Thomas Magill
BBC London

Labour has made some early headway in its attempt to take control of Barnet Council away from the Conservatives.

The north London borough has been held by the Conservatives in all but two elections since 1964, but Labour smell an opportunity to take control.

The 2014 election result was a real cliff-hanger, with the 2010 Conservative majority reduced from 15 councillors to one.

Labour has now won all three seats in the West Hendon ward, which previously returned three Tory councillors. Labour has also won all three seats in the newly created Colindale South ward.

Full results aren't expected until 07.00 BST, but the early signs are encouraging for Labour.

Sam Francis
BBC News, London

The leader of the Labour group on Wandsworth Council Simon Hogg has been spotted sharing a smile with local MP Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khan (pictured on the left).

Denise Paul, a new Labour councillor for Wandle ward in Wandsworth, looks equally happy.

Could they be expecting good news?

Sam Francis
BBC News, London

While the mayor of London sets an overall vision for the capital, councils spend more than £12bn a year running local services.

They're normally associated with taking the bins out and filling potholes on the road, but council responsibilities in London go much further than many people realise.

One in nine homes in London is owned and maintained by the local council - some 400,000 properties.

They also fund and provide oversight to local state schools but not academies or free schools.

Most local recreation and sport facilities, including leisure centres, are run by London's councils. While nearly all open spaces such as parks, playgrounds and allotments in London are council run.

Councils run local services for older people including delivering meals, running nursing homes and providing in-house care.

Read more here.

Sam Francis
BBC News, London

Image source, Reuters

Nearly all London councils are reporting early signs of very low turnout in this year's elections.

In 2018, when these seats were last up for election, 39% of registered voters turned out.

Barking and Dagenham had the lowest turnout at 29% while more than half of Richmond's constituents voted, registering the highest turnout in London with 51.4%.

Votes are still being counted across London. Of those that have declared turnout, the numbers are down.

Overall turnout at Westminster is 31.5%, down from 2018 when turn out was 37.8%. In Hillingdon turnout this year is 35.4%, compared to 38.2% last time.

But we've even had reports of some wards registering as low as 26% of voters.

Could this impact the results?

Sam Francis
BBC News, London

Image source, Reuters

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has arrived at the Wandsworth count, a potential sign of growing Labour confidence.

Mr Khan, the former MP for Tooting which is in the borough, did arrive with a certain spring in his step though, according to sources.

Three wards have been declared in Wandsworth so far - Labour has taken two seats from the Conservatives in Wandle (where Mr Khan grew up), while Nine Elms has returned two Tory councillors and Falconbrooke returned two Labour councillors.

Full results are not expected until 06.30 BST.

The former leader of Wandsworth Council and a key ally of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been spotted at the count looking concerned.

Lord Lister was head of Wandsworth Council from 1992 to 2011, when the council made headlines for privatising many of its services.

He then went to work for Mr Johnson during his tenure as mayor of London. Lord Lister, who was knighted in 2011, eventually became chief of staff to the mayor of London and deputy mayor for policy and planning at City Hall.

When Mr Johnson became prime minister he created a role for Lord Lister as chief strategic adviser to the prime minister.

He's a man who knows Wandsworth well and what the impact would be on the prime minister if Labour won the council.

What could he be thinking?

Gem O'Reilly
BBC London

Minister for London Paul Scully has said his home council of Sutton in south London is "close in a lot of areas".

One of three Lib Dem run councils, Sutton has been targeted by the Conservatives as a potential gain.

Unusually for a Lib Dem stronghold, Sutton voted Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum and elected Conservative MPs to represent two parliamentary seats.

In 2018, the Conservatives doubled their seats on the council to 18, and are now looking to increase their share and potentially snatch a victory.

Mr Scully, MP for Sutton and Cheam, said: " Although the Lib Dems have been in power for a long time, it's always been on small margins."

Mr Scully predicts the council could be decided by "split votes", where residents vote for candidates of multiple parties in their ward.

"It's all to play for," Mr Scully added.

Tim Donovan
BBC London, Political Editor

We have the night's first result from Wandsworth - a major Labour target. The Conservatives have held the council since 1978, and they've retained both seats in the Nine Elms ward.

It contains lots of new, high-rise buildings. The look of the area owes a lot to former council leader Sir Eddie Lister who went on work for Boris Johnson when he was London mayor.

Image source, Reuters

Election expectation management is in full swing as the first results in England start to trickle in.

Conservative MP and policing minister Kit Malthouse has told the BBC he feared “a jolly difficult night all round”.

“I was doing some campaigning in London earlier this week and it was tricky. It's going to be hard. I'm preparing myself for a thumping.”

He did, however, say the picture was better for the Tories the “further away you get from London”.

"We've certainly thrown everything at it,” he said.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth, for Labour, said he thought the Tories were in “big trouble”.

But he acknowledged there was a mountain to climb for the party following the 2019 general election.

“It's climbable, but my god it's a big mountain because we got an absolute hammering in 2019, the worst result since the 1930s.”

Ever wondered how BBC journalists keep going during overnight shifts?

BBC London reporter Harry Low has revealed the snacks fuelling his coverage at Lee Valley Athletics Centre in Enfield, north London.

Tim Donovan
BBC London, Political Editor

Whatever the prevailing forces, these elections will be a signal of whether Boris Johnson - twice victorious as London mayor - is losing his electoral sheen.

Polls suggest the Conservatives could slip to their lowest number of councillors in London.

But this will almost certainly overstate the threat to the Tories. Their base is already low in the capital.

The 511 seats they won when these elections were last fought in 2018 was their smallest ever tally. Clearly, the Conservatives could lose more councillors.

In their wildest dreams Labour strategists could see May's elections as a series of firsts:

• their highest number of councillors,
• the highest number of councils in their control,
• victory in Westminster or Kensington and Chelsea

In reality, it will be harder to shift the dial.

Labour has its own hurdles. By-elections have shown votes slipping away from Labour.

While the Lib Dems will be desperately hoping for signs of a continuing southern revival.

Read more here.

Conservative-run since 1964, Westminster is a key target for Labour this year.

The party of government has enjoyed a substantial advantage in terms of seats on the council since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.

In the 2017 general election, there were swings of around 10% to Labour in both of the borough’s parliamentary constituencies. In 2018, the Conservatives lost three seats to Labour but still controlled 41 of the council's 60 seats.

Westminster is expected to declare results around 03.30 BST.

Shelley Phelps
BBC political reporter

As the first few votes are counted here at the StoneX Stadium in Barnet, north London, many are expecting an historic win for Labour.

Party activists and candidates are upbeat.

Labour group leader Barry Rawlings says he is "fairly confident" but adds "it could still end in tears”.

The party was dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

Rawlings says a victory for his party in Barnet - which has one of the UK's largest Jewish populations - would be be proof “we have turned the corner on anti-Semitism."

The mood among the Conservative camp is more muted. They say they fought a hyper local campaign.

“No one wanted CCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters] anywhere near them” says one local Conservative party source.

Tim Donovan
BBC London, Political Editor

Senior Wandsworth Tory source says it looks "very likely" that they have lost control of Wandsworth in south-west London.

Conservatives have run the council since 1978.

The source says Labour supporters have turned out and Tories have stayed at home.

“Our voters are generally not very happy at the moment….but this is a mid-term thing," the source said.

There has been discontent with the cost of living and partygate. But a source says it is also something that Boris Johnson can come back from with a “return to proper Conservative policies, none of this wishy-washy stuff”.

All thee parliamentary seats are Labour. Putney was Labour’s only win of the night in 2019. It also voted heavily to remain, in the 2016 referendum.

The source says the demographics have been moving against the Conservatives for some time.

Sam Francis
BBC News, London

Millions of Londoners have voted and each vote has to be counted and recorded in person.

The first results from councils are expected to come through around 02.30 BST on Friday. Results will continue to be announced through Friday until around midday Saturday.

All results will be posted here as soon as they are announced.

Ione Wells
Westminster Correspondent, BBC News

Labour were diverting their activists to Wandsworth and Croydon this evening - emailing members that help was needed "to tip the balance in Wandsworth and Croydon".

Wandsworth is a key Labour target. Tory activists there had been concerned about a low turnout, but seemed more optimistic later that they were getting their vote out. However, they were admitting the final result felt "impossible" to call.

Croydon is Labour-held, but other parties have been eyeing it up - seizing on the fact the council declared bankruptcy nearly 18 months ago.

Ione Wells
Westminster Correspondent, BBC News

All parties are reporting a low turnout across London and the South East of England.

This was expected, but sources say it's significantly the case even in marginal councils like Wandsworth - where the contest has had more publicity than most, with Wandsworth a key Labour target. It's been held by the Conservatives for 44 years and has low council tax rates.

Around 4.30pm, local Tories were speaking of a very low turnout - 15-16% in some wards, down 2-4% on a similar time in 2018.

Tory sources also reported that turnout was down 5% on 2018 in Chelsea and Kensington, which they hold, with some wards showing a strong Lib Dem performance.

Both Labour and Tory sources are briefing that they expect Barnet to switch to Labour, but that Wandsworth is on a knife edge.

If there's a low turnout there, does this mean Labour doesn’t get the surge it hoped for? Or that many Tories haven't shown up to vote?

Chirag Trivedi
BBC News

The polls have closed across London in the 2022 local election

Ballot boxes are being transported to counts across the capital where the candidates await the results following the closure of the polls at 22:00 GMT.

Anyone already waiting in line to vote will still be allowed to vote, as counting begins.

Labour will be looking to increase their lead in the capital where they now run 21 out of 32 councils. The party has increased its vote share at each of the last three local elections.

The Conservatives meanwhile are looking to protect their seven boroughs and potential snatch control of some marginal boroughs in south London - a rare feat for a party in government.

The Lib Dems will be looking to protect the three neighbouring boroughs they control in southwest London.