‘Voting is not on their radar’: lowest turnout predicted in poorest areas

Only about a third of voters are expected to vote in Thursday’s polls but that could fall to as low as 13% in some places

• UK politics – latest updates

From a shopfront in Tilbury, Essex, community worker Yewande Kannike is wrestling with a paradox at the heart of this week’s English local elections: the most deprived people who could most benefit from political reform are least likely to vote.

Across England only about a third of voters are expected to cast a ballot in Thursday’s polls, based on previous turnouts. That could fall as low as 13% in the most deprived parts of places such as Middlesbrough and Hull. In Tilbury – once the gateway to Britain for the economic migrants on the Empire Windrush – eight out of 10 voters stayed at home at last year’s local elections.