Labour won 52 of Greenwich’s 55 council seats in 2022, maintaining its habitual dominance of the south London borough. Only once in its history has a rival party taken control of Greenwich. That was way back in 1968, London Conservatism’s golden local elections year, when red was almost wiped off the capital’s political map.
To be at Saturday morning’s launch of Greenwich Labour’s 2026 campaign at the borough’s London South East Colleges campus was, therefore, to be made keenly aware that another rare reversal of the local party’s fortunes might be on the cards. An absence of illusions about what might happen on 7 May was everywhere.
“It will be frustrating, but we have to be patient when we’re talking to people,” said Abena Oppong-Asare, Labour MP for Erith & Thamesmead, which straddles the boundary between Greenwich and Bexley to its east. She told a gathering of candidates and campaigners: “We’ve got fight it as if we’re going to lose it.”
And lose it, they might. There have been straws in the wind: a by-election defeat by the Conservatives in October 2024; another to the Greens last June. The latter was largely due to some very local factors, and there have also been two Labour holds. Even so, the Greens are hoping for a lot more gains, and it was they who were cited as the main danger by Oppong-Asare in her speech. Mention was also made by her and others present of Reform UK gathering strength in the south, where the Tories just about avoided obliteration last time (the Tories themselves were not mentioned at all).
The ground war pep talks, including from local London Assembly member and former council leader Len Duvall, focused tightly on the need to emphasise Labour local government achievements and how the Labour national government has helped them happen. Current council leader Anthony Okereke told those gathered about “a belief in the Labour Party in this borough, a belief that we can make life better”. The headline slogan of Labour’s rather deluxe, 60-page manifesto is “Getting Things Done”.
Okereke picked out items from it to highlight for sceptical voters on doorsteps: plans for new provision for children with Special Educational Needs; cost of living support; an ongoing commitment to homebuilding. The manifesto also features a new Thames-side leisure centre, just opened, and children’s services rated “outstanding” by Ofsted. In preparation for photos, placards were handed out addressing topical everyday concerns about fly-tipping and crime.
Oppong-Asare, speaking plainly, said “people are sick to death of seeing shit on their streets” and urged activists to tell residents about government plans to strengthen powers against fly-tipping, along with the incoming Renters’ Rights Act powers and leasehold reform measures, not forgetting the (eventual) lifting of the two-child benefit cap and the breakfast club roll-out and energy bill relief. “Residents are worried,” she said, about everything from the cost of living to the wars in Iran and Ukraine. In a media climate that’s made it hard for Labour to get a hearing, conveying those changes to people face-to-face can reassure them.
It seemed an astute summing up of Labour’s national predicament and its implications for Labour councils all over the capital. Meanwhile, London knows better than anywhere how hard it has been to bring forward new housing on the enormous – and, in the eyes of many seasoned judges – always unreachable scale the government has promised.
Still, Greenwich has long been unapologetically pro-development. Okereke knows from direct experience how hard it can be for young Londoners to find secure homes of their own: in an interview with Inside Housing last year, he described how he, in his mid-thirties and single, still lives with his parents.
Greenwich, with its old industrial legacy, has been regenerating fast, not least in Woolwich, with its handsome Elizabeth line station, a short walk along Plumstead Road from the Labour launch venue. Government blessing for the Docklands Light Railway extension south of the river into Thamesmead and its backing for a New Town there show that the borough is set to continue transforming fast.
Two days earlier, in next-door Lewisham, the Greens had launched their local election campaign claiming they would be better than Labour at building social and affordable homes – fighting talk that could be hard to be put into action if, as seems to be the case, the development sector is to be treated as an enemy. Oppong-Asare remarked that when new homes go up in Greenwich “it’s Green activists campaigning against it”.
The Green tide will surely rise in some Labour parts of Greenwich, but its demographics aren’t as receptive to Zack Polanski’s brand of Left protest politics as other Labour stronghold boroughs. Reform could make a mark, but its incursions will be limited to the parts of Greenwich that are most like Bexley, and seem likely to be achieved mostly at Conservative expense. No Overall Control looks a distinct possibility, but a hard-fought Labour hold cannot be ruled out.
On London has collaborated with public affairs specialists Lowick Hedry to produce a comprehensive, ward-by-ward guide to the 7 May London borough elections. It is written by On London publisher and editor Dave Hill and top-drawer elections analyst Lewis Baston. Sign up in advance for a copy here.
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