The 2022 Southwark London Borough Council election is due to take place on 5 May 2022. All 63 members of
Southwark London Borough Council
Southwark London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London.
History
There have previously been a numbe ...
will be elected. The elections will take place alongside
local elections in the other London boroughs and
elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom.
In the
previous election in 2018, the
Labour Party maintained its control of the council, winning 49 out of the 63 seats with the
Liberal Democrats forming the council opposition with the remaining fourteen seats.
Background
History
The thirty-two
London boroughs
The London boroughs are the 32 local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London; each is governed by a London borough council. The present London boroughs were all created at t ...
were established in 1965 by the
London Government Act 1963
The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...
. They are the principal authorities in Greater London and have responsibilities including education, housing, planning, highways, social services, libraries, recreation, waste, environmental health and revenue collection. Some powers are shared with the
Greater London Authority
The Greater London Authority (GLA), colloquially known by the metonym "City Hall", is the devolved regional governance body of Greater London. It consists of two political branches: the executive Mayoralty (currently led by Sadiq Khan) and the ...
, which also manages passenger transport, police, and fire.
Since its formation, Southwark has been continuously under
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
control, apart from a period of
no overall control from 2002 to 2010. Apart from an independent in 1982 and a
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
councillor in 2006, all councillors have been from the Labour Party,
Liberal Democrats or the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. Labour regained its majority in the
2010 election, winning 35 seats with the Liberal Democrats on 25 and the Conservatives on three. Labour extended its majority by winning 48 seats in the
2014 election with the Liberal Democrats on 13 seats and the Conservatives on two. The Conservatives lost all their representation in the
most recent election in 2018, with Labour winning 49 seats with 55.3% of the vote across the borough and the Liberal Democrats winning the remaining 14 seats with 23.9% of the vote. The Green Party received 10.5% of the vote and the Conservatives received 10.4% of the vote but neither party won any seats. The incumbent council leader, Peter John, was reappointed following the election.
Council term
The Labour councillor Keiron Williams was elected as the leader of the council in September 2020, succeeding Peter John.
Electoral process
Southwark, like other London borough councils, elects all of its councillors at once every four years. The previous election took place in 2018. The election will take place by multi-member
first-past-the-post voting
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
, with each ward being represented by two or three councillors. Electors will have as many votes as there are councillors to be elected in their ward, with the top two or three being elected.
All
registered electors (
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
,
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
and
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
citizens) living in London aged 18 or over will be entitled to vote in the election. People who live at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, are entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities.
Voting in-person at polling stations will take place from 7:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters will be able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.
Previous council composition
File:Southwark Borough council.svg,
File:United Kingdom Southwark London Borough Council 2021.svg,
Ward Results
References
{{Greater London elections
Council elections in the London Borough of Southwark
Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...