How my Britain Elects The New Statesman forecast stacks up against the final results.

Conservation with a friend:

“I think I’d quite like that film - you know, the vampire film. The new one. The one where he masturbates in the bath and then at the end he dances naked to Murder On The Dancefloor.”

“The vampire film?”

“Yeah, all the vampires. In the big house”

Yes

Why East Midlands and York and North Yorkshire mayoralties matter more than you think they do

(Or: why Ben Houchen and - maybe - Andy Street won’t save the Tory party)

((Or: time for Sunak to start panicking))

newstatesman.com/politics/conse…

Do you want to hear me quizzing poor Ben Walker of Britain Elects - who has had 3 hours sleep - on anything and everything to do with the local elections?

Well you are in luck, because the The New Statesman election special podcast is up!

newstatesman.com/podcasts/2024/…

Wow that is a strong majority for Labour's new East Midlands mayor Claire Ward

Anyone got any idea when we'll have the East Midlands mayor confirmed?

Election counts should take place overnight asap once polls close. Prompt is good - both for transparency and trust, and as an engaging, exciting process.

This is in some ways the most important result of the day...

16% swing against Houchen. All the Tory Westminster seats in the area would be lost on that swing.

You could not make this up

John Swinney has ruled himself in, Kate Forbes has ruled herself out - but what does it all mean for the SNP and the future of Scottish independence?

Chris Deerin explains it all with Freddie Hayward and me on today’s The New Statesman podcast

shows.acast.com/newstatesman/e…

This is wonderful

Positive start to the day: I asked the volunteers at the polling station how many people had turned up to vote without ID. They said none so far. Tiny sample size in London but still reassuring. Hopefully all the messaging has got through!

Tomorrow’s City A.M. - and our editorial on a contest that has failed to speak to the optimism and ambition of this great city, the blame for which lies mostly with the Conservatives choice of candidate

cityam.com/our-verdict-on…

In attacking the Prime Minister on pensions and National Insurance, the Labour leader missed the open goal.

🖊️ Rachel Cunliffe
newstatesman.com/politics/the-s…

'A warning for Starmer that, whatever is going on with the Conservative civil war, he can’t just phone it in'

My review of today's disappointing PMQs

newstatesman.com/politics/the-s…

Not really sure what Keir Starmer was attempting there. Loads to attack Sunak on this week, but asking the same question 5 times about pensions and NI just fell flat. PMQs by numbers

Rachel Cunliffe An insult to 6th formers everywhere