Voters in England went to the polls Thursday to choose local councillors in the first electoral test for Prime Minister Theresa May since she lost her parliamentary majority last year. May's Conservative party is braced for defeats in London, where all 32 local councils are up for grabs, and which is a traditional stronghold of the opposition Labour party.
But elections are taking place across England, including in cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, with a total of more than 4,300 seats being contested. In London, where last year's Grenfell Tower fire disaster in which 71 people were killed is still a fresh memory, some residents are using the vote as a proxy poll on Conservative leaders they hold responsible on local and national levels.
Charity worker Joe Batty, 54, cast his ballot when polls opened in the borough of Islington at 7am (0600 GMT). "The cuts to the local councils, that's come from the central government austerity," he said. Pensioner Joyce Mason, 79, said cuts to hospital services had weighed on her decision.
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