Westminster council has fallen to the Labour party for the first time ever, as the Tories suffered a string of defeats in local elections across Britain overnight. The party also picked up Wandsworth council for the first time since 1978, with the defeated Tory council leader Ravi Govindia admitting many voters raised ‘the issue of Boris Johnson’ during the campaign.
Elsewhere in the capital, the Conservatives conceded defeat in Barnet, which has never had a Labour majority. Barnet’s Tory leader Daniel Thomas said losing the council ‘doesn’t bode well for us’ at the next election and described it as a ‘warning shot’ for Boris Johnson. Meanwhile London mayor Sadiq Khan said the Prime Minister had been a ‘vote-winner for Labour’.
The Tories have also lost West Oxfordshire and Southampton amidst signs voters were punishing the party over Boris’s leadership. But there are indications that despite voters’ unhappiness about the PM, the party’s defeats have not been as bad as some feared, particularly outside of the capital.
About one in six seats the party had been defending appear to have fallen to other parties. While some voters vented their frustration at the PM over partygate, Labour has failed to cut through as much as the party had hoped. Starmer’s gains outside London have been fairly modest. In Hull, the Lib Dems – so far the big winner from overnight, making dozens of gains – managed to wrest control from Labour. The Labour leader of Oldham council, Arooj Shah, has lost her seat to the Conservatives
A total of 4,400 seats are being contested across England, with more than 1,800 of those in London. Here are the results so far in full:
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