The 2026 Local Elections are set to be some of the most seismic in British history. Across England it is widely anticipated that the public will take their chance to give Labour a kicking, with Reform expecting to win big and the Greens anticipating their best-ever election night. Add to this Wales, where Labour look set to drop to the third-largest party for the first time ever, and the SNP’s anticipated plurality in Scotland, and May 8th sets to look radically different at the local level than the previous day.

To dissect what’s happened overnight, Compass Director Neal Lawson is joined by two great guests:

• Rhiannon McQuone is Research Associate at MoreinCommon UK. Rhiannon joined More in Common from Public First, where she was a member of the Education and Social Policy Practice. She worked on public opinion research, modelling, policy and strategy projects, studying everything from changing public attitudes towards universities to the barriers to social mobility in the UK. Her work has been cited across national and international media, by government departments and within both Houses of Parliament.
• Ethan Croft is political correspondent at the New Statesman.