Labour standing more candidates than any other party in this week’s council elections

Labour will stand more council candidates than any other party in tomorrow’s elections, in what is being used as evidence of the party’s growth since the election of Jeremy Corbyn last year.

2,632 Labour candidates will be facing the electoral test tomorrow – covering over 90 per cent of all council wards up for election. It is 13 more than are being stood by the Tories, and 870 more than the Lib Dems, in the latest sign of decline for the former coalition party.

Jon Trickett, Labour election co-ordinator, said the figures show that the party is “up for the fight”, and encouraged the huge number of new members to “go out on the doorstep” in the final 48 hours of the campaign. Tomorrow will be Corbyn’s first major election day since becoming leader, and the results will be seen as a marker for Labour’s chances in 2020.

“Labour is proud to have the highest number of candidates in this year’s local elections than any other political party,” Trickett said.

“It’s a sure sign that the Labour Party is up for the fight on 5th May.

“Labour’s ever-increasing membership is one of its greatest assets, standing as it is now at nearly double it was before the General Election. And we need as many of our members to go out on the doorstep, deliver leaflets, speak to their friends and family and support their local candidates in whichever way they are able.

“Our candidates represent the millions of people who have been let down by the Tories. Labour is standing up, not standing by. We need all hands to the pumps to win as many seats on 5th May.”

Tomorrow sees a number of elections, with every voter in the UK able to go to the polls for at least one election. There are votes in 125 councils across England, with 2,743 council seats up for grabs – meaning that only 111 wards will not have a Labour candidate standing.

While most academic forecasts suggest Labour will lose somewhere between 120 and 200 seats from its current tally, Jeremy Corbyn yesterday confidently predicted that the party will not move backwards and were instead hoping to gain seats.

There are four directly elected mayoral elections in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Salford. In Liverpool, Labour incumbent Joe Anderson is expected to be easily re-elected, while Paul Dennett will likely hold on to Salford for Labour, where Ian Stewart is standing down. Highly-regarded Labour candidate Marvin Rees faces a tough challenge in Bristol, however, with independent George Ferguson considered favourite to be re-elected.

In London, Sadiq Khan is expected to win for Labour for the first time since 2004, although the party could struggle to hold on to its current total of 12 Assembly Members.

Both England and Wales will hold elections for 40 Police and Crime Commissioners. Labour currently has 13 PCCs, compared to 16 for the Conservatives and 12 independents. This will be the first time the vote has taken place on the same day as other local elections, and given the incredibly low turnout in 2012 (just 15 per cent voted), it is difficult to make an accurate prediction about the result – but Labour will be hoping to top the popular vote again.

There are two Westminster by-elections in Ogmore and Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, with Labour candidates Chris Elmore and Gill Furniss widely expected to be elected in the safe seats.

Wales also has Assembly elections, with Labour currently holding 30 of the 60 Senedd seats. The party has been in power for 17 consecutive years, and polls currently show its share of the vote dropping around 12 points from 2011. Forecasts suggest Welsh Labour will still return 28 AMs, although party insiders are more pessimistic, and see 24 or 25 as a more realistic outcome.

37 Labour Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in 2011, and was considered a disastrous result at the time – but things are expected to get much worse tomorrow. Scottish Labour could see a stiff fight with the Tories to remain the second largest party, and therefore the official opposition. Recent forecasts suggest Labour could pip the Tories and return 27 MSPs – or lose out with 23, or even fewer.

Belfast’s Stormont also has 108 seats up for election. Labour’s sister party the SDLP, currently on 14 MLAs, look set to lose slightly more support and drop to fourth place in the popular vote (they are already fourth in number of MLAs). Causing an interesting ruckus this time are the eight Labour Party members standing as candidates for the Northern Irish Labour Representation Committee. They are not expected to pick up much support, but add an extra dimension of interest to the vote.