London local elections 2026: Who will win in Barking and Dagenham?
Labour will take the fight to Reform in its defence of Barking and Dagenham as it looks to continue its long-running hold on the borough.
In 2022 Barking and Dagenham was painted a unanimous red.
All 51 seats in the 232,747 strong borough went to Labour in a clean sweep, though turnout was 24.5 per cent – the lowest in all of London.
Since then, streaks of blue and green have begun to seep through. Three councillors have defected from Labour to the Greens over concerns on foreign policy.
Moin Quadri, Victoria Hornby and Faruk Choudhury said they had become uncomfortable with Labour “refusing to take a principled stand on Gaza” and “adopting divisive anti-immigration rhetoric”.
But they weren’t the only councillors fancying a change, with the Conservatives also picking up a Labour defector.
On Friday, voters in the area will get a glimpse of what the council’s balance looks like as results are expected at 5pm.
Barking and Dagenham – the subject of the Ramz hit from 2018 boasting the hook ‘I might link my ting from Barkin’ – has a highly diverse population, with around 16 per cent identifying as black African and 17 per cent as Bangladeshi or Pakistani. Around 46 per cent identify as white.
Barking and Dagenham’s fast-growing population
The area is also quickly growing with the population increasing 17.7 per cent in the 2021 census – the second-highest in all of the capital. It is in the Band D council tax for the 2026/27 financial year at £2,198.
The council’s Labour leader, Dominic Twomey, is now facing pressure over a decision to raise council taxes by five per cent in order to fill funding gaps.
Labour has controlled the borough since its creation in the ‘60s, though faces a challenge in keeping that grip from the insurgent Greens and flocking of voters to the Conservatives.
Reform UK is also expected to make a play for the area too as part of its bid to knock down some of the traditional red walls.
One of the targets includes Eastbrook and Rush Green, which is in the east of the borough.
Scandal has already surrounded the party’s bid for power as Lewis Holmes, who was a vocal critic of the incumbent council, turned his guns back on Reform and pledged to run as an independent under the banner of ‘Barking and Dagenham first’. Campaign groups have accused Holmes of promoting far-right content.
The area has long been a key battleground for radical versus centreground politics. For example, the far-right British National Party’s Nick Griffin fought against former Labour MP Baroness Hodge in 2010, and lost.
Twomey too fears the council could turn. He has warned that the party should not be “complacent” about Reform UK’s possible takeover of the council after a poll suggested it would be lost by Labour.
Regardless of who manages to break through and leave their mark on the borough, the solid red is already facing splatters from all shades of party colour palettes.
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