Thursday is decision day in elections across Britain

By Stuart Bonar, Public Affairs Advisor on 03 May 2021 Politics Government

At 7am on Thursday 6 May, , polling stations across England, Scotland and Wales will open their doors for 15 hours so that up to 48 million people can cast their votes in a whole host of elections.

All 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd are up for election. There are also around 5,000 seats up across 143 council areas in England. Police and crime commissioners will be elected in 39 areas of England and Wales, alongside 13 directly elected mayors, 25 seats on the London Assembly, and a new MP in a byelection in Hartlepool.

Earlier this week, I blogged about how the elections for local councils and police and crime commissioners, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd are important for the NHS and health issues across the board. Please take a look.

To coincide with the election of new parliaments in Scotland and Wales, the RCM has produced blueprints for maternity services in the years ahead. You can read what we have to say about the Scottish blueprint on the RCM website, and read the blueprint itself there too. The RCM has also published a news story about the Welsh blueprint, with the document available in both English and Welsh.

RCM Scotland and RCM Wales will be seeking to meet with many of the new and re-elected MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament) and MSs (Members of the Senedd) soon after the elections. The blueprints are a great way for us to focus attention on the key issues for maternity services, e.g. the urgent need to tackle inequalities as well as the highlighting the contribution that midwives and MSWs can make to improving public health.

But first, the elections themselves. Choices, choices. If you have a vote, please do use it. Use the links above to find out all the candidates standing and how the voting works in your area, then have your say by casting your vote. You’ve got until they close those polling station doors at 10pm  on Thursday night to make up your mind.

You can find out what elections are happening in your area by inputting your postcode into this handy tool on the Electoral Commission website. The website Who Can I Vote For? also gives information about some of the candidates too; again, you just need your postcode.

The BBC has produced a quick guide to what elections are happening where and a guide to how to vote, how the pandemic will affect polling stations as well as how and when the votes will be counted.