Birmingham & Black Country

Local elections 2026
Local elections 2026

A rare whole council vote - the battle for Solihull

With every seat on the council up for grabs, which parties will make gains on 7 May?
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  1. Five men sat around a wooden square table smiling and holding pint glasses of beer or larger.

  2. Police custody images of Endrit Nikolli (left) with brown hair wearing a grey t-shirt and facial hair

  3. A composite image of a painting of a man on a brick wall against a blue back drop.

  4. A man with black hair, wearing a black hoodie, stands in front of a plain wall in a police mugshot.

  5. A stock photo of a police officer's handcuffs.

  6. Woakes with brown hair and a brown top is on the left of the photo. A field and other people are in the background, while trees and rooftops are in the distance.

  7. A red brick and white frontage of a modern building with three floors and many windowns with a large silver sign on the front of the building saying council house

  8. Maham looks at her iPad as she sits with her mother, Nomia. She is wearing a device which helps with ventilation which happens twice a day and through the night.

  9. Duncan Horlor sat on a brown straw bench with his partner and two brown dogs. Duncan is bald, wears glasses a blue jumper and blue jeans while his partners has a blonde bob and smiles with her arms around one of the brown dogs. She is wearing a pink floral dress and black tights.

  10. Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage sitting in a radio studio wearing a blue blazer, pink spotty tie, headphonea and talking into a microphone.

  11. An artist impression of a bridge over a canal with people walking along it.

  12. A stock image of a group of mature learners in a classroom. A blonde long-haired woman in an orange jumper is in focus, her chin resting on one hand and a pen in the other. She is smiling as she looks to the front. Three men and a woman sit on surrounding tables, out of focus.

  13. A woman is taking a selfie of her family in a fastfood restaurant - she is on the right of the table and has a black top on with her hair tied back and pink rimmed glasses on. Her two sons are in the middle, eating from a little black cardboard box of food and looking straight at the camera. Her daughter is to the left, she is a baby of around a year old and is eating a chip in a pushchair, looking at the camera.

  14. Four people pictured in a split screen formation. Far left woman in stripey red and white top and glasses, brown hair. Second from left a tall man with beard, glasses, black beanie hat and white t-shirt talking into a microphone. Third from left a woman with red hair talking animatedly wearing a brown and white top. Final person far right is a man wearinf a off-white t-shirt, jeans and ginger hair.

  15. A woman with long blonde hair on the left is wearing a yellow jacket and standing next to a man in the middle with a shirt and dark blue jacket. A man with a grey beard on the right is wearing a shirt, tie and blue jacket.

  16. A man in a blue suit and white shirt in a radio studio speaking into a BBC News purple microphone

  17. A woman in an orange high-vis jacket stands on a patch of grass with shops in the background.

  18. A man with short dark hair in a blue jacket and white shirt sat in a radio studio with purple BBC News branding. Behind him is an image of the Houses of Parliament

  19. The back of an ambulance with its doors open, showing a bed for a patient inside and cupboards around the edge of the interior. There are houses in the background.

  20. A woman with dark hair and white top with blue, purple and orange stripes on the sleeves tries out gloves and glasses intended to show what life is like for a dementia patient

  21. Three male police officers stand in a street at night. One officer's black uniform is covered with a florescent vest. A second is wearing all black and has a dog on a lead next to him. The third officer has a florescent jacket and vest one with dark trousers.

  22. A man with a hat on looks at the camera. He is wearing a black T-shirt, blue plaid shirt and a black zip-up hoodie. The sun is shining and there are benches and bushes in the background.

  23. A man with dark hair and facial hair dressed in a black t-shirt and zip jumper with a white logo on it that reads "Training 2 Care". He is standing in an exhibition hall, talking and gesturing with his hands

  24. A group of people walk down the street as the protest. Many are holding red Unite or black flags.