Local elections 2024: Polls open for London mayoral and council contests across England as Tories brace for losses

Kate Forbes has announced she will not stand to replace Humza Yousaf as Scottish first minister and SNP leader, clearing the way for early favourite John Swinney to take the reins.

Ms Forbes, the former finance secretary, had been tipped as a potential replacement for Mr Yousaf, who resigned earlier this week as he faced no confidence motions in his leadership and government.

Mr Swinney, the former deputy first minister, confirmed he would run earlier on Thursday, saying that he wanted Ms Forbes to become a “significant part” of his potential future government.

Ms Forbes thanked SNP members who had reached out and urged her to stand, recognising some may be disappointed.

“To those people I say this – you can be certain that delivering on the priorities for which we have, together, advocated in recent years has been at the heart of today’s decision,” she said.

“It is now clear from this morning’s statement that in John Swinney we have someone who not only understands that need for reform, but has now committed to delivering it.

“I look forward to playing my role in making that happen.”

A Conservative MP has said his dyspraxia caused him to misplace his photo ID, forcing him to arrange an emergency proxy vote for Thursday’s local elections.

Tom Hunt, who represents Ipswich, warned people “persecuting” him online to be “very careful with their words”, saying it is “well known that sadly we are slightly more prone to lose things”.

It may not be the general election many are calling for, but today, a series of council elections will take place across more than 100 local authorities in England.

They will be the last local elections before the Rishi Sunak calls the national vote – with the results potentially confirming which way the country will go later this year.

Downing Street has said it will “look into” including veterans’ ID cards on the list of valid voter ID following reports of a former serviceman being turned away from a polling station.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “This ID card was introduced very, very recently.

“I think it’s something that we will want to look into. There’s already a very wide range of acceptable documents including a free voter authority certificate which is accepted at all polling stations so anyone who is eligible to vote can continue to do so.

“But we will certainly look into the question of the veteran ID card which was introduced earlier this year.”

The spokesman said Downing Street had no concerns about voter ID more generally, adding: “We don’t want to see anyone turned away from polling stations, we want everyone to be able to vote.

“Experience from the last local elections was that 99.75% of people were able to cast their vote successfully.”

The fact that I would genuinely be an improvement on the last 14 years of Tory government says everything you need to know,” Count Binface tells the Independent.

Support for the Conservatives is now lower than it was under failed prime minister Liz Truss, despite Rishi Sunak’s hopes of the “greatest comeback in political history”.

Despite a flurry of government announcements in recent days, on everything from Rwanda flights to defence spending and welfare, a new poll has the party on just 18 per cent. Under Ms Truss it was 19 per cent.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin has more:

Keir Starmer arrives at polling station to cast vote in local and London Mayoral election.

It comes as The Independent can reveal that the Tories also claimed that they have reported a Labour council group to Thames Valley Police in Milton Keynes, a hotly contested bellweather seat ahead of the local elections there.