Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a podcast from Politics Home with me Alan Tolst. This week,

with Parliament now in its Easter recess, focus switches to a very large and very crucial set of

elections across the UK next month. With 130 councils in England, as well as the Scottish and Welsh

parliaments, up for grabs,

May 7th will likely be the most consequential day in British politics since the last general election,

with the results key in deciding not just to end up governing us, but for the future political

direction of this country too. Join me to look at a whole host of fascinating issues from

Labour's potential collapse and key strongholds

in the face of a resurgence by nationalist parties and the continued rise of reform.

If the Greens can maintain the momentum, and can the Tories show any signs of life,

is the journalist and author Will Hayward, who writes an award-winning newsletter on Wales and Welsh politics.

Alongside him is Louise Wilson, political editor of Hollywood magazine,

our sister title covering the Parliament up in Scotland, as well as the Liberal Democrat MP,

Will Forster, and Dr. Stephanie Luke, lecturer in politics at Cardiff University.

I'll start with you, Steph. What is up for grabs this time round? And why is it such a

consequential set of elections in 2026? So there's 136 council elections. There's six mayoral

contest in England. We've got the Scottish and Welsh parliament elections. Obviously, with the

councils, they are, you know, some are elected all of their councillors. Some are not. Some are only doing parts of it. And obviously, you've got to think that some of these councils actually haven't, you know, Labour weren't in government at the time, or at least they were, but they weren't, sort of they've just got in. So they hadn't had that same effect. So this is a real test on labour, especially in the councils, because most of

these councils are labour held or they're in a coalition. So this is a really big test. And Labour now

are the incumbent. And the same goes for obviously the Welsh and the Scottish Parliament in the

sense that, you know, Welsh and Scottish Labour have the problem where they've got labour in

government in Westminster. So these are really big challenges that they need to face in these elections. So to Will H, I have to differentiate between the two of you, as it's going to get very confusing. But to Will H, obviously, the last time the Senate was elected, the world looked a very different place. The UK was a very different place. Just talk to what the kind of situation is in Welsh politics at the

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