Following Starmer’s national meltdown in the local elections, Chris Bambery takes a closer look at the catastrophic results for Labour in the capital
Coverage of Labour’s spectacular losses in Thursday’s elections has focused mainly on Wales, where Plaid Cymru will now head the new government, and in much of England where Reform chalked up major wins.
Labour also took a hammering in London, previously regarded as a bastion of support. All told they lost 450 seats in the capital.
They went into Thursday’s elections holding majorities in 21 of 32 London councils.
The Greens took three councils – Hackney, Waltham Forest and Lewisham – all of which have been run by Labour by decades. Plus, they won the mayoral elections in Hackney and Lewisham. Success in Hackney and, to a lesser extent, Waltham Forest was expected. In Lewisham the Greens dealt Labour a severe blow, with the Greens taking a majority by winning 40 seats, with Labour taking just 14.
In Tower Hamlets Aspire’s Lutfur Rahman was re-elected mayor, with the party increasing its dominance of the council, winning 33 seats, up from 24 at the last election. Labour and the Green Party now both have five councillors. Labour previously held 16 seats and the Greens one. Labour lost seats to Aspire in several wards, including Bethnal Green East and Mile End and lost seats to the Greens in Bow West and Bow East.
In eight of the 21 councils Labour controlled before Thursday there is now no overall control – Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark and Wandsworth.
Labour did hang on to control in Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing, Hounslow, Barking and Dagenham, Camden, Islington, Greenwich and Merton.
In Lambeth Labour is down to 26 seats with the Greens taking 29. In Haringey Labour is down to just 21 seats with the Greens taking 28. In Southwark Labour is down to 29 seats while the Greens have 22.
Giving the level of support the Greens are now in a strong position to capture the parliamentary seats of Tottenham, Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and Hackney South and Shoreditch in a General Election.
Regards Reform UK the headlines were about it winning control of the London borough of Havering. That was expected. The council was previously run by a Resident’s Association. Much of their vote and that of the Tories, who now have no seats there, flowed further rightwards to Reform UK.
Although in many of the outer London boroughs, where Reform UK had high hopes, the results were disappointing. In Hounslow they won eight seats, in Bexley seven seats, in Bromley six, in both Barking & Dagenham and Hillingdon 4 seats, in Croydon and Sutton just two and in Greenwich just one.
On the left, aside from Aspire in Tower Hamlets, independents in Newham ran Labour close taking 24 seats to Labour’s 26 and the Greens winning 16. But elsewhere just one was elected, in Harrow and Camden. After good votes in Ilford North, Holborn and St Pancras and other seats in the 2024 general election this is disappointing but not unsurprising given the debacle of Your Party. It’s another nail in the coffin of that project.
In Tower Hamlets Aspire pledged to freeze Council Tax for four years, to protect the poorest from rising living costs as well as plans to offer free tube, bus and over-ground travel to students from low-income families. It has already brought in free school meals and free homecare.
That provides a measure for what the Greens could do in office in Hackney, Waltham Forest and Lewisham and in other boroughs where they are the biggest party. The track record of Green MPs at Westminster is not an inspiring one. It will be interesting to see how they perform over the next four years.