Elections 2021: As it happened - the final hours of campaigning

1. Political party leaders have made their final push for votes head of polling day on Thursday
2. It will be the biggest election across England, Scotland and Wales outside of a general election
3. Campaigning in West Yorkshire, Labour leader Keir Starmer said the party was "fighting for every vote"
4. Boris Johnson said Thursday's elections will "be very tough"
5. Voters in Scotland will elect 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament
6. The result of Scotland's election could determine the future of the union
7. Hartlepool will elect a new MP - the result will be seen as a test of Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer's leadership
8. Voters in Wales will elect the 60 members of the Welsh Senedd
9. In England, 143 local councils are up for election
10. And 39 Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales and 13 directly elected mayors in England will also be elected

That's all for now...

It's 10pm, and this time tomorrow we'll be bringing you exit poll results.

We're closing up now, but we'll be back in the morning with the latest news and pictures as people finally go to the polls in the first electoral test of Britain's party leaders since the 2019 General Election.

If you're not tired yet, and are hungry for more information, you can find comprehensive coverage of all the campaigns here.

How can you follow the results on the BBC?

BBC

The BBC, naturally, has you completely covered for election results.

With so many areas not counting overnight on Thursday, there isn't a dedicated programme on the night.

Online, you can see results on our live pages as they come in, with separate pages for Scotland, Wales and England.

Our TV coverage starts at 9am on Friday - we'll bring you every moment as it happens until 6pm on Friday on the BBC News Channel, with more coverage throughout the day on Saturday.

Not near a TV or a device for accessing the web? No problem. You can also listen to the latest headlines and analysis on Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live.

The final messages from the parties competing in Wales

There are a lot of parties competing for seats in Wales, but this, in summary, is what they all said today.

Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford said the contest was between "a Labour progressive government for Wales and handing Wales back to London with the Tories."

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said people had "an historic opportunity to elect the first Plaid Cymru government in our history. That will send headlines across the world."

Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds told the BBC they were looking to get some places in the regional seats as well as in those they've always done well in.

Meanwhile, the Wales Green Party said it was "long overdue that we in Wales get the Green scrutiny in the Senedd that we deserve."

Abolish The Welsh Assembly's Mark Reckless asked voters not to "waste their votes on parties which helped give us Brexit, but have had their day now".

A spokesperson for UKIP Wales told the BBC that the party was "presenting voters with a real alternative to Labour who have failed communities".

Reform UK's Welsh Leader Nathan Gill said "we need to get out of lockdown now, our children need to allowed to be children, and our businesses need to do what they do best".

Chancellor Rishi Sunak visited Wales and highlighted the furlough scheme, that he said had protected almost half a million jobs in Wales.

All that on the final day - you can read more detail here.

How the Scottish leaders ended their campaigns

Getty Images

In brief:

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said voters could choose whether the next parliament is one "that puts recovery first or one that is dominated by independence".

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the people of Scotland face a "stark" choice. "Either we go back to the old arguments about a referendum with the SNP and the Tories, or we forge ahead with our national recovery with Labour", he said.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said the SNP is "the only party with an immediate plan to get Scotland through the Covid pandemic".

Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross insisted the UK furlough scheme was protecting jobs and the UK vaccine scheme was tackling the health crisis.

Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie said it was time "to take matters into our own hands, to build a Scotland that can lead Europe in tackling the climate emergency".

Read more about the final day of campaigning for seats in the Scottish Parliament here.

How did the party leaders wind up their campaigns?

PA Media

In a nutshell:

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Conservatives faced some "tough contests" but the party was "fighting for every vote".

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party was doing the same but had "a mountain to climb" to win back support in key battlegrounds.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said the campaign had been "weird" due to Covid restrictions, but added "when we have managed to talk to people, they're responding positively to the Liberal Democrat message".

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley said he was expecting more council seat gains, having picked up 40 at the last round of English local elections, and promised to speak for the "unrepresented".

You can read about the final day of campaigning in more detail here.

Covid, dogs and councils - what you wanted to know

Reuters

Earlier today, we asked for you to send in your election questions. Here's a taster of some of the subjects that came up.

Will elections take place in a Covid secure way?

Things will look a bit different in polling stations tomorrow.

You will be required to wear a face covering unless you're exempt, use hand sanitiser and stick to social distancing guidelines. It's also been recommended to bring your own pen or pencil, although clean pencils will be available at polling stations if you forget.

Why are elections only taking place in some areas?

This is a common question every time local elections take place.

There's certainly a lot of voting tomorrow. It will feature the councils up for election this year and those from last year when elections couldn't happen due to lockdowns. If your area last voted in 2018 or 2019, it's unlikely that you'll be voting tomorrow. In Scotland and Wales, there is voting for their parliaments, the Welsh Senedd and Scotland's Holyrood, but Scotland and Wales are voting for their local councillors next year.

Can I take my well-behaved dog with me when I vote?

We all love pictures of dogs waiting patiently while their owners cast their vote.

It's one of the highlights of election day for us political journalists, as we are not permitted by law to report any campaigning or election news during polling day. Of course that all changes after the polls close at 10pm.

If your dog looks particularly majestic or statuesque outside your local polling station, do tweet us a photo mentioning @BBCPolitics, and we may well feature them on our live page.

Why will some ballot papers be peach coloured?

Reuters

During the campaign, some Scottish politicians have been urging the public to give them their “peach vote”

This refers to the “regional ballot” papers - you can read more about those here.

But why are the ballot papers coloured peach?

Well, the instructions from the Electoral Management Board for Scotland explain that they aim to avoid using colours that are identified with any party or that could “prove challenging to those with visual impairments”.

All the way back in 2007, the Electoral Commission asked voters what they thought of the ballot paper designs. Here is some of the feedback:

• The peach colour was “not widely liked but was accepted for being neutral”
• Peach “was rarely considered to be aesthetically pleasing; some saw it as typical of public service communications – dull and uninviting”
• However… “a minority believed these colours were garish and lent an inappropriate sense of informality to the ballot papers”
• While one participant described peach as “highly unattractive; almost a whole page of it was a little off-putting”.

And just in case you were wondering or are in the middle of redecorating, the official Pantone number for the peach used on ballot papers in Scotland is 138.

Purple powder and angry dogs in 2004 Hartlepool vote

BBC

The 2021 Hartlepool by-election may seem a little sober compared to one that took place in 2004.

Back then, the candidates included an ordained doctor who stayed in a tent, a multilingual karate brown-belt barrister who was covered in purple powder at the count and a two-time Eurovision Song Contest entrant.

The BBC's Francesca Williams has taken a look back at the campaign.

Labour in the spotlight in Wales Senedd elections

Hywel Griffith

BBC News' Wales Correspondent

Most Welsh Senedd elections are really a Labour story.

They have been in government for 22 years. An incredibly long period, but their numbers have also always been within quite a small range.

Can they hold on?

There are 60 seats - their high water mark is 30, the lowest is 26.

So they will need to try and hold on, or potentially do a deal with the other parties if they don't, as has been the case in elections when they didn't manage to get an overall majority.

The pandemic has made a lot more clear to people the powers the Welsh government has - so much of health legislation - and that's a devolved issue. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, what people can do here, who they can see, what can be open, has all been decided by the Welsh government.

Plaid Cymru says Wales has handled the pandemic very well. They say it has been handled better than in England by the Conservative government and they give that as a case for further independence. So they want a referendum within the next five years.

Their leader, Adam Price says he wouldn't be prepared to be a junior partner in a coalition but he has refused to rule out some sort of confidence and supply deal with Labour if that's how the numbers fall.

Wales elections 2021: A simple guide

Getty Images

Who can vote? What am I voting for? When will we know the results?

Here is your guide to everything you need to know about the Welsh Parliament elections.

Five things we learned on the final day of campaigning in Scotland

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Holyrood was only dissolved for the election today

So what happened? Well, as you might expect the main parties all made last-ditch efforts to drive home their key messages.

Boris Johnson appeared on TV telling journalists that now was not the time for a "reckless" and "irresponsible" second independence referendum. When asked if he would allow a second referendum on independence, Mr Johnson said "let's wait and see what actually happens".

Sir John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, said that of all the straw polls that have come out in the last 24 hours, the most optimistic prediction is that Alex Salmond's Alba Party could win 4% of the vote. This will fall just below the crucial 6% benchmark needed to win a higher number of seats under the Scottish list voting system.

Uniquely for a Scottish election, this isn't just polling eve - it's also dissolution day. This means the Scottish Parliament has now formally broken up for the election. There is still a government in place, but MSPs are out of a job.

And finally, there were some old faces out on the campaign trail.

You can read more detail on all of these goings-on, here.

Over one million voters using postal votes in Scotland

Press Association

Scottish Parliament building, Holyrood, Edinburgh

The Electoral Commission has said 1,010,638 voters in Scotland have decided to use postal voting this time around.

This equates to nearly one quarter of the total electorate.

At the last Scottish Parliament election, in 2016, there were 726,555 registered postal voters, equivalent to around 17% of the electorate.

Concerns over coronavirus, such as social distancing and queuing at polling stations, is likely causing the rise in applications to vote by post.

Will I need an umbrella, sun cream or a hard hat on my way to the polls?

PA

Hail stones - as seen today in West Kirby, Wirral - are not typical for a May election

No one wants to be stuck out in the rain on their way to vote.

So to help you out, here is a quick preview of Thursday's weather:

• Early on, there could be clouds and rain along the south coast of England
• However, the real showers will fall across Scotland and parts of northern England, where hail and thunder are also possible
• Central England and Wales will see plenty of sunny spells, with a few showers

Click here for a more detailed look of the weather in your area.

Reality Check

Did the Scottish leaders get their facts right?

Press Association

Reality Check have been looking at the claims made by the party leaders in Scotland during the last leader's debate before elections to the Scottish Parliament.

The team found SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had been correct, although her claim needed more context, when she said the Scottish tax system had been reformed and the government had been raising more tax revenue.

The Scottish Conservatives leader, Douglas Ross, had been right when he claimed 1.1m people in Scotland are taxed more for doing the same work, again though, our journalists found this claim needed more context.

When Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said a 'disproportionate' number of people in the public sector earn more than £150,000 in Scotland, we couldn't find a breakdown of how many top earners work in the public or private sector.

You can read the full article here.

Khan on course to win as London Mayor after round two

Reuters

City Hall in London is where the Greater London Assembly meet

Labour's Sadiq Khan is expected to win London's mayoral election again, although on second preference votes.

Pollsters had been widely predicting since the start of the year that Mr Khan could win on first preference votes alone, achieving the 50% required first time.

Savanta ComRes says Sadiq Khan is now at 41%, Shaun Bailey for the Conservatives is at 29%. Luisa Porritt of the Liberal Democrats is at 8% and Sian Berry from the Green Party is at 5%. Others make up 17%.

They believe it will go to a second round run-off on second preference votes, with Sadiq Khan then taking 60% of the votes, and Shaun Bailey taking the remaining 40%.

They claim 9% of Londoners are still unsure of how they will vote tomorrow.

In their research, they say the economy, health and housing are the most important issues facing the capital city.

The polling company interviewed 1,001 Londoners aged over 18, online, from 19 April to 4 May.

We also have a full list available of all candidates running in the race to be the capital's next mayor.

Getting ready for election day

PA Media

Ballot boxes arrived on the Hebridean Isle of Gigha earlier

Reuters

While in Edinburgh, a council staff member got the polling station signage ready

PA

And, at the other end of the country in London, many signs are now in place

Election numbers on the Humber

Tim Iredale

Political editor, East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

Election fever is hotting up on both sides of the Humber.

Hull has seen campaign visits during the campaign from the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.

Labour remains the dominant political force in Hull and the party runs the city council, but the Lib Dems have gained ground in recent years and form the opposition with 24 seats to Labour’s 31 seats.

The Conservatives will defend North East Lincolnshire, an area that includes the parliamentary constituency of Great Grimsby - one of the 'red wall' seats snatched by the Tories from Labour in the 2019 general election.

Lincolnshire County Council will see an all-out election with every seat up for grabs, where the Conservatives will defend a large majority.

One third of council seats will be contested in the City of Lincoln, where Labour is presently in control.

Three candidates are contesting the race to become Humberside Police & Crime Commissioner. Labour's Keith Hunter is the current PCC.

Five candidates are on the ballot paper in the contest for Lincolnshire Police & Crime Commissioner. The role is currently held by Conservative Marc Jones.

What? I need to bring my own pen to vote?

PA

Naturally with the pandemic, this election will be a little different to others.

Social distancing will be in place and voters will be asked to wear a face covering (unless exempt).

You can also bring your own pen or pencil to vote.

But, don't worry if you forget, you won't be turned away - clean pencils will still be provided at polling stations.

Click here for more information on voting safely.

Hartlepool - a perfect proxy for the bigger political question

Laura Kuenssberg

Political editor

Reuters

Hartlepool is a perfect proxy for the bigger national political question - whether the Tories can keep going with their momentum from 2019 when parts of the country that had been forever red flipped over to blue.

Hartlepool has only ever been held by the Labour party. But the Tories would never have sent the PM there so many times in recent days if they didn't think they had a very very good chance to grab it for themselves.

One important caveat though - this is not a straightforward overlay of other seats that flipped in the general election, because when that ballot took place nearly 10,000 people voted for the Brexit party.

Most pundits would assume those 10,000 voters will now flip to the Conservatives.

Click here for a full list of candidates standing in the 2021 Hartlepool by-election.

What do parish councils do? Jackie Weaver explains

The viral parish councillor tells us how parish councils work and why they're important

More than 20,000 parish council seats are up for grabs in this year's local elections. But what do they actually do?

One woman who has the authority to answer is Jackie Weaver - who shot to unlikely fame in a viral video of a chaotic Handforth parish council meeting.

The clip, which inspired a string of memes and social media posts, showed her valiant attempts to bring the session under control.

BBC reporter Jacob Tomlinson caught up with Ms Weaver, who told him: "The place where you live, that's where we can make a difference".