There are only 18 seats at stake in the province this week, but the next UK government has a big political task on its hands there

Compared with the contests in the rest of the UK or in France, the one in Northern Ireland may seem like this week’s electoral sideshow. Devolved government there has finally been resumed. The Brexit protests have died down. And there are only 18 seats in Northern Ireland anyway, out of Westminster’s 650. The chance of the Northern Ireland results affecting the post-election balance of power, as they did in 2017, are vanishingly small this time.

All true. Yet the election in Northern Ireland matters all the same. It matters for Northern Ireland’s people, of course, not least because one in four of them are on an NHS treatment waiting list, a higher figure than in most of Britain. It matters too because, although the devolved institutions have resumed operation, there is too little by way of creative, cross-community, cooperative government to show for it. And it matters because, at least among unionists, the wounds of Brexit have not been fully healed.

Want to catch a few results before bed, or see it through to the moment of reckoning? We’ve got you covered

After months of speculation on when the election might be held, six weeks of actual campaigning, D-day blunders, gambling scandals, smashing the gangs, stopping the boats, surrendering finances, triple-lock-pluses, national service, VAT on private schools, taxes up and taxes down, the election night will soon be upon us. Here’s how it may unfold:

PM responds to comments by Reform activists, who were filmed by Channel 4 reporter while canvassing in Clacton

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Here’s the latest in the Guardian’s series on The broken years: Tory Britain 2010-24:

Unless the polls are wildly inaccurate, the Conservative party is heading towards a catastrophic defeat in the coming election.

Representatives from DUP, Sinn Féin, UUP, SDLP and Alliance to face off from 9pm

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Speaking at a Reform UK event in Boston with party leader Nigel Farage, chairman of the party Richard Tice said that the racist comments discovered by a Channel 4 investigation during the Reform campaign were “inappropriate”.

Tice said:

We put a statement out and it’s all self-explanatory in the statement.

The reality is that we’re a fast-growing movement, and when you’ve got unpaid volunteers, some people behave inappropriately. And they’re gone.”

We’ve had one or two candidates that have said things they shouldn’t have said. In most cases they’re just speaking like ordinary folk.

They’re not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that. In some cases one or two people let us down and we let them go.

Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP).

Chris Hazzard, Sinn Féin MP candidate.

Colum Eastwood, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP).

Naomi Long, leader of the Alliance party.

Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP).