Birmingham & Black Country

Local elections 2026
Local elections 2026

The battle to take political control of Birmingham

The number of candidates and challengers from non-traditional parties make results hard to predict.
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  1. A stock image of a road, with a junction to the right. There are cars on the left and more in the background, with several trees lining the road

  2. Kay is pictured waving at the camera and wearing a dark cap and top and jacket. He is outside in a street.

  3. A police car is parked partly on a kerb outside a building in a street. There are dark benches outside, with blue and white police tape in front of them. Two officers are standing outside brown doors.

  4. Two black women with long hair stand next to each other and are smiling at the camera while looking at it. One is wearing a dotty top and the other is wearing a purple dress. To the left of them is a bannister, lights hanging from the ceiling and pink flowers.

  5. Manny Singh Kang has a grey beard is wearing a black T-shirt including the word Manny in yellow and other words is holding out both fists and looking at the camera. Other people are behind him and the union jack flags are also visible. The middle image is of Roo on the carpet at Buckingham Palace - it's a teddy bear on that looks like the baby kangaroo character from Winnie-the-Pooh. It has scruffy grey and white fur with big ears and a long tail. He has a white underside. In the third image: Elaine Hipkins with long blonde hair smiles holding a massive bouquet of flowers. Behind her is black and pink bunting that reads "happy retirement" with several cards hanging up.

  6. A black and white image of two women driving a steam train. They are both wearing overalls as well as caps. One is in the driver's seat and the other just behind.

  7. A police car is parked diagonally across a kerb outside a bar in a city street. There are black wooden benches outside obstructed by police tape, and two officers standing outside the ornate wooden doors of the building.

  8. An image taken from the stands of a football ground, showing dozens of people on the pitch. The view is obscured by clouds of green and yellow smoke drifting across the pitch.

  9. A young boy dressed in a blue and red Spider-Man costume with a matching mask over his face. Next to him is a person dressed as a large bear with a red t-short. Text on it in white reads "Birmingham Children's Hospital". The bear has red shoes with white laces

  10. Two police officers stand with their backs to us by blue and white police tap with surrounds paths, grass and paving - with a blue tent on the paving.

  11. A team of elderly men and woman posing at the finish line

  12. A long road with houses on either side and a large tree on the left. There are cars parked on the right

  13. A black and white image of Simon Gee. He is smiling and wears dark-rimmed glasses. He has a distinctive moustache and beard.

  14. Hundreds of water lanterns float on a lake with trees in the background

  15. A zoomed in photograph of a bird's silhoutte at dawn, the leaves are still dark while the sky is starting to turn yellow

  16. Peter Kay wears a cap and looks towards the camera

  17. A person in a large bull costume with a white t-shirt doing a star jump in front of a square sign which reads Birmingham 2026, with the empty blue seats of a sports stadium in the background

  18. Birmingham skyline showing high-rise buildings. in the foreground is building work as part of the HS2 project

  19. Peter Kay is wearing a black polo shirt under a black jacket and smiling at the camera.

  20. Andy Reiss and Katie Leeming. Andy wears black-rimmed glasses, has short blonde hair and wears a white T-shirt. Katie has a pink baseball cap on and wears a beige jacketed over a white top. They sit in a room with blinds on the windows.

  21. On the right is a photo of the painting of the man on a brick wall as it looked before it was defaced, with the image on the left showing the painting after it was vandalised. Jeff Hall is depicted in grey and black and other bricks to the left and right of his head are green.

  22. Matt Gallagher sat in an electric wheelchair after a rugby game, posing with the team and his family

  23. Three men pictured in mug shots. Aldafin Poenaru has short black hair, dark stubble around his mouth ad wears a black and orange hood jacket. Sorin Condrache is bald and wears grey shirt, while Marian Agarlita has spikey black hair, a black moustache and black beard. He is wearing a black tshirt.

  24. A man in a white vest and with a small Chinese taijitu tattoo on his right shoulder smiling at the camera