Is there an exit poll for the local elections 2023?

Voters are taking to the polls across England today. Councillors will be elected across more than 200 local authority areas as people choose who they want to run their public services.

Polling stations opened at 7am on Thursday, May 4, and ballots can be cast right up until they close at 10pm. The results will then follow once all the votes for each council have been added up.

Around a quarter of councils will begin the count straight away and work through the night to declare their winners in the early hours of Friday morning, while the majority will hold off until the following day to begin counting votes.

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In a general election, when the whole country votes for MPs to represent their area in Parliament, an exit poll reveals the predicted results as soon as the voting ends. The exit poll, which is based on interviews with people leaving polling stations throughout the day, predicts how many seats each party is expected to have won, and is usually pretty accurate at revealing whether there will be a majority government or a hung parliament.

The next general election will take place by January 2025 at the latest. As this year's elections are just local elections, there will not be an exit poll on Thursday evening. During local elections, voters have to wait for the results to find out what the political landscape will look like following the contests.

Results will be declared throughout the morning, afternoon and evening on Friday. The first batch of results for the 2023 local elections is likely to be announced shortly after midnight once polls close, with locations including Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, South Tyneside and Castle Point in Essex