London local election results 2026: Labour lose Westminster as Tories take control
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The Conservatives have gained Westminster City Council from Labour after losing in 2022.
The Tories pinched nine seats from Labour, who slumped to 22. No surprise now that, as earlier reported, the atmosphere among Tory campaigners in Westminster was jubilant.
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Westminster turned red in 2022
Westminster turned red for the first time in its history in 2022.
Buckingham Palace, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park, Oxford Street and Sir Keir Starmer’s current home in Downing Street all fall within the wealthy borough where average house prices are nearly double that across London.
It was therefore a landmark victory for Starmer’s Labour over Boris Johnson’s Tories at the height of the Partygate scandal. The council defeat was a major setback for the Prime Minister at the time given he had served as London mayor, and it served as a political warning for lawmakers in SW1 on the drop of popularity for Johnson’s premiership.
Political ship-jumping has worsened the blow for the Westminster Tories. Laila Cunningham defected to Reform UK and became one of its top figures as the campaigner-in-chief during local elections. Think tanker Alan Mendoza also defected from the Tories and was named as one of Nigel Farage’s foreign policy advisers.
There was some reprieve for the Tories as Paul Fisher defected from Labour.
The party will be hoping that residents in the area take their anger out at the government and the mayor of London, whose intervention on planning for Oxford Street has led to uproar.
Oxford Street Nimbys?
When he defected, Fisher questioned whether Labour cared about Westminster and hit out at Sir Sadiq Khan over the pedestrianisation of the West End shopping street. The Tories claim that Oxford Street was also a “local high street” and that pedestrianising it was “unworkable”.
There has been more Nimby (‘Not in my back yard’) action being taken across the area. This includes initiatives driven by the council’s Labour leaders. They called for a ban on ‘For Sale’ signs being put up on properties which are… for sale.
The council also put up a proposal to create a “quiet”, alcohol-free zone in central London. It has prompted a group of 150 businesses to hit out at residents in the area for blocking every Soho reform that they believe could make the area more attractive.
Westminster silence zones
The Labour incumbents have meanwhile pledged to keep council taxes low despite it being allowed to increase rates by more than five per cent.
Residents in the borough have enjoyed the second lowest tax rate in the country after Wandsworth but a funding cut by more than 10 per cent could make councillors rethink financial plans.
Reform UK will be closely monitoring results in Westminster. A substantial gain in the number of seats in Westminster would be a stamp of authority on the electoral map, reflecting a wider shift in political sentiment across the country right from the heart of the UK’s establishment. It has a candidate standing in every ward.
There may be a sense of despair for councillors running in Westminster. As Khan’s intervention on Oxford Street has shown, political leaders are keen to interfere with business taking place in the council.
Issues such as phone-snatching and affordable housing policies may not be completely up for councillors to control, but it’s residents’ frustration with those issues that may result in another historic result in Westminster.
Morning Wire is previewing local election votes taking place in every London borough. Click here for a full overview of May 7.