No local elections in Durham today. We’ve already got our Reform County Council - though the only way you’d know these days is because of the endless stream of resignations. They are absolutely clueless.

Up the road, we have a number of interesting elections, the closest likely to be in Newcastle, where it seems to be a four way contest between Reform, Labour, the Lib Dems & the Greens. Although I’m not a supporter, I have a few friends & colleagues standing for the Green Party who I’d happily vote for, including Hugo Fearnley, Jamie Driscoll, Rima Hussein & Chandni Chopra - the latter two have been subjected to disgusting smears. That one is going to be interesting.

I think elsewhere in the North East, the story is going to be very similar, with only North Tyneside projected to stay Labour. But it’s hard to tell, with historically low turnouts expected, whether people will come out to vote Labour, or possibly lend their votes to the Lib Dems. In any case, it’s going to be a calamitous night for Labour, created in Downing Street. All responsibility for this impending trouncing lies with Starmer & his cronies. He should obviously go after this.

It will be interesting too, to see whether the enthusiasm for the Greens that we’ve seen in national polling, is reflected in real life elections. If it does carry through, there could be some shocks.

There are some other local election contests that I’ll be looking out for, partly to see if there is any kind of shift going on that might change the balance of power in local government. Reform have no real interest in local government, except as an extension of their propaganda, but clusters of independents & Green candidates have been talking about community wealth building & local economies.

These projections are based on national polling, so are not necessarily accurate, but we should look out for:

👉 Birmingham (projected to go NOC). Polling says Labour to be on 8 seats; Greens 14; Independents 21; Reform 24; Tories 21.

👉 Bradford (projected to go NOC). Polling say Greens 21 seats; Independents 18; Reform 20; Labour 13.

👉 Brent (projected to go NOC). Polling says Labour 26 seats; Greens 19.

👉 Ealing (projected to remain Labour). Polling says Greens 16 seats; Labour 40; Lib Dems 11.

👉 Enfield (projected to go NOC) Polling says Greens 9 seats; Labour 29; Tories 21.

👉 Hackney (projected to go NOC, but leaning Green) Polling says Greens 28 seats; Independents 2; Labour 20.

👉 Haringey (projected to go Green) Polling says Greens 31 seats; Labour 21.

👉 Islington (projected to remain Labour). Polling says Greens 21 seats; Independents 1; Labour 27.

👉 Lambeth (projected to go NOC, but leaning Green). Polling says Greens 31 seats; Labour 25.

👉 Lewisham (projected to go Green). Polling says Greens 29 seats; Labour 23.

👉 Newcastle (projected to go NOC) Polling says Greens 18 seats; Independents 3; Reform 23; Lib Dems 23; Labour 11.

👉 Newham (projected to stay Labour - but very hard to predict, as huge Independent showing). Polling says Greens 14 seats; Independents 18; Labour 34.

👉 Oxford (projected to go NOC) Polling says Greens 9 seats; Independents 10; Lib Dems 9; Labour 20.

👉 Preston (projected to remain Labour, though likely to be tight). Polling says Labour 25 seats; Lib Dems 15.

👉 Tower Hamlets (projected to go Aspire / Independents). Polling says Aspire / Independents 37 seats; Greens 4 seats; Labour 3.

Lots of these are in areas of London where Reform are not quite so much of a factor. Small shifts in turnout, or one or two local factors could change the composition of these councils quite easily.

Most of the info from here: