LONDON – Britons head to the polls on May 2 in a set of local elections that could put Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a perilous position if the governing Conservatives suffer significant losses.

Thousands of politicians are vying for more than 2,500 council seats, 25 places in the London Assembly and 10 regional mayoralties, with voters able to cast their ballots between 7am and 10pm.

Results are expected to start coming in early on May 3, with the count in some areas continuing till May 5. 

The Tories have trailed Mr Keir Starmer’s opposition Labour Party badly in national polling for months, and Conservative peer Robert Hayward – a local elections expert – predicts his party could lose more than 400 of the 900 council seats it is defending.

But party morale, and whether Mr Sunak’s internal detractors move to oust him, may rest on the fate of just two candidates: the mayors of Tees Valley and the West Midlands, Mr Ben Houchen and Mr Andy Street.

The Tories – who shed more than 1,000 seats in 2023’s local votes – are hampered this time around by their good performance in 2021, the last time the seats up for grabs on May 1 were contested.

Then, the party benefited from a bounce after the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine, gaining more than 200 council seats and winning control of 13 councils.

About a third of councils are expected to declare results in the early hours of May 3, according to a tally by the Press Association. 

The most noteworthy result expected during the night is the count in the Parliamentary by-election in Blackpool South, triggered by the departure of Mr Scott Benton.

The former Tory MP quit the seat after being censured by Parliament’s standards committee for breaking rules governing lawmakers’ conduct.

The Tories have lost a string of by-elections on large swings to Labour and the Liberal Democrats in recent years and are defending a relatively small majority of fewer than 4,000 votes over Labour in Blackpool South.

Labour is seeking to make gains in key battlegrounds across the Midlands and North of England – that may serve also as a harbinger of what is to come in a general election that Mr Sunak must hold within 9 months.

The opposition party is also defending the mayoralties in London – where Mr Sadiq Khan is aiming for a record third term, and Greater Manchester, where Mr Andy Burnham is also seeking a third term. 

Tees Valley is due to announce its result – and therefore Mr Houchen’s fate – on May 3 afternoon, but Mr Sunak will have to wait another day to see if Mr Street has clung on in the West Midlands.

The Greater Manchester result is also due on May 4 afternoon, while London’s City Hall does not expect to announce the final result of the mayoral vote until late on May 4. BLOOMBERG