A change of leader would do little to help the Labour party, judging by voters in the marginal council seats around Glossop in Derbyshire – a county that will on Friday deliver one of the most closely watched results of the local elections.

In the box: the ballot paper for the European parliament offered voters plenty of scope for protest

Labour, which has a 12-seat majority on the council, thanks to support from the region’s former coal mining communities, is desperate to retain control. But in Glossop alone it lost one seat to the Conservatives in 2005 and is under pressure in another.