The 2006 Camden Council election took place on 4 May 2006 to elect members of

Camden London Borough Council Camden London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Camden in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Camden is divided into 18 wards, each electing th ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The whole council was up for election and the Labour Party lost overall control of the council to no overall control.

Background

Before the election the Labour party controlled the council with 36 seats, compared to 11

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and 7 Liberal Democrats. Since the 2002 election, in 2005, one of the

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s for

Fortune Green Fortune Green is a small area in West Hampstead, London Borough of Camden. Lying on the south-west side of the Finchley Road, Hampstead town council decided to build its overflow cemetery there in the 1840s. A guide to Hampstead Cemetery, with s ...

, Jonathan Simpson, had defected from the Liberal Democrats to Labour. A total of 223 candidates stood for the 54 seats being contested in 18 wards. The Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

parties contested every seat and there was 1 candidate each from the

Christian Peoples Alliance The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) is a Christian rightist political party in the United Kingdom. The party was founded in its present form in 1999, having grown out of a cross-party advocacy group called the Movement for Christian Democracy. ...

Respect Party The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...

and

United Kingdom Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...

, as well as 4 independents. Labour

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Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

visited Camden during the campaign to support his party.

Election result

The results saw Labour lose their majority on the council with the leader of the council Raj Chada among those who were defeated. This was the first time since the 1968 election that Labour had not won a majority in Camden and the election saw the Liberal Democrats overtake Labour to become the largest party on the council. The defeated Labour leader of the council Raj Chadha said "that the national circumstances meant a very good council in Camden has been lost". Overall turnout at the election was 37.6%, an increase from 28.5% in 2002. Following the election the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives made an agreement to form the administration together, with Liberal Democrat

Keith Moffitt Keith Moffitt is a British Liberal Democrat local government politician. He was a Councillor for West Hampstead from 1994, and in the local elections of May 2006 became the first ever Liberal Democrat Leader of Camden London Borough Council, e ...

becoming the leader of the council and Conservative Andrew Marshall becoming deputy leader.

Ward results

Existing Councillor seeking re-election is denoted by an asterisk (*).

Belsize

Bloomsbury

Camden Town with Primrose Hill

Cantelowes

Fortune Green

Frognal and Fitzjohns

Gospel Oak

Hampstead Town

Haverstock

Highgate

Holborn and Covent Garden

Kentish Town

Kilburn

King's Cross

Regent's Park

St Pancras and Somers Town

Swiss Cottage

West Hampstead

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2006 2006 2006 London Borough council elections