Labour has kept hold of Greenwich Council after the most dramatic council election in many years – but its majority was slashed in what the party leader admitted was a “bruising day”.
The Greens won 13 seats and the Tories went from four to six councillors. Reform UK won just one seat, in Eltham Page, despite predictions that the party would do well.
Labour triumphed, winning 35 of the 55 available seats – but well down on the 52 they won four years ago. But most of Greenwich itself is now Green territory, with only Creekside ward – on the borough’s western edge – staying with Labour.
Both the Cutty Sark and the O2 are now in Green-controlled wards after they took East Greenwich, Greenwich Park and Greenwich Peninsula.
In the east of the borough they won both Shooters Hill seats and all three in Plumstead Common. They were also less than 20 votes from a seat in Abbey Wood.
There was a bittersweet moment for the party when Lakshan Saldin – who quit Labour last year – lost his seat in Charlton Hornfair, while Jessica Holland won for the Greens. Bren Albiston took the other seat for Labour.
The Conservatives won all three seats in Coldharbour, Mottingham & New Eltham, as well as Eltham Town & Avery Hill, knocking another two seats from Labour’s total.
The two seats in Eltham Page ward were the first to be announced, and while Paul Banks took one of them for Reform, he turned out to be the party’s only winner, with Labour, the Greens and the Conservatives all making plain their contempt for Nigel Farage’s party in the speeches that followed.
Banks told The Greenwich Wire later that he would not be confrontational in the council chamber because “it’s not in my nature”.
Saldin was not the only big name on the council to lose their seat: Labour’s Aidan Smith, a councillor for 14 years, was usurped by the Greens, as did Maisie Richards Cottell and Majid Rahman in East Greenwich, Nick Williams in Greenwich Peninsula and Issy Cooke in Plumstead Common.
Over 200 council staff worked on the count, which took place at the new Woolwich Waves leisure centre. Labour’s win followed Conservative success in Bexley overnight, while there was a further boost for the Greens in neighbouring Lewisham when Liam Shrivastava became the elected mayor.
After the final Greenwich result – in Woolwich Arsenal – was declared, Labour council leader Anthony Okereke said: “We had a really bold and ambitious manifesto. We’ve got fantastic candidates. Every single one of them is brilliant. They’re so committed to Greenwich residents. We’ve won a majority in the council, and we want to deliver.
“It’s been a bruising day. It’s been hard. I’ve got some really fantastic colleagues, people who feel passionately about the area that they represent, and that’s hard, and I hold that quite personally, because I’m the leader of the group.
“I think every single person that we’ve lost today will keep representing their community, even without their councillor hat on.”
Asked what lessons could be learned, Okereke said: “Over the next few weeks, we’ll be trying to understand what happened and where we could have done better. Most definitely, we’ve got to learn. I think Labour’s got a great message for Greenwich in our manifesto and nationally in local government, and we need to make sure that message is getting through to local people.”
Shooters Hill Green councillor Tamasin Rhymes told The Greenwich Wire the campaign had been “hard work, but we’ve had some brilliant conversations and really positive feedback from residents”.
“I’m over the moon,” she said. “There’s always a few that were really close that you wish you’d got. But nobody gets everything they want. So it’s definitely given us heart to keep fighting in every one of those seats.”
Tory leader Matt Hartley said he was “thrilled” to have six councillors – double the number elected in 2022.
“I think we’ve done well at these elections because people know what they get with us – proactive, campaigning councillors who will hold the Labour council to account and make sure our communities are not ignored when decisions are made,” he said.
“We’ll continue doing that – and we’ll be playing our part in a council chamber that now has more voices.
“Any Labour councillor who thinks this is just a national political trend – which I have heard even today – needs to reflect much more deeply. Losing so many seats to three different parties is a damning judgment of the last four years under this administration.
“Labour need to start listening, or they’ll keep losing.”
Detailed results are on the Greenwich Council website.
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