it’s Conservatives who deliver, Conservatives who get the bins collected”.
Sir Keir held hands with his wife Victoria as he arrived at a polling station in Kentish Town, north London, to cast his vote in the local elections for Camden Council.
The UK Labour leader tweeted afterwards: “Today is our chance to send the Tories a message they can’t ignore: Britain deserves better”.
For Plaid Cymru, the party only has control of one council in Gwynedd but it did have a say in Ynys Mon, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion where no one party had overall control but they were in coalitions.
In Cardiff, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party have teamed up for the Common Ground Alliance and their candidates are standing on a joint ticket so it will be interesting to see how they fare, especially as Plaid didn’t have a great Senedd election and the Greens did have a councillor elected in Powys in 2017, but she has left the party to join Plaid, meaning there isn’t a single Green voice at a council level in Wales.