London local elections 2026: Who will win in the borough of Islington?
Labour’s dominance makes it almost a one-party authority here. But the Greens are on the march backing rent control after big-name infighting between the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer means no shortage of political drama.
At first glance, Islington Council’s composition is like North Korea’s. It is all-but a one-party authority.
At the 2022 local elections, the borough voted in 47 Labour councillors, who together occupy more than 92 per cent of the total seats.
But Labour’s near-unanimity in the council chamber belies deep political divisions in this trendy corner of north London. The final result for the council is expected to come in at around 3pm on Friday 8th May.
The defenestration of Jeremy Corbyn from the party proved a divisive issue on the left. The neighbourhood’s decades-long representative in the Commons was ousted from the parliamentary Labour party despite having served as its leader.
At the 2024 general election, Keir Starmer put up a new Labour candidate to contest Islington North, Corbyn’s constituency – but Corbyn vowed to fight on and assembled his own team of campaigners.
In the end, Corbyn’s victory over Labour candidate Praful Nargund – who remains a Labour councillor in Islington – proved decisive. Corbyn’s 49 per cent share of the vote was comfortably above Nargund’s 34 per cent.
Now, Labour Islington’s Labour councillors fear a similar defeat could loom in May’s local elections.
But rather than Corbyn’s cantankerous Your Party, it is the insurgent Greens who are most likely to exploit Labour’s rapid slide in popularity.
Greens keen for gains in Islington local election
The Greens are already polling above Labour at around 18 per cent nationally. In suburban areas they are doing even better, as their recent byelection win in Manchester’s Gorton and Denton proved.
The party, represented by its charismatic new leader Zack Polanksi, scooped up 22.4 per cent of the vote in Islington in 2022, a swing of 6 per cent on the previous election, though that only netted them three council seats. This time around, even a similar-sized swing across a handful of wards could trigger a major shake-up of the composition of the council.
The Green’s prospective path to power is supported by two key demographics.
The first is that the average age of an Islingtonian is way younger than the national average and the Greens are most popular among young people. The most populous age group in Islington are the 25-35s.
The second is that Islington has the highest population density of any local authority in England and Wales – as well as very high rents. For young people living in cramped conditions at sky-high prices, Polanski’s promise of rent controls has clear appeal.
The Labour government is often lampooned as a government of the north London elite, because such a large number of cabinet members hail from in and around Islington. But will this familiarity with the area by the party’s most senior members be enough to save it from defeat?
Morning Wire is previewing local election votes taking place in every London borough. Click here for a full overview of May 7.