Rishi Sunak braced for the outcome of his first contact with voters since entering No10
RISHI Sunak was today braced for a bruising first polling test — with Labour expected to win hundreds of seats in the local elections.
Voters across England and Wales headed to the ballot box yesterday in the PM’s first electoral examination since entering No10 six months ago.
At that stage, the Tories were 25 points behind in the polls, with Sir Keir Starmer on course for a General Election landslide.
Today, all eyes will be on the size of Sir Keir’s lead in the local elections to see how much ground Rishi has clawed back.
If experts calculate Labour has won by fewer than ten points, a hung Parliament could be on the cards in next year’s General Election.
The PM warned on Wednesday evening of a “tough night” for his party and said the voters would “make us sweat” before trusting in them again.
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He said they were likely to lose good councillors after the chaos of the Liz Truss government last year.
He told a Tory think tank event the Tories were now away from the “boxset drama” of 2022 but warned that voters would not throw themselves behind them just yet and there was more work to do.
For the first time, voters had to bring photo ID under new rules to stop election fraud but polling stations reported few hitches.
The Electoral Commission said even expired ID could be used as long as the photo still looked similar.
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Driving licences, passports and bus passes can be used regardless of the date, Craig Westwood of the watchdog said.
More than 8,000 council seats were up for grabs across 230 local authorities, in what is set to be the last ballot box showdown before next year’s General Election.
Pollsters pointed to whether Labour could secure a big enough national swing to put Sir Keir on course for No10.
All eyes were on key battlegrounds in Swindon, Stoke-on-Trent, Darlington, Blackpool and Kent to see if Sir Keir could make gains in vital areas needed to win the battle for Downing Street.
Meanwhile, voter Annette Hill made her golden retriever Ruby her own ID, with name, photo, and an “authorised signature” of a paw print before their trip to the polls in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset.
