Local elections leave London with dramatically altered political map

London’s political map has changed significantly in the wake of last week’s local elections. Across the 32 boroughs, Labour lost more than half of its councils (from 21 to 10), with the number of councillors dropping from 1,155 to 696.

The Green party and Reform UK won control of London boroughs for the first time. The Greens won Hackney, Lewisham and Waltham Forest while Reform took Havering.

The Conservatives took back Westminster City Council from Labour, and held on to Kensington and Chelsea, Harrow, Croydon and Bexley.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats held on to Sutton, Richmond-upon-Thames, and Kingston-upon-Thames.

Labour held Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing, Hounslow, Newham, Redbridge, Barking & Dagenham, Camden, Islington, Greenwich and Merton.

One of the big surprises in London, was the Green party’s victory in Waltham Forest, beating Labour which has been the dominant group in the northeast London borough for many years. The Greens clinched overall control, winning 31 seats,  while Labour dropped to 15 seats with the Tories on 14 seats.

Waltham Forest’s Deputy Leader Clyde Loakes, who retained his seat and will now continue in opposition, has for many years championed cycling and pedestrian friendly infrastructure in the borough including School Streets, rain gardens,  modal filters, bike parking hubs and hangars. It remains to be seen if the borough’s new Green administration will take forward policies to challenge the dominance of the car.

There are now nine London councils where no party won enough seats to form a majority. Eight of them were previously controlled by Labour – Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey, Lambeth, Newham, Southwark, Wandsworth – while one, Croydon, remains  in no overall control.

The Tories have become the biggest party in Wandsworth, which has moved to no overall control from being run by Labour.

Lambeth’s Deputy Leader Rezina Chowdhury lost her seat. As a Labour cabinet member, she oversaw the introduction of LTNs and School Streets and launched a strategy to reallocate kerbspace from car parking to cycle lanes, parklets and rain  gardens.

On social media, Chowdhury said she had suffered fierce opposition for introducing LTNs. “Some of it was genuinely hard in ways that are rarely discussed, the personal abuse, the hostile press coverage, the judicial reviews brought by well-resourced  opponents against decisions made in the interests of residents who had no equivalent power to fight back,” she said. “There were moments when holding the line felt very lonely indeed. But the evidence was always there, and the communities asking for change  were always there, and that was enough for me to keep going.”

In Barnet, the final results left Labour and the Conservatives tied on 31 seats each, with the Green Party winning a single seat, meaning they now hold the balance of power.

Aspire retained Tower Hamlets, securing an overall majority in the only London borough where it stands.

Tower Hamlet’s Aspire Mayor Lutfur Rahman was also re-elected as was Croydon’s Conservative Mayor Jason Perry. Both retained their posts having recently lost legal cases relating to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) this year.

Lutfur Rahman was elected in 2022 on a platform to “reopen our roads,” but in February the Court of Appeal found that his plans to remove three Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, and Columbia Road without obtaining  the approval of the Mayor of London was unlawful.

In March Croydon Council was ordered to remove six Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) schemes after they were deemed unlawful at Judicial Review as being primarily retained to generate revenue (LTT934).

In other mayoral elections in the capital, the Green party’s Zoë Garbett was elected mayor of Hackney while the Green Liam Shrivastava became mayor of Lewisham, with both replacing Labour mayors.

In the fifth mayoral election in the capital, Labour’s Forhad Hussain was elected in Newham.

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan labelled the results in the capital “bitterly disappointing”, and laid the blame on the government.

He said: “I keep hearing anger, disillusionment and disappointment. And the direction of that is the Labour government, the promises made in July 2024 haven’t been delivered.”