Voters head to the polls on Thursday in a series of local elections seen as the final test of public opinion before Rishi Sunak goes to the country later this year.

The majority Labour administration secured control of the Oxford City Council in 2022 after winning 32 seats at the elections but since then 10 councillors have resigned from the party over Sir Keir Starmer's position on Gaza, leaving the party with no overall control.

The council leader is Susan Brown and the composition of the authority is 22 Labour, 11 Independent, nine Liberal Democrat and six Green.

Labour will be trying to win back some of the seats it lost at the end of last year but since November there has also been a surge in the efforts of Independent candidates hoping to take advantage of the current political situation.

The Independent Oxford Alliance has put up candidates in many of the Oxford wards with the party saying it hopes to "bring a return of democracy" to the city, hammering scepticism of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) as a main point of electoral contention.

Oxford City Council elects 24 of its 48 members every two years.

Half of the 48 seats of the council are up for election which translates to one councillor for each of the wards, with the exception of Blackbird Leys which has two seats available for the taking.

This is after the long-serving Labour councillor Rae Humberstone resigned his seat last month approaching his 75th birthday, saying he wished to open up the seat to a "younger person".

The 2022 local election results were seen to reflect polling for the mainstream parties nationally which factored in public opinion of Boris Johnson and the 'Partygate' scandal.

There are no Conservative councillors in the city at the moment and it is uncertain whether the party's fortunes in Oxford are likely to change any time soon given its current polling nationally and eyebrows raised over the ravings of senior members such as former prime minister Liz Truss.

The last time the Conservative party had control in Oxford was 1976-1980.

Cherwell District Council is currently run by the Conservative minority administration after the party was reduced to having no overall control following May 2023 elections.

Its leader is Barry Wood and the composition of the council is currently 20 Conservative, 12 Labour, 10 Liberal Democrat, three Independent and three Green councillors.

West Oxfordshire District Council is run by by the 'West Oxfordshire Alliance' made up of the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Green groups after the Conservatives lost control of the council for the first time in 22 years following the 2022 local elections.

The council leader is Liberal Democrat Andy Graham and the composition of the council is 18 Liberal Democrat, 10 Labour, three Green, 17 Conservative and one Independent as it stands.

The South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District councils will not be holding local elections after these took place last year.