London local election results 2022 live: Latest news on who won council elections - Labour wins Westminster

The LondonWorld team will bring you the latest news, updates and results from the elections in all 32 boroughs as they come in.
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Lutfur Rahman has won a shock re-election as Tower Hamlets mayor – seven years after he was removed from office for electoral fraud.

Last night, Labour took Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet on a historic night for the party.

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Voters in 32 London boroughs have decided on their local councillors, and who will run their council for the next four years.

A total of 1,817 seats are up for election across the city, with Labour holding 21 boroughs, the Conservatives seven, Lib Dems three and one council is under no overall control.

Waltham Forest was the first council to be declared, with the north-east London borough being controlled by Labour.

The party then went onto take the flagship council of Wandsworth, as well as Barnet and Westminster for the first time in the party’s history.

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Conservatives gained Harrow from Labour, which went against the trend across the rest of the city.

We will update our live elections map below as council results come in.

And let us know your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook and by emailing [email protected].

London local election results 2022 live

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to be investigated by Durham Police over ‘beergate'

Some breaking news that will definitely put a dampener on Labour’s successful night in London, is that leader Sir Keir Starmer will be investigated by Durham Police over ‘beergate’.

Sir Keir was flush with electoral success when arrived at Labour’s victory in Barnet, with my colleague Jessica Frank-Keyes reporting that supporters were calling at him: “The next prime minister.”

However those 99 red balloons have now been popped just hours later, with the news that Durham Police will investigate him drinking a beer with colleagues in April 2021.

Conservative MPs have been urging the officers to investigate Sir Keir, to take the pressure of Boris Johnson and partygate - which local Tories have said has been a factor this election.

A police statement today said: “Earlier this year, Durham Constabulary carried out an assessment as to whether Covid-19 regulations had been breached at a gathering in Durham City on April 30 2021.

“At that time, it was concluded that no offence had been established and therefore no further action would be taken.

“Following the receipt of significant new information over recent days, Durham Constabulary has reviewed that position and now, following the conclusion of the pre-election period, we can confirm that an investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations relating to this gathering is now being conducted.”

Police previously said they did do not believe “an offence has been established in relation to the legislation and guidance in place at that time and will therefore take no further action in relation to this matter”.

Overall result: Hackney (Mayor) - Labour hold

Mayor Philip Glanville. Credit: BBC LDRSMayor Philip Glanville. Credit: BBC LDRS
Mayor Philip Glanville. Credit: BBC LDRS

Voters delivered no surprises in Hackney, with Labour’s Philip Glanville returned as directly elected mayor, Julia Gregory reports.

He took 59% of the vote on a day when turnout was down – with 34% of voters casting their ballot for the borough’s top political job.

Glanville said: “This is about change, this isn’t about re-electing me, but is about a new administration.”

He added: “When we say we’ll work together for a better Hackney, we mean it. We mean it on the cost of living, we mean it on anti-racism, we mean it on equality, we mean it on climate action, we mean it on the housing crisis.

“We mean it on running the best services that we can.”

Glanville said the council needs to rebuild trust following the disastrous cyber attack in 2020 which hit services including housing benefit and has frustrated residents.

The Labour mayor will see this as a victory for his policies around low-traffic neighbourhoods, which is one of the themes of the London elections.

Opponents of the traffic filters to promote walking and cycling - which have sprung up across Hackney - have been very vocal against the Labour councils.

However Glanville will see this as an endorsement of the schemes, and already people on Twitter are urging him to install more LTNs.

Overnight results map

London elections results map. Credit: LWLondon elections results map. Credit: LW
London elections results map. Credit: LW

Labour has made headlines by taking three major Conservative councils in London - Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet.

There were emotional scenes at the counts as Keir Starmer’s party took Westminster and Barnet for the first time in history.

In Wandsworth, the Conservative leader Cllr Ravi Govindia put the blame squarely at Boris Johnson and the central government.

He said that his previous council was “exceptional” and that “on the doorstep consistently people raised the issues of the central government”.

Labour comfortably held its councils, keeping all the seats in Barking and Dagenham.

While the Tories held Bexley and Hillingdon, in the south west Conservative councillors were decimated by the Liberal Democrats.

The Tories went from 11 councillors to one in Richmond and lost nine councillors in Merton.

This, in particular, will concern Conservative MPs as it shows the Lib Dems can challenge the Tories in the Blue Wall.

Full report: Labour takes Westminster in shock win

The Conservatives lost Westminster City Council for the first time in its 58-year history, Hannah Neary reports.

Labour had promised to build more homes and freeze council tax in Westminster.

Voters appear to have been ultimately swayed by the Partygate scandal inside Number 10, the cost of living crisis and, locally, the £6 million Marble Arch Mound fiasco.

Across the borough, a total of 162 candidates battled it out for 54 seats across 18 wards over issues such as antisocial behaviour, the future of Oxford Street and protecting the borough’s schools.

Voters were also considering how each party would deal with bad landlords and rogue letting agents.

Both main political parties had also promoted policies to make Central London safer at night – particularly for women.

Westminster City Council had been held by the Tories since it was first formed in 1964 and the council currently has the lowest council tax in the country at just £866 per year.

According to Labour, Westminster residents were furious on doorsteps about the Marble Arch Mound tourist attraction which ended up costing three times its budget and other voters felt they could not trust the Tories after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was fined for breaking Covid rules at the height of the pandemic.

Signing off until the afternoon

Thanks for following LondonWorld’s coverage of the local elections.

We’ll be signing off to get some sleep until the afternoon, when the next results will begin to come in.

These include:

  • Havering 12noon
  • Bromley 3pm
  • Haringey 4pm
  • Tower Hamlets mayoralty 5pm
  • Harrow 5pm
  • Croydon mayoralty 5pm
  • Greenwich 6pm
  • Lambeth 6pm
  • Lewisham 6pm
  • Islington 6pm
  • Hackney 7pm
  • Newham 7pm

Let us know your thoughts on Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats by emailing [email protected].

Full report: Bexley goes blue in dismal night for Conservatives in the capital

The Conservatives have held onto Bexley Council in the 2022 local elections, losing only one seat in the process, local democracy reporter Kiro Evans reports.

The south-east London borough has remained overwhelmingly blue despite national issues for the Tories.

Forty-five seats across 17 wards were contested in Bexley, with seven parties looking to gain a place on the new council.

The victorious Conservatives won 33 seats, while Labour won 12, giving the Tories a majority of 10.

The Conservative leader Teresa O’Neill said that the borough of Bexley had “spoken with a strong voice” by voting in a Tory majority in what will be seen as a very good night for the local party, despite some minor scares.”

But the Labour leader said that the net gain of one seat represented a success for the opposition.

Councillor Stefano Borella told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I’m very happy. We were never going to win big.

“Our aim was to increase our vote. We won again tonight in Northumberland Heath and if you look at the results elsewhere – in Crayford and East Wickham – we pushed them close and we nearly won those seats as well so I’m absolutely delighted.

Overall result: Kensington & Chelsea - Conservative hold

Conservative holdConservative hold
Conservative hold

Some rare good news for the Tories on a night of misery in London.

The Conservatives comfortably held Kensington & Chelsea with 35 councillors out of 50.

Overall result: Enfield - Labour hold

lab holdlab hold
lab hold

Labour has held onto Enfield, however the campaign will be scrutinised when compared to some of the other performances by the party across the capital.

The Conservatives took eight seats of Labour - which was one of the best performances across the capital.

The Tories finished on 25 seats and Labour on 38 seats.

Full report: Barnet votes Labour for the first time in history

Labour group leader Barry Rawlings told reporter Jessica Frank-Keyes at the Barnet count said he was “a bit scared but basically very excited”.

A total of 41 Labour councillors across 16 wards were elected, compared to 22 Conservative councillors across nine wards, while turnout is thought to be around 37.9%.

Giving his victory speech, Cllr Rawlings said: “It’s a great victory. Barnet has never had a majority Labour council. The residents and voters of Barnet have put their trust in us.

“Barnet deserves the changes that we will make.”

And Dan Thomas, former Conservative council leader, said he was “obviously really disappointed”, adding: “We’ve lost some excellent councillors through no fault of their own.

“We’ve got the cost of living crisis, partygate, the fact the Conservatives have been in power now for 12 years and locally we had some new ward boundaries the election was fought on.”

State of play in the London council elections as the sun rises

London elections map. London elections map.
London elections map.

Labour has made headlines by taking three major Conservative councils in London - Westminster, Wandsworth and Barnet.

There were emotional scenes at the counts as Keir Starmer’s party took Westminster and Barnet for the first time in history.

In Wandsworth, the Conservative leader Cllr Ravi Govindia put the blame squarely at Boris Johnson and the central government.

He said that his previous council was “exceptional” and that “on the doorstep consistently people raised the issues of the central government”.

Labour comfortably held its councils, keeping all the seats in Barking and Dagenham.

While the Tories held Bexley and Hillingdon, in the south west Conservative councillors were decimated by the Liberal Democrats.

The Tories went from 11 councillors to one in Richmond and lost nine councillors in Merton.

This, in particular, will concern Conservative MPs as it shows the Lib Dems can challenge the Tories in the Blue Wall.