Fight for London begins as Labour launch local election campaigns across England

Campaigning is officially underway for Labour across England, following Keir Starmer’s local election launch speech in Wolverhampton.

Starmer used his time talking to Labour activists as an opportunity to reaffirm his position on the Iran war, call out Badenoch, Farage and Polanski, while assuring campaigners that Labour would be approaching the upcoming elections “on the front foot.”

The PM framed campaigning efforts as a positive chance to engage directly with people, arguing that this is the time to encourage people to place their faith in Labour due to “our values” and “our leadership”.

“Vote Labour because it makes a huge difference to so many lives across the country.”

While his speech was met with a warm response in the room full of Labour activists and supporters, recent polling has suggested the party may be on track to lose almost 2000 councillors. Many report that there are significant concerns across London, typically considered one of Labour’s safest areas, as the populism of the Greens continues to have an impact in the capital.

Recently, LabourList sent my colleague Daniel Green and I to report accurately on the mood amongst Labour candidates and campaigners on the ground in Wales as they campaign for the upcoming Senedd elections in May. The parallels between Wales and London seem increasingly clear. Labour, long the dominant force in both places, now faces new threats from populist insurgents on the left and right. Labour has also not been on the receiving end of such unnerving polling for some time in London if ever in Wales.

READ MORE: Can Welsh Labour defy the odds and win control of the Senedd again?

It is certainly a different terrain for the party to navigate as it seeks to regain control of seats it would once have never feared losing.

Having visited Wales to assess the party’s campaign first-hand, LabourList will do the same across London this week. Labour is currently facing different threats across the varied boroughs. The likes of Hackney, Southwark, Lambeth and Islington are all expected to be straight fights between Labour with Zack Polanski’s Greens.

The Greens are seeking to continue to build momentum in taking the fight to Labour. After a win in Gorton and Denton that saw Labour lose a seat they once held a significant majority in, there would be few greater opportunities for Polanski to demonstrate that his party are serious challengers to Keir Starmer, by ousting Labour as the dominant political force in London.

However, it is not only populist insurgents threatening to take from Labour on their left. In boroughs like Barking & Dagenham or Redbridge, Reform UK are reported as posing a very real threat to Labour seats from the right.

Equally, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives will not go without a fight across the nations capital. In areas like Westminster, which Labour won for the first time in 2022 ending 60 years of Conservative control, the party is competing in some of the most marginal wards in the country. Take a Westminster ward like Lancaster Gate for example, at the previous local election Labour and Conservative candidates received practically the same number of votes, with the narrowest of margins deciding which candidates would be elected to serve.

While the populist parties seem to pose the most direct threat to Labour, it seems London will likely be a very real taste of what five-party politics looks like in an election campaign. As a result, Labour have no choice but to send more resources than usual to wards that would usually receive little time or attention from the party machine. Areas once thought of as safe, like Hackney or Southwark can no longer permit Labour to rest on any laurels they feel they may have earned from years of consistency.

One source explained to me that the argument many parties are using on the doorstep is that “Labour are in power everywhere, but improving nowhere” in London. This source told me that the Greens specifically are targeting Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan’s agreement to lower the target for London’s Affordable Homes Plan. “It’s better to have some houses built than none at all, the Greens don’t understand this.”

Southwark

I visited Southwark council’s campaign launch to speak to activists directly and hear from candidates about how they feel when they have been out on the doorsteps in recent weeks.

Labour leader of Southwark council Sarah King told me that the party has “an amazing track record” in the area, as the public have placed their trust in Labour to deliver since 2010.

“We are the largest builder of council homes in the entire country, with 2500 council homes delivered in the last four years.” King also told me of Labour’s efforts to help tackle the cost of living crisis and support with safer streets in Southwark, which she recognised were important matters to local residents.

Speaking to a range of candidates, the mood in Southwark was very positive. “We’ve got a great story to tell!” one councillor told me, who was equally proud of the party’s housebuilding record in the area.

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When asking about the reported threat of the Green Party, candidates seemed frustrated by them, but not fearful – determined to take the fight to them on the grounds of their strong record in the area. One candidate told me that he believed the Greens were specifically targeting more middle class areas of the borough, as the working class voters could see directly the impact of Labour’s delivery for them and were sticking with the party.

Another outlined the difference in this campaign when dealing with a populist force like the Greens. “For years, we’ve had the Lib Dems in opposition,” she told me “we both know how each other works and what kind of things we will campaign on and call each other out for…with the Greens it is different…they promise things that are unrealistic while we are trying to run the council with balanced books and live in the real world.”

Waltham Forest

The Greens are also hoping to do well in certain wards in Waltham Forest. Speaking at the Labour launch event yesterday, Council leader Grace Williams spoke of how Labour were delivering new pride in the borough with services such as the new health centre in St James ward and new housing built with much of it at affordable rents – something increasingly out of reach in the fast-gentrifying borough.

Meanwhile Labour’s Deputy Leader Lucy Powell had hotfooted it from the campaign launch in Wolverhampton to gee up activists alongside local MP Calvin Bailey. She joked of the ‘hypnotic’ promises of the Greens Zack Polanski – a reference to his previous career – and said that we should stand up to them, not fall for them.

Westminster

In Westminster, Labour has a different fight and a different story to tell. Unlike many London boroughs where Labour is the long-standing incumbent, Westminster Labour still hold onto a feeling of being insurgents.

The fact that the party only took control from the Conservatives for the first time in the previous election with such narrow margins allows the party to still operate with a challenger’s mindset.

At the launch of Westminster Labour’s manifesto, this is something that Energy Secretary and guest speaker Ed Miliband highlighted to members as a key strength for them when on the doorstep in May, urging the group of to place it at the centre of their campaign messaging.

This has helped to retain a positive mood in Westminster Labour. Equally, determined spirits may be attributed to the fact that the task in Westminster appears more straightforward. While political fragmentation is not negligible across the borough, Labour’s battle remains against a longstanding foe in the Conservatives, rather than a specific challenge from the Greens or Reform UK.

That is not to say the Greens and Reform are ignoring the area entirely, with this being the first election that the Greens are standing a councillor in every seat and Reform already having two councillors in the area due to defections from the Conservatives. The Greens are expected to direct most of their resources towards other areas however, focussing mainly on northern wards in Westminster, while Reform are reportedly facing issues in relation to candidate recruitment. Neither of Reform’s current councillors are seeking re-election in their council wards.

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Still, the encouragement for Labour’s campaign that candidates and activists will seek to hold across Westminster, will certainly benefit from the idea this years election remains all to play for. There has never been an opportunity to become complacent in Westminster for Labour.

Undoubtedly, this will be a feeling that many party campaigners across London’s other Labour wards may not be used to. As pressure builds, it is clear this local election will not be like any other that London, or the nation, has seen before.

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