First things first. The London Decides guide to the 2026 borough elections is available for free from public affairs specialists Lowick Hedry, who invited Lewis Baston and I to do the job. Link to the guide HERE.
Lewis, as On London readers (and many others) know, is one of the country’s foremost elections analysts. I, as the founder, publisher and editor of On London, try very hard to publish the best writing about the capital’s politics, development and culture (including by Lewis). From time to time, other organisations like to draw on On London‘s pool of expertise. London Decides is an example of that.
The guide will take you through every seat of every ward in all 32 of the capital’s boroughs, whose residents, if they haven’t already cast a postal vote, will go to their polling stations on 7 May. These borough elections are likely to see major changes in the political map of the capital. The city’s local government has been dominated by Labour for years, with the party gathering enormous strength from the 2010 election onwards.
This time, things look sure to be very different, thanks to the unpopularity of the national government and the rise of an array of challengers to Labour, notably the Greens but also an array of local parties and groups in many places. Meanwhile, on the right of the political spectrum, the Conservatives too face a new threat, in their case from Reform UK. Amid this earthquake, the Liberal Democrats, traditionally of the centre ground, will be hoping to make gains as well.
Lewis and I have largely avoided making firm predictions about outcomes – these, after all, are the most unpredictable borough elections for a very long time, vividly reflecting the fragmentation of political loyalties the whole of Britain has been seeing of late. It does, though, seem safe to anticipate control of perhaps a third of the boroughs changing hands and around another third ending up under No Overall Control.
Realignment on such a scale would have major implications for how much of London local government is run, and alter the city’s relationship with national government more broadly. All of that is for the near future. But it’s a future that will be shaped by the decisions a likely two million London voters make in the coming days.
If you want to to understand, in depth and in detail, how the story of the 2026 borough elections might unfold, the London Decides guide is for you.
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