Local elections 2023: Labour hope to retain control in Greater Manchester

Labour controls eight of the 10 councils in Greater Manchester

The sheer size of Greater Manchester - with its 10 boroughs being home to some 2.8 million people - means there's always jeopardy in one place or another come local elections time.

And with boundary changes meaning every councillor will be defending their seat in six of the 10 areas this year, it makes for even more uncertainty than usual.

Labour currently controls eight of the conurbation's councils and that's likely to remain the case once Thursday's election results are announced the following day.

Party optimists may be pondering their chances of wrestling the minority administration in Bolton from the Conservatives but that may prove to be too much of a stretch.

Bury will forever be a battleground of national interest because its two constituencies, Bury North and Bury South, are seen as good indicators as to which party will be in Downing Street.

After a wobbly couple of years, the local Labour party in the town is now confident of increasing its three-seat majority.

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A real headache for Labour, though, could come in Oldham where at the last two council elections the leader has been voted out by the public.

The council's latest leader and Labour's five-seat majority could be under threat.

Bolton realistically remains the only hope of power in Greater Manchester for the Conservatives, where a cobbled together coalition has kept the Tories in the driving seat.

The town is fascinating politically because hyper-local independents have blazed a trail that's really shaken things up.

The Greens are now the main opposition party in Manchester

Down in Stockport, meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are aiming to make gains at the Tories' expense. The Lib Dems are the largest party, and have run a minority administration for the last year, with 28 councillors compared with Labour's 22 and four Tories.

The Greens are also optimistic of their chances of building on gains of recent years - they currently have two councillors there.

The party is now the main opposition in Manchester, and they are established in Trafford and have a councillor in Tameside.

This time around, the Greens are hoping to break new ground in Bury.

One other party you may see, particularly in Bolton and parts of Salford, is the Reform Party UK, which features candidates who were previously involved with UKIP and the Brexit Party

In Bolton, Reform Party UK has struck up an alliance with the Bolton for Change party and it is hopeful it can add to the borough's complicated political scene.

'Influential'

Independents have always struggled to get elected in Greater Manchester, but by joining together to create new, locally focussed parties - as many have done these past few years - they've started having more success.

You've got the likes of Farnworth and Kearsley First in Bolton, Radcliffe First in Bury and the Failsworth Independents who've done well in Oldham.

Last year the Middleton Independents burst on to the scene in Rochdale, securing four councillors.

In Bolton and Oldham last year the various hyper-local parties got nearly one in five votes. Over in Tameside and Wigan,they got one in ten.

While these smaller parties are not realistically going to end up running any of our councils any time soon, they are becoming increasingly influential players.