Burnham may join new mayor race

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said that it would be a “real loss to parliament” if Mr Burnham runs, but added: “I can see why people are approaching him.”

He would be up against Ivan Lewis, Labour MP for Bury South and a former minister, who said in February that he hoped to become Greater Manchester’s first elected mayor. The poll is set to take place next May.

Furious residents of a north London borough were offered emergency proxy votes yesterday after incomplete registers were sent to its 155 polling stations.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people who tried to cast their vote in Barnet were turned away, including Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, and his wife, Valerie, because their names were not on the polling station lists.

Labour is threatening a legal challenge if there is a close mayoral result and the Liberal Democrats have called for a public inquiry. A rerun of the entire London elections could be triggered if any candidate lodges an election petition within three weeks.

Order of the cross: a Benedictine monk after casting his vote in the Scottish parliamentary elections in Moray yesterday

SWNS

Zac Goldsmith is likely to be the mayoral candidate most affected by the voting chaos, with the mainly affluent area having three Conservative MPs and a Tory-run council.

Barnet council admitted that the registers delivered to polling stations at 7am were incomplete but declined to say how many of the 236,196 registered voters had been turned away.

Millions voted in elections across the United Kingdom, but despite the sunny weather turnout was expected to be low.

As results started rolling in Labour was heading for a poor performance in the English council elections — losing scores of seats and some councils — and in Scotland, where the SNP was set for a second majority government. Ukip was also expected to eat into Labour’s traditional voting base in Wales.

Last night, Neil Coyle, Labour MP for Bermondsey & Old Southwark, said that the party was moving further away from government. Mr Coyle told Newsnight on BBC Two that, after six years of a Conservative-led government, Labour “shouldn’t be losing seats, it’s as simple as that”.

He added: “We seem to be fixated on some issues that are peripheral and we seem to have a team which isn’t projecting either unity within the party or a vision and policies that the voters want.”

Mike Gapes, Labour MP for Ilford South, also appeared to criticise Mr Corbyn, posting on Twitter: “Labour losing seats in first year of opposition after Tory fiasco of recent weeks is very bad . . . where is straight talking, honest politics?”

Grassroots supporters of the Labour leader are already preparing to fend off any challenge. It is understood that Momentum, the left-wing organisation set up to support Mr Corbyn’s leadership, will organise a campaign to lobby Labour MPs to ensure that he is not kept out of any future leadership race.

Sadiq Khan may be the only silver lining for Mr Corbyn if, as expected, he becomes London mayor. However, he could even face a second contest as a result of the chaos in Barnet.

It was reported that up to 75 per cent of voters’ names could have gone missing and residents claimed that polling stations had only 10 per cent of voters registered in some streets, although the full registers were delivered by 10.30am. Candidates and voters can challenge the London results by lodging a petition with the Royal Courts of Justice.

The fiasco prompted the council to issue an alert on its website at lunchtime offering emergency proxy votes to residents.