ELECTION LIVE BLOG

9.54PM: And that’s it. St Pancras & Somers Town is in and the counting is Camden is all wrapped up.

Amusingly (or not), it seems to be the same result they got before the recount — Samata Khatoon and Shah Miah retain their seats for Labour but Edmund Frondigoun is gone, and Camden People’s Alliance (CPA) has won its first and only councillor in Sha Abdul Majeed Bakth.

Here are the numbers.

Speaking to the New Journal after his win, CPA’s Mr Bakth said: “I’m really happy that I’ve won. I thank everyone who voted for me and supported me. The people have trusted me with this position, I have a responsibility, and hopefully I can live up to that and make the area a better place.”

When asked how it feels to be the only CPA candidate elected to the council chamber, he added: “I’ve still got the support of Camden People’s Alliance and we’ve got the support of the Green Party as well so I’m not a councillor by myself. It’s the community, really — it’s just me who’s going to be in the meetings, basically.”

We also caught up with Edmund Frondigoun who lost his seat by just 21 votes.

He said: “We have retained the council, it is a team effort, and we won on a campaign based on how we have governed and the decisions we have made. It was one of the longest counts we have ever had at a council election. That’s the rough and tumble of politics. I am very proud to have been a councillor for four years.”

It’s been quite the wait for this result. At 7.30PM it was clear that St Pancras & Somers Town was agonisingly close and they began a partial recount.

By 8.00PM they embarked on a full recount, with pretty much everyone left at Pancras Square heading up to the third floor to gather around the tables and watch eagle-eyed as the ballots were counted.

That’s it folks, over and out. Full election analysis and further reactions in the paper next week.

Dan Carrier, Daisy Clague, Caitlin Maskell, Richard Osley

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9.20PM: Still waiting here for the recount of St Pancras and Somers Town — it was a half recount to start with, then they found some more issues so they went to a full recount.

As a reminder, there are three Labour councillors defending their seats here: Edmund Frondigoun, Samata Khatoon and Shah Miah.

Their primary challenge comes from the Camden People’s Alliance, whose candidates are Sarah Friday, Sha Abdul Majeed Bakth and Raqhib Islam.

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8.05PM: Still here, though most people have gone home now and they’re dismantling the stage.

Still yet to be announced is St Pancras and Somers Town, one of two wards where the Camden People’s Alliance has run a hard campaign against Labour. They made a non-compete deal with the Green Party who did not stand candidates in the ward.

A recount is currently going on — apparently there were “lots of errors” found the first time around. We’ll keep you updated.

Daisy Clague

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6:50PM:

We’ve had a few more results here, not long to go now. 

In South Hampstead – Labour take a clean sweep, all three seats. Arun Kumar, Izzy Lenga and Francesca Marie Reynolds have been elected. 

Belsize – no change here with the Liberal Democrats winning all three seats, no big surprises. Judy Dixey, Matthew Kirk and Tom Simon, leader of the Liberal Democrats, win. 

Once all three seats held by Labour, in Bloomsbury, the party have held two seats, Sabrina Francis and Adam Harrison. They have lost a seat however to the Greens, electing Lilac Carr. Rishi Madlani, pensions chief, has lost his seat.

Caitlin Maskell 

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6.40PM: And more pics…

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6.30PM: Some more photos from earlier:

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6.00PM: Results from Fortune Green are here — William Coles, Nancy Jirira, and Farrell Monk, take it for the Lib Dems.

So Cllr Jirira holds her seat, but the two new Labour candidates — replacing Cllrs Olszewski and Lorna Greenwood, who swapped wards and stepped down respectively — were beaten by Lib Dems.

West Hampstead is also for the Liberal Democrats: Janet Grauberg, Patrick Stillman, and Aarti Wadhwani, so it’s goodbye to incumbent Labour cllr Sharon Hardwick and her two new fellow candidates.

Here are the happy Lib Dems after their win — no opportunity lost to show off the placards.

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6.00PM: I caught up with Heather Johnson who has just lost her seat in Regents Park ward — a previously all Labour seat that turned Green today.

Cllr Johnson served a total of 32 years as a Councillor, 24 of them in the Regent’s Park ward, and has held the job as chair of the planning committee since 2013.

Chairing the planning committee means Ms Johnson has been the figurehead for decisions that have changed the face of the borough — and has also had to face down brickbats as tensions between residents and developers mire the decision making process.

She told the New Journal: “As chair of planning, everyone hates you — of course, people might not agree with the committee’s decisions but I think on the whole we have got things right.

“People often do not appreciate that we work within the quite tight legislation that is planning law. It is how we can use that legislation to get the best for the borough.”

She added that the loss of Regent’s Park ward was a combination of factors.

“I think it is hard to call any seat a safe seat anymore,” she reflected, after a result that saw her fellow former Mayor — both have served as the borough’s first citizen — and council leader Nash Ali also beaten.

“There were lots of different things that played into the result we had. People’s views are changing and I feel they may be more nuanced than they ever have been. We cannot say we did not suffer from the unpopularity that comes with being an incumbent — that is always very difficult.

“The fact is when you are in power, you have to tell the truth. You cannot fly kites or fill leaflets with promises you have no intention of keeping, and you know you will be held to account.

“We have kept our promises. We have done what we said we would do. And everything we have done has been for the betterment of the people of Regent’s Park.”

Her position as a Camden councillor meant Ms Johnson was co-opted on to other organisations, including the Lea Valley Park Authority and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, as well as various charitable bodies. She will now step down from these roles.

She added: “I will miss working with council officers, the camaraderie of the Labour group, I will miss being able to do things that make the lives of people in Camden better. I will miss being at the heart of decision making and seeing it in the round and how it impacts across the borough.”

She said if she were asked to stand again she would happily step forward – but had some rest and recuperation now in mind after a bruising election battle.

She added: “What I want to do next is firstly have a nice long sleep – and then go on a cruise.”

Dan Carrier

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5:45PM: 

In Regents Park Labour have lost all three seats. The Greens – Ruman Jaigirdar, Victoria Mery and Muhammad Abu Naser – take their place in a clean sweep. Nasim Ali, Heather Johnson and Nadia Shah didn’t loose out by much.

Talking to the New Journal after their big win, the Green Party’s Ruman Jaigirdar said he was “ecstatic”.

“The euphoria is definitely there,” he said.

Fellow Green Victoria Mery said that the candidates’ local credentials meant they “felt the love straight away” on the doorstep, and had an “amazing” amount of local volunteers helping with campaigning.

“I do think people have been influenced by the national picture — they want change,” she said.

As for what it will be like when they get to the Town Hall, the new councillors said they have “long to-do lists” of things they want to change.

Mr Jaigirdar has a list on his phone of residents he met and promised to help when he met them on the campaign trail.

“They were all like: ‘we won’t see you again, you’re a politician’. But I told them I’ll be back, and I will be.”

On the losing side was Labour’s Nash Ali, who has been a councillor for 24 years.

He said: “I’m feeling low right now. It’s that question mark of ‘if only we’d done that little bit more’. It was close.

“I’m going to continue to work in the area, with people in the area, I’ll still be around. Nothing will change in that way.

“I put no blame on Keir Starmer. I do not put blame on anyone.”

Caitlin Maskell & Daisy Clague

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5:20PM: A little bit earlier we spoke to Julian Fulbrook, who has been a councillor in Holborn and Covent Garden since 1978. After losing his seat he said he was “devastated” and “shattered.” He said: “I’ve had a good innings. 

“This is it, no more, I won’t be standing again. I was thinking of standing down this time, probably should have done, but you can’t second guess that.

“We expected this, for a few weeks now maybe.

“The Greens made a big point and targeted certain groups of people in the ward, who have traditionally been very solid Labour in the past but I think the expression from the Greens on the doorstep was ‘to give Keir Starmer a good kick in.’ 

“I don’t think it’s Keir Starmer’s fault though, I don’t think you can blame him. Camden is a great authority.” Cllr Olszewski swapped from the Fortune Green ward to Holborn and Covent Garden and also lost his seat. Cllr Fulbrook said: “The Greens really pushed it that he (Cllr Olszewski) wasn’t a local but as I joke, the last person that wasn’t local was Frank Dobson, he lived across the road in Bloomsbury. Richard is a really nice guy and of course he had to run the borough, that was very difficult for him.”

Caitlin Maskell

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5.04PM: So — a bit jumbled on the order but here you have it:

Labour hold Primrose Hill. This will be a disappointment for the Tories who had their eyes on the ward during campaigning.

No change in Highgate. There was a lot of uncertainty in Labour about whether they would hold onto their two seats here, but a gaggle and a cheer among party-members before the results were announced confirmed that Camron Aref-Adib and Anna Wright were keeping their seats.

So that’s Labour finance chief Cllr Aref-Adib, Cllr Wright and Lorna Jane Russell for the Greens.

+1 Green in Gospel Oak. Marcus Boyland and Larraine Revah held on for Labour, but Richard John Atkins pipped it for the Greens (with the highest vote count of any candidate in this ward). His fellow candidate Andrea Paramananthan missed out by less than 30 votes.

Labour hold Kentish Town South. We get a lot of political letters at the CNJ in the run up to the election, and it might just be me but it feels like there have been more from the Green candidates in KT South than almost anybody else. Well, unfortunately it didn’t translate into a victory. Labour held on — though the keen Greens weren’t far behind.

Daisy Clague

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4.45PM: Bit slow on the updates here as the results roll in — the biggest upset of the day will be that council leader Richard Olszewski lost his seat and three new Green councillors Hamza Chowdhury, Jim Monahan, and James White will replace the former Labour councillors in Holborn and Covent Garden.

Cllr Olszewski swapped from the Fortune Green ward to Holborn and Covent Garden — thought to be a safe Labour seat that would save him from the stress of heavy campaigning alongside his leadership responsibilities. This kind of “chicken run” can be risky if voters in the new ward get wind of the fact that representing them might not be your number one priority.

Green candidate Jim Monaghan is a founding member of the Covent Garden Community Association, the body that was responsible for saving the area’s historic market and surrounding streets from demolition in the 1970s. In recent years he led the fight – all the way to the High Court – to stop developers demolishing a former hotel in Bloomsbury and replacing it with a 22 storey tower block. The campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, but Mr Monaghan was so incensed by Camden’s planning committee he decided he had to stand in this years elections.

“I want to hold the Council officers to account,” he said. “My first action would be to review and revise our local development plan. I want it to be much more housing orientated right across the borough – but particularly in the central area.”

And he also wanted to see the Town Hall wrest back control of licensing – this summer, the Mayor of London is due to be able to ‘call in’ decisions made at borough level and over ride them. You can have a licensing policy for all over London but it will end up with the wishes and views of people in the areas impacted are of secondary importance. It means there will be a continuation of the misconception that central London does not have any one living in it.”

Long-standing Labour councillor Julian Fullbrook also lost his seat, with his 1,035 votes pipped with just 100 votes by the Green Party’s James White.

Full results for Holborn and Covent Garden here.

We also had a big upset in Kilburn where Labour’s Robert Thompson lost his seat and two rather shellshocked looking Greens were elected.

Green councillor-elect Andre Lopez-Turner became emotional as he spoke to the New Journal after the result. He told how they had campaigned hard, particularly on the Alexandra & Ainsworth estate, known as Rowley Way, where the Green campaign hit it off with residents.

“We listened. We talked about their water, their electricity, their heating. But I am a bit shocked. It’s a 55-year Labour seat. I’m from Aotearoa, New Zealand, my auntie was the Mayor of our city for 9 years.”

Fellow Green Ash Atkinson was similarly surprised.

He said: “I am shocked. I think i told myself I’d lose to save myself from disappointment.”

Asked whether their was more a protest against Labour or an endorsement of the Greens, Mr Lopez-Turner said: “I think a little bit of both – Labour didn’t campaign at all in Kilburn, they thought it was a safe seat.”

Frognal, Kentish Town South, Gospel Oak, Haverstock, Highgate and Primrose Hill have all been called too. More to come.

Dan Carrier

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3.50PM: King’s Cross — full results here — returned three Labour councillors Lotis Bautista, Liam Martin-Lane and Jonathan Simpson.

Just a couple of hundred votes behind were the the Camden People’s Alliance — a left wing pro-Palestine local group who made a deal with the Greens that they wouldn’t contest the same seats — for whom King’s Cross was one of their two target wards.

They told the New Journal that while they didn’t win, many people on the doorsteps had told that they hated Labour and Keir Starmer and were grateful for the CPA for providing a credible alternative. While they won’t be representing residents in the chamber this time, their support wasn’t going anywhere, they said.

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3.05PM: Camden Town and Kings Cross results are in.

Pat Callaghan and Matt Cooper re-elected for Labour in Camden Town.

Camden results here.

An emotional Pat Callaghan spoke to us after regaining her seat in Camden Town. She has been a councillor for 31 years. She said: “I love what I do and am passionate about helping people and I was born Labour and I’ll die Labour.

“I just hope we can across Camden and across the country gain people’s trust again by listening and helping people.”

Cllr Callaghan said she expected there would be changes in the chamber. She said: “I’m sure there will be. We don’t have the majority that we had so it’s going to be a tougher ride.”

“I’m not really sure what the Greens stand for in Camden and how they are going to change the politics but I do hope like the Labour party do that they put the community and their needs first.”

Caitlin Maskell 

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3.00PM: Here’s Labour’s finance chief Cllr Camron Aref-Adib next to the Highgate counting tables earlier.

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2.50PM: In other news as we wait for more results, Camden Town ward Green Party candidate Peter Goldsmith is here with some very special support — his mother, Linda.

He admitted to the New Journal he was not overly confident of winning a seat — but said the work did not stop when the votes were counted, and regardless of whether he could put the title “councillor” in front of his name, he would continue to champion causes in the NW1 area.

Peter was a member of the campaign that saved the famous Camden High Street pub, the Black Cap, from permanent closure.“There are many issues we have heard on the doorsteps that don’t go away once the votes are counted,” he added.

Here are Peter and Linda.

Dan Carrier

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2.45PM: Linda Chung has been re-elected as a councillor in Hampstead Town ward alongside Stephen Stark of the Conservatives, who was not in attendance. She said: “It’s traditionally a Tory ward but they do appreciate the work that I do because it’s basically the values of Lib Dems which are localism, loving the electorate, working with the electorate.

“I think they understand that, working towards what we want to achieve and there is a lot we want to achieve.”

Cllr Chung said the Liberal Democrats were still a leading national party. She added: “But it’s unfortunate the press like noise and short sentences and words. We are a solid party and I think we’re a party that has loyalty and understanding of the people. We really do want to serve the community as we have always done.”

As for the rest of the results and the party’s chances, Cllr Chung said: “We’ve done what we can.”

Caitlin Maskell 

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2.38PM: And here are James Slater and Sylvia McNamara who looked very relieved to retain their seats in Kentish Town North,  closely fought with the Green Party. The Labour councillors had a nice hug on the stage after their victory.

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2.35PM: Brief lull in the announcements, so back to chatter from the floor of the count.

Alice Brown, a Green candidate standing in Highgate, has been watching her personal votes pile up — but while the Green’s sole councillor, Lorna Jane Russell, looked a shoo in, things were tighter for her fellow candidates.

But if elected, Ms Brown, an architect and a founder member of the Camden Climate Crisis campaign, said she knew where she saw herself in the council chamber.

“Housing is a particular area for me — I am an architect — and I know about housing repairs issues, and I have solutions, so I feel I would be helpful on the housing scrutiny committee, and I would also like to contribute to the planning committee,” she said.

Back in 2010, when the Lib Dems held power jointly with the Conservatives, they set up a sustainability taskforce. Ms Borwn would like to see a similar project instigated now.

“We need something like this today,” she added. “If elected, I’d like to spearhead a climate review of every aspect of the councils work.”

Dan Carrier

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2.20PM: The first results are in and it’s Hampstead Town ward, where Liberal Democrat Linda Chung and Conservative Stephen Stark have both kept their seats. No surprises. Here’s Linda afterwards.

Full results here.

Likewise in Kentish Town North, where it was a much tighter race, both James Slater and Sylvia McNamara have kept their seats.

Green candidates Hannah Morris and Brigitte Ascher weren’t far behind however — just a couple of hundred votes in it.

Full results here.

Daisy Clague

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2:00pm

Here is Cllr Julian Fullbrook as he looks at the votes being counted.

He was first elected in 1979 and apart from a self-imposed four year sabbatical , has been a councillor ever since, holding roles that included the council’s Housing chief. An academic at the London School of Economics and a Scout leader who lives in the Holborn ward he has represented over five decades, he told the New Journal the response on doorsteps had often come with criticisms of Labour foreign policy towards Israel and Gaza, not issues happening in the borough.

Dan Carrier

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11:58AM: Word on the street…

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11:40AM: A couple more counts have kicked off after verification:

• Camden Square — 36.89%
• St Pancras and Somers Town — 32.81%
• Regents Park — 35.12%
• Kings Cross — 31.93%
• Primrose Hill — 39.07%
• Belsize — 39.21%

Daisy Clague 

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11:30AM: We’ve been chatting with councillors around the three count floors.

One senior Tory said the turnout in Hampstead Town ward was more than they expected, and the Conservatives are not threatened by the Greens — in fact, Polanski’s party is a good thing because it “splits the left”.

As for potential changes in the chamber after these elections, they said an influx of Greens could lead to more debates about issues that — according to this councillor — weren’t about Camden or its residents. You can probably guess what they mean by that.

Caitlin Maskell

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11.20AM: Several more counts have started here:

• Kentish Town North — 49.59% turnout
• Haverstock — 37.99% turnout
• Gospel Oak — 39.18% turnout
• Kentish Town South — 41.26% turnout
• Camden Town — 32.42%
• Bloomsbury — 33.76%
• Holborn and Covent Garden — 37.40%

And now Highgate ward, with the biggest turnout so far of 52.65% and Kilburn with the smallest at 30.44%.

Daisy Clague

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10.56AM: Good morning — we’ve arrived at what is still a rather quiet Pancras Square. It’s just been announced that Hampstead Town ward has been verified, at about 48% turnout. Counting to start now!

Daisy Clague

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10.20PM: We’ll back early tomorrow to bring you the updates from the count. Some clues as to what might be in the boxes may be revealed by the London councils which have decided to keep the tradition of counting through the night. They should have declared by the time you wake up. These include Westminster City Council, which we’ve mentioned a couple of times. Tom Foot is heading there for some all night fun, but the rest of us will be heading to King’s Cross in the morning to see how Camden voted. Tune in by checking back on this page.

Richard Osley

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10.00PM: The polls are closed. We always sort of admire the voters who saunter in to vote at 9.58pm like time is no big deal. You don’t see many people sprinting in, either – just a couple of characters at that time of night casually popping in like it’s not in doubt that they’d be there. Our spies on the ground say one of the very last people to beat the clock in Camden was an unruffled Lord Jo Johnson, the former MP and brother of ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Richard Osley

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8.55PM: As we approach the end of the voting – soon the pontificating, counting, and more pontificating can begin – it might be worth remembering that the candidates that were on the ballot paper today are asking to be your councillors for four years. And yet the crew who won places at the Town Hall in the boroughwide elections four years ago did not all have the stamina for the job. Or at least, they got distracted. Fifteen per cent of those elected in 2022 quit early.

Adrian Cohen at the election count in 2022

July 2022: Adrian Cohen – Labour’s paper candidate in Hampstead had to be roused from his bed after the CNJ tweeted from the count that he might actually win. He came down to celebrate but quickly decided he would not be serving as a councillor and residents swiftly returned to the polls and chose Lib Dem Linda Chung as his replacement.

June 2023: Will Prince – The one who wore England football shirts to council meetings, Labour’s Will Prince said he was offered a job in his private work career he couldn’t refuse and stepped down after a year as a councillor in South Hampstead. The party held the seat with Tommy Gale.

December 2023: Camden’s sole Green councillor Sian Berry had been teased for having too many jobs: her work at the Town Hall was alongside her then role in the London Assembly and a parliamentary candidate in Brighton. She bid farewell to Camden’s council chamber, but her party emphatically held the seat she vacated in Highgate with Lorna Jane Russell.

May 2024: The aforementioned Gio Spinella, stuck leading a group of just three Conservative councillors was tired and battle weary when he said adieu halfway into the council term. Steve Adams won the resulting by-election for the Tories in Frognal.

September 2024: The Marmite regeneration chief Danny Beales was granted a second try at winning a parliamentary seat in Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the 2024 general election, and this time was successful. He left Camden Square free for Tricia Leman to get elected, almost a year after she had lost to Ms Russell in Highagte.

September 2024: Another councillor to disappear to the House of Commons was Lloyd Hatton, who is an MP in South Dorset – a speedy rise given he had only been a local rep in Camden for a couple of years. Labour held his seat in Kilburn with Robert Thompson.

September 2024: Finally at that general election, the council leader herself, Georgia Gould, grabbed a seat on the last bus to Westminster when she was selected late in the day to stand in Queen’s Park and Maida Vale. Off she went and Labour again had no problem holding her Kentish Town seat through Joseph Ball.

August 2025: Lastly, technically the Tories lost a seat to the Liberal Democrats last summer when Janet Grauberg won a by-election in West Hampstead. But it had been Labour territory really, as Shiva Tiwari had won with a red rosette in 2022, later defecting to the Conservatives. He stepped down after a row in a newsagents over a parcel collection.

So, how many elected tomorrow will last the course?

Richard Osley

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8.00PM: So it’s two hours to go and this is the part of the day where season candidates tell us nerves and paranoia set in. Soon it will feel too late to go and drag people from their houses, even if they pledged a vote at some stage during the campaign – but to those up for election there is a feeling that not a second should be wasted. They want no regrets when the ballot boxes are opened tomorrow and there’s particularly no let up in Highgate where Labour and the Greens are always duelling. Two cabinet level councillors, Labour’s Camron Aref-Adib and Anna Wright, pictured earlier, ignored any temptation to switch wards and their colleagues are coming from other ward to join the defence.

Meanwhile, back down in Holborn & Covent Garden, there are still packs of Green campaigners out on the streets trying to cause what would be the upset of upsets by taking on the ruling party in a ward they have never really faced a challenge before. The feeling has rubbed off in neighbouring Bloomsbury too, but Labour organisers would be shocked and devastated if they lost a seat there. It hasn’t happened since 2006, and even then it was a well-known Tory, the art gallery owner Rebecca Hossack, who upset the trend, not the Greens.

Richard Osley

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6.55PM: If you’ve been wondering about Lloyd Bickham’s mission to bring you the best of Camden’s dogs at polling stations – here’s another quartet. It’s  Buddy next to his favourite paper, Bubbles weighing up the candidates, Teddy & Elsie (a Translylvanian rescue) and Daphne on her stroller.

6.40PM: We are not promoting gambling. In fact, the whole concept of betting money on the results of these elections is weird. But we mentioned in passing on our election eve Substack post that Labour had been priced by Labour at 6-1 to hold onto Westminster City Council. Now, with three and half hours or so of voting to go – the price is even bigger. 8-1.

Richard Osley

6.15PM: Councillors will feel devastated in the moment if they find they are being replaced at tomorrow’s count. Losing is hard, perhaps even more so at a local level. It doesn’t last forever, however, and the ex-councillors we meet in Camden are often cheery about having meetings free of Town Hall meetings and the new discovery of all the things you can fit into the week if you don’t have casework to complete. Gio Spinella didn’t lose his seat, but did say he was ‘tired’ when he stepped down from the council halfway through the term. I’ve just bumped into the former Conservative leader in South Hampstead. He is not part of the polling day operation for the Tories today, but he is intrigued by what the results may be. It won’t distract him from a new life as a stand-up comedian, though,

Gio Spinella out and about today

Mr Spinella blamed Boris Johnson when his group was cut back to just three councillors in 2022. “The analogy that I’ve used is that you can picture a World War I movie and the soldiers are in the trenches,” he said back then. “The officer blows the whistle, they go over the top and then they all get mowed down by machine guns leaving only one guy. He looks around and everybody is dead. And I’m that man. This is the single most challenging moment for the Camden Conservatives. We’ve never had a result this bad and it’s going to take a lot of hard work to rebuild. For us, every election now is an existential battle.”

Oof, no wonder he felt exhausted.

Tom Foot

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5.55PM: The local parties have worked hard to diversify the council chamber in recent years, encouraging more women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds to stand for election. How many live ‘beneath the popcorn ceiling of council homes’, however? Slam poet Maureen Onwunali has left her thoughts on a fly-posted verse attached to side of the closed bingo hall in Camden Town.

Richard Osley

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4.50PM: While we wait for more updates, a look back on the time Will Blair, a Conservative election candidate, went to cast a vote for himself at his doctor’s surgery in Kentish Town, which was being used as a polling station. It’s a long time ago now, but May 7 in some respects will always be Will Blair Day. A braver face we haven’t seen since.

May 7: Happy Will Blair Day to all the Camden politics spotters. @will_blair pic.twitter.com/opsoeHRaC1

— Richard Osley (@RichardOsley) May 7, 2018

Richard Osley

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4.00PM: Sir Sadiq has now tweeted photos of his excursion in Kentish Town – the talk of the town, however, has been who has the most sensible Dad trainers for a day when everybody will be getting their 10,000 steps in. What a selection here.

Richard Osley

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3.55PM: While we did not bump into Sir Sadiq Khan this afternoon (apparently he’s trying to reach every London borough today), we did bump into the leader of the council Richard Olszewski and Camden’s health chief Anna Wright while searching for him in York Rise. Power-walking at speed, I had to run to catch up with them to snap a pic with their leaflets in hand. They said the aim of the day was to talk to as many people as possible and “win”. It’s busy in Highgate because not one but two cabinet members are trying to stave off the threat of the Greens

Caitlin Maskell

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3.00PM: We don’t know what the precise election rules are for beaming ‘VOTE XXX’ on a prominent wall on the night before polling day. Presumably it’s ok, and the Greens seemed very pleased with themselves last night after getting their pre-election light show up on the mural which says ‘Welcome To Kentish Town’.

Richard Osley

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2.10PM: Nigel Rumble! We thought we might get through the whole set of council elections without mentioning this guy after he dropped off the Conservative candidate list.

And yet here he is again, the Rumble-in-chief, yellow glowing sunglasses propped on his head and with a handful of leaflets, helping the Tories in Primrose Hill, where the party has hopes of unseating Labour. Mr R has spent more than a decade unsuccessfully trying to get elected as a councillor in Camden, sometimes as an independent candidate, sometimes with a blue rosette. He can’t stay away.

To be honest, I’m still trying to fathom his filtered, sepia film of me interviewing Iain Duncan Smith in Belsize Park – with jazz accompaniment – many years ago.

Richard Osley

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1.30PM: Reports have come in that Sir Sadiq Khan has been seen helping the GOTV operation in Kentish Town this lunchtime. We’ll see if we can track him down for a word but his presence in this part of Camden is interesting in itself, as in the past NW5 would have been considered safe enough to allow resources to be devoted in more challenging contests around the borough.

The same could be said for Holborn and Covent Garden, which has always been a Labour fortress but when I cycled through earlier today I saw Green activists animated in their attempts to get people to the polling stations. In previous years, Labour has hardly needed a clipboard teller at the door. Camden’s most southerly ward has become an unexpected sub-story of the Camden elections, sparked by Labour council leader Richard Olszewski’s ward switch from Fortune Green in the north west of the borough.

Richard Osley

1.00PM: As voting continues, our pets at the polls photo collection is growing. Here are a few of our favourites from Camden and neighbouring Islington so far.

From top left we have Santi, Coco, Eddie, and Pudding and Gregg. Keep the cuties coming.

Daisy Clague

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12.10PM: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was pictured heading to the polls in Westminster this morning, hand-in-hand with his wife, Victoria Starmer.

Back when he was “just” the Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras, Sir Keir would have cast his ballot in Kentish Town. Now he is in Downing Street, the toolmaker’s son is a borough of Westminster constituent who cast his ballot at Westminster Chapel in Buckingham Gate.

Labour could do with the Starmers’ votes in Kentish Town this time around, but they’ll be welcome in Westminster too, where the party is at risk of losing the council altogether.

Daisy Clague

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11.10AM: Anyone needing a quick ride to the polling station today can Lime there for free — the e-bike giant is giving away two 15-minute journeys per user, so people have no excuse not to get out to vote. We can only guess who the hire bike company’s chiefs would like to be running London’s various councils, but presumably Lime’s offer is for the good of democracy, and not simply to score more sign ups to its app.

Either way, we need not guess how councillor Awale Olad — who has opted not to run for re-election this time — feels about the company. Our front page from January says it all.

Daisy Clague

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10.20AM: People never seem to get bored of the #dogsatpollingstations trend on election. How many years has this been going on now? Now, we are not here to suggest that its enduring longevity is because people like their dogs more than politicians, as they probably like them more than journalists too.

But we are wading in this year and we’ll be publishing the best photos from Camden on our Instagram feed (@camdennewjournal) and there will be a page of the pictures to lighten up the heavy stuff in our election print special next week. So if that’s your thing, get involved by snapping a pic of your pooch when you go to vote and send it to our socials. You can also email our man on a mission to collect as many as possible, Lloyd Bickham on lloyd@camdennewjournal.co.uk

Here’s a starter – Daisy’s little pal Rudy in Primrose Hil

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The make-up of Camden Council going into today’s polls. 

10.05AM: It might be worth beginning with the starting point for these elections, as there has been lots of speculation whether the ruling Labour party will lose seats in Camden.

Some have predicted a ‘hung council’ – with no party in overall control – will be the end result as it faces challenges from the Greens, Lib Dems and Tories, as well as the unknowns of Reform and the Camden People’s Alliance. But this split challenge means its hard for any of their opponents to reach the magic figure of 28 for a majority.

Labour, meanwhile, have the cushion of holding 45 of the 55 seats in the council chamber, meaning it would take a dramatic fall to fall below the water line. But at the last elections in 2022, they were pushing at open door amid unpopularity with Boris Johnson’s Conservative government and even managed to win a seat with a paper candidate in Hampstead. This time, the boot might be said to be on the other foot, as their rivals encourage voters to send a message to Sir Keir Starmer and his government, as it flags in the polls.

One danger for Labour is the occasional view you will hear from people who feel the party could lose a few councillors without too much harm and still retain control of the council and it’s on days like today when left-leaning voters have two or three boxes to X on the ballot papers that they can share around their support. There is also a long-running debate about how healthy for  discussion and policy-making it is for any party, whoever it is, to have a super majority on a local authority,

Richard Osley

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10.00AM: Welcome to our election live blog for the Camden Council elections taking place today (Thursday May 7, 2026).

This is an ‘all out election’ where residents in every ward get to choose who they want as their councillors. Postal voting has been going on for several days but it is at the polling stations where the bulk of the ballots will arrive. The last chance to vote will be just before 10pm tonight and then the ballot papers will be locked away overnight before counting tomorrow (Friday). The traditional operation of counting through the night for council elections was dropped last time around, although some other London councils will be working into the early hours to reach a result. On this blog, we’ll be following the action through polling day, right up to the final result. Check back for updates.

Richard Osley

If you think you have something that should be on the blog, email daisy@camdennewjournal.co.uk or tweet us on X at @newjournal.

Reporting team: Richard Osley, Tom Foot, Caitlin Maskell, Daisy Clague and Dan Carrier.