Overview
- Gateshead and Newcastle-under-Lyme will hold all-out contests where every seat is up, with Gateshead confirming 66 seats and Newcastle 44.
- Elsewhere, councils including Salford, Bolton, Manchester, Wigan, Hull, Southampton and Tameside will elect one councillor per ward in votes that cover a third of each chamber.
- Parties are fielding wide slates, with Conservatives, Labour, Reform UK and the Greens on every ward ballot in Salford, Bolton and Wigan, and Liberal Democrats standing broadly across councils.
- Newcastle-under-Lyme has 165 candidates for 44 seats, including former MPs Jeremy Lefroy for the Conservatives and Jonathan Gullis for Reform UK, in what is expected to be the borough’s final election before reorganisation.
- Key voter rules apply: register by April 20, apply for a postal vote by 5pm on April 21, and bring photo ID to vote on May 7.