From election fever in England to SNP turmoil in Scotland

<p>The local elections in England are on 4 May, with more than 8,000 council seats across the country up for grabs. It is the first major electoral test for Rishi Sunak since becoming Prime Minister and a sign of how things could go in the general election next year. What should we watch out for?&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Anoosh Chakelian, Rachel Wearmouth and Freddie Hayward are joined by the&nbsp;<em>New Statesman</em>’s senior data journalist Ben Walker – founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://sotn.newstatesman.com/2023/04/2023-english-local-elections" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">State of the Nation</a>, a data site for understanding Britain – to discuss the electoral map and how key wards voted last time. The team assess whether Labour can make a definitive recovery in so-called Red Wall England and how the Tories are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2023/04/tories-begin-expectation-management-local-elections-in-style" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">managing expectations</a>.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Then, in You Ask Us, the&nbsp;<em>New Statesman</em>’s Scotland editor, Chris Deerin, joins the podcast to answer a listener’s question: what on Earth’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/scotland/2023/04/is-over-snp-humza-yousaf-nicola-sturgeon" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">going on</a>&nbsp;with the SNP?</p><p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p>If you have a question for You Ask Us, go to&nbsp;<a href="https://open.acast.com/newstatesman.com/youaskus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">newstatesman.com/youaskus</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Subscribers can get an ad free version of the NS Podcast on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2022/06/newapp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New Statesman app</a>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Podcast listeners can subscribe to the&nbsp;<em>New Statesman</em>&nbsp;for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit&nbsp;<a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/podcastoffer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">newstatesman.com/podcastoffer</a>.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>LISTEN AD-FREE:</strong></p><p>📱<a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2022/06/newapp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Download the New Statesman app</a></p><br /><p><strong>MORE FROM THE NEW STATESMAN:</strong></p><p>❓ <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/2022/10/you-ask-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ask a question</a> – we answer them every Friday</p><p>⏰ <a href="https://morningcall.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Get our daily politics newsletter</a> every morning</p><p>✍️ <a href="http://saturdayread.substack.com/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Enjoy the best of our writing</a> via email every Saturday</p><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>