The 2022 London local elections took place on 5 May 2022, as part of the

2022 United Kingdom local elections Local elections in the United Kingdom took place on 5 May 2022. These included elections for all London borough councils, for all local authorities in Wales and Scotland. Most seats in England were last up for election in 2018 and in Scotland ...

. All London borough councillor seats were up for election. Mayoral elections took place in Hackney,

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified i ...

Newham The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the s ...

and

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...

, with

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

electing a mayor for the first time following a local referendum in October 2021. The election saw Labour gain majority control of

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...

and

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

councils whilst the Conservatives gained majority control of

Harrow Council Harrow London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Harrow in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. It is currently controlled by the Conservative Pa ...

and the Aspire Party gained control of

Tower Hamlets Council Tower Hamlets London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Greater London, England. The council is unusual in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets, curr ...

, both from Labour. Labour also lost

Croydon Council Croydon London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Croydon in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Croydon is divided into 28 wards, electing 70 co ...

to no overall control. Of the four existing mayoralties, Labour held three but lost the position of

mayor of Tower Hamlets The mayor of Tower Hamlets is the directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in east London, England. The first election for this position occurred on 21 October 2010, taking on the executive function of the borough counci ...

to Lutfur Rahman of the Aspire Party, who had previously been removed from the same office after being found guilty of "corrupt or illegal practices" by an election court. The Conservative candidate Jason Perry won the newly created Croydon mayoralty.

Background

The previous borough council elections in May 2018 saw the London Labour Party achieve their best result in over 45 years, winning 44% of the vote, 1,128 councillors and control of 21 councils. This represented the party's second-best result in a London local election, only surpassed slightly by its 1971 total. The London Conservatives, lost 92 seats to finish with 508 councillors, its lowest-ever tally of seats in a London local election. The London Liberal Democrats won two councils from the Conservatives, the London Green Party won a total of 11 council seats and support for the UK Independence Party collapsed, with the party losing all of its seats. In the 2019 general election, there was no net change in the number of seats for each party, although several seats changed hands. The biggest changes in vote share were for Labour, who received 48% of the vote across the city but saw a fall of 6.5

percentage point A percentage point or percent point is the unit (measurement), unit for the Difference (mathematics), arithmetic difference between two percentages. For example, moving up from 40 percent to 44 percent is an increase of 4 percentage points, but a ...

s, and the Liberal Democrats, who were up 6.1 percentage points compared to the previous 2017 general election.

and

held local referendums in May 2021 on whether to abolish their mayoral positions and return to a

leader and cabinet In England, local authorities are required to adopt one of three types of executive arrangements, having either an "elected mayor and cabinet", a "leader and cabinet", or a "committee system". The type of arrangement used determines how decisions ...

system. Both resulted in voters choosing to retain the mayoral model. In the same month, the Labour candidate

Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...

was re-elected as the mayor of London, and the

2021 London Assembly election The 2021 London Assembly election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the members of the London Assembly, alongside the 2021 London mayoral election. The mayoral and Assembly elections were originally to be held on 7 May 2020, but on 13 March 2020 ...

resulted in small gains for the Conservatives, Green Party and Liberal Democrats at the expense of Labour and the UK Independence Party.

held a referendum on 7 October 2021 on whether to adopt a mayor position. The result was to change to the mayoral system, with the first mayor being due to be elected alongside the council election in 2022. Twenty-five of the thirty-two boroughs will be electing councillors under new ward boundaries following reviews by the

Local Government Boundary Commission for England The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) is a parliamentary body established by statute to conduct boundary, electoral and structural reviews of local government areas in England. The LGBCE is independent of government and pol ...

Campaign

In January 2022, the Conservative peer Robert Hayward said that in the wake of the

Westminster lockdown parties controversy Partygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom about parties and other gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff held during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when public health restrictions prohibited most gather ...

, his party risked losing control of

and Hillingdon London Borough Councils. Polls of London in January and March 2022 showed Labour with a large lead over the Conservatives. Dave Hill in ''OnLondon'' wrote that the poll results would make Labour more confident of making gains in Barnet, Wandsworth, Hillingdon and Westminster, and of winning the new directly-elected mayoralty of Croydon despite financial issues in the borough. He also wrote that the Conservatives were aiming to make gains in Harrow. Nick Bowes, the chief executive of the

Centre for London Centre for London is London's dedicated think tank. Based in the UK, it undertakes research and organises events aimed at developing new solutions to the capital's critical challenges. The Centre, which is politically independent, advocates for ...

, wrote that Labour gaining control of Barnet and Wandsworth councils would "be a good night for the party in London". The academics

Colin Rallings Colin Rallings is a British academic, Professor of Politics in the School of Sociology, Politics & Law at the University of Plymouth. Rallings’ first degree was in Politics and Modern History from the University of Manchester. Subsequently, he ...

and

Michael Thrasher Michael Thrasher is a British academic, Professor of Politics in the School of Sociology, Politics & Law at the University of Plymouth. He is also Sky News' election analyst. Thrasher was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire in 1953. he receive ...

wrote that Labour's strong result in the 2018 election meant "it may be hard for Labour to make much headway or for the Conservatives to fall much further". A poll by Survation on what issues would affect how people voted showed

Council Tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge The Community C ...

, the Westminster lockdown parties controversy, and social care quality as the main issues, with far fewer voters ranking

Low Traffic Neighbourhood A Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) is a scheme implemented to reduce through traffic in residential areas through the use of filtered permeability and traffic calming. LTNs can be implemented through the use of barriers such as bollards, boom ...

schemes as one of the issues that would most affect how they vote. The Liberal Democrats launched their local election campaign on 6 April. The party were targeting seats on

Merton Council Merton London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Merton in Greater London, England. It is one of the 32 councils that form Greater London. History There were previously a number of local authorities responsible ...

. Labour launched their London local election campaign on 9 April, with the national party leader

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...

and the

mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

saying that the Conservative government had "abandoned" London and were not concerned about the rising cost of living. The journalist Ben Walker, writing in the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'', modelled what the election results would look like according to the voteshares in an April poll by Opinium. His model showed Labour gaining control of Wandsworth and Barnet, with 1,157 to 1,188 seats across the city, while the Conservatives would win between 428 and 452 seats, the Liberal Democrats would win between 149 and 179 seats, and the Green Party would win between 11 and 22 seats.

Council results

Council

Councillors

The table below shows the number of councillors won by each party for each council in London. The shaded cells show the party or parties in each council's governing administration.

Mayors

Opinion polling

Ward result maps

London-wide

The map below shows the results for each ward across the whole of Greater London. Citywide ward results of the 2022 London local elections

By borough

File:Barnet UK local election 2022 map.svg, Barnet 2022 results map File:Camden UK local election 2022 map.svg, Camden 2022 results map File:Croydon UK local election 2022 map.svg, Croydon 2022 results map File:Hackney UK local election 2022 map.svg, Hackney 2022 results map File:Hammersmith and Fulham London UK local election 2022 map.svg, Hammersmith and Fulham 2022 results map File:Tower Hamlets UK local election 2022 map.svg, Tower Hamlets 2022 results map File:Wandsworth London UK local election 2022 map.svg, Wandsworth 2022 results map File:2022 Westminster Borough Council Election Results Map.svg, Westminster 2022 results map

Notes

References

{{2022 United Kingdom local elections Council elections in Greater London

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

May 2022 events in the United Kingdom

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