Will Reform dominate the local and devolved elections?

Speaker 0· Soundbite0:00

This is The Guardian.

Speaker 1· Soundbite0:01

In the early hours of the eighth of May, we are gonna witness another even bigger, more dramatic political earthquake when Reform achieve results in Sunderland and elsewhere that nobody can yet believe.

Kiran Stacey· Co-host0:25

[clapping] This election is between the Green Party and the Reform Party.

Speaker 1· Soundbite0:30

Vote Labour because of our values. Vote Labour because of our leadership. Vote Labour because it makes a huge difference to so many lives across the country.

Speaker 0· Soundbite0:38

The Conservative Party is on the side of people who want to get on, and we are fighting for them at this local election in London, in Essex, in Norfolk, in Solihull, in Lincolnshire, in Plymouth, anywhere that people have a vote.

Pippa Crerar· Host0:50

[clapping] I'm Pippa Carreira.

Kiran Stacey· Co-host0:53

And I'm Kieran Stacey.

Pippa Crerar· Host0:55

And you're listening to Politics Weekly.

Kiran Stacey· Co-host0:57

For The Guardian.

Pippa Crerar· Host0:58

Hello. It's just me today, as Kieran is taking a much-earned break before next week when we'll all be laser-focused on the local and devolved elections and the fallout from them. So with that in mind, we thought that this week we'd bring back election analyst and friend of the podcast, Professor Rob Ford, to talk through what we might see from all those elections across the UK next Thursday. Hello, Rob.

Kiran Stacey· Co-host1:25

Hello.

Pippa Crerar· Host1:26

So Rob, before we get into some of the details, I want to talk about the broader picture,