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

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

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.