London local elections 2026: Who will win in the borough of Camden?
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Sir Keir Starmer will be looking closely at how results pan out in his own backyard given his constituency in Holborn and St Pancras. Could the Greens or Lib Dems put Labour’s control under threat given the prominence of issues such as Gaza, planning and homelessness?
Camden Council is Labour through and through – or is it? Sir Keir Starmer’s backyard is the top local authority that journalists will be looking at in search of an angle on the Prime Minister’s political plight on May 7.
Starmer may want to have a glimpse at his news apps at around 6pm on 8 May when results for the council are expected to come in.
Labour has 47 out of 54 seats available for the council. The authority spans from Covent Garden to Kentish Town, and is home to important institutions such as the British Museum, the British Library and London Zoo. London Euston, dogged by scuppered redevelopment plans as HS2 still has not been completed, also falls within the area.
The election battle is on a knife-edge as one party believes they can rack up lots more seats: the Greens.
The party’s lone warrior in the council, Lorna Jane Russell, has been quoted in newspapers focusing the campaign on a protest against the prime minister, who is one of the most unpopular politicians in polling by Morning Wire/Freshwater Strategy.
Gains from the Greens’ current single seat are almost certain. Anything around 20 seats will reveal a real challenge for Labour.
But the Greens have faced controversy of their own. One of the party’s local candidates, Aziz Rahman Hakimi, reposted statements that “Zionists” were behind 9/11 and said an attack on Jewish charity-owned ambulances were a “false flag” operation.
Candidates from centre-ground parties such as the Lib Dems, which narrowly beat the Tories last time around to be the main opposition, are attempting to focus on the local issues rather than the national debate.
Labour will hope it can avoid embarrassment. In its manifesto, the party has promised to inject cash into house repairs, build affordable homes and create a cost of living fund.
It’s just as well that the party drafted a manifesto as it ploughs resources into the boroughs it wants to keep.
Camden’s celebrity row
Repeated stories of faulty buildings, bad repairs and a rise in rough sleeping have dogged the fashionable London borough for several years.
There’s also a fair share of Nimby politics, with ‘Not in my back yard’ residents delaying planned redevelopments. Ed Miliband’s wife Dame Justine Thornton last year opposed a block of flats because they were “too tall” and “too bulky”. Oscar-winning actor Benedict Cumberbatch also starred on the list of opponents against the Dartmouth Park development.
One councillor who spoke to Morning Wire laid the blame on construction companies failing to deliver projects.
Camden has also had its own fair share of retail-level political drama after a local Tory councillor, Shiva Tiwari, who defected from Labour, resigned after threatening to “close” a branch of Costcutter.
This upcoming local election will inevitably be a referendum on Starmer. A loss – particularly in wards such as Holborn and Covent Garden, and St Pancras and Somers Town – would deal a heavy blow to the Prime Minister.
Morning Wire is previewing local election votes taking place in every London borough. Click here for a full overview of May 7.