With a week to go until voters flock to the polls across Southwark for the local elections, the incumbent Labour party will be looking to increase its strong lead over the Liberal Democrat challengers – although with some residents grumbling over key issues like housing and transport, the opposition could be set to spring a surprise.
Labour strengthened their stranglehold on Southwark Council by a seat at the last elections in May 2018 and currently have 47 out of 63 councillors, although the hoped-for red surge in the north of the borough did not materialise. The Liberal Democrats ended up winning wards like Borough and Bankside and North Bermondsey fairly comfortably and have fourteen seats. One of the other two seats is held by an independent and the other is vacant, after former Labour councillor Johnson Situ stepped down last year.
London Bridge and West Bermondsey was much closer, with Labour missing out by only a few percentage points. The ward could be contested closely again, while the Labour-held Goose Green was also relatively close at the last election, with the Liberal Democrats only beaten into second place by a few percentage points in 2018. But it would take a huge vote swing in most other seats for Labour to lose this year.
The Conservatives don’t have any seats in Southwark, after losing Dulwich Village relatively narrowly in 2018. But the Tories are hoping to take back the southern ward, running a campaign based heavily around the local low-traffic neighbourhood (LTN), which has divided residents of the area.
The Tories have put up candidates in every ward of the borough, but have admitted that it could take decades for them to take control of Southwark. Alongside Dulwich Village, they are focusing primarily on Dulwich Wood, where they were beaten very comfortably into second by Labour in 2018, and South Bermondsey, where their three candidates gained less than 750 votes between them last time.
Perhaps the Tories are counting on voters remembering that South Bermondsey is the ward of Leo Pollak, Labour’s former council housing boss, who apologised and stepped down from the role last year after it was revealed he was running an anonymous Twitter account haranguing Southwark residents he disagreed with, but stands again next week as a councillor.
But both Labour and the Tories are insisting that mishaps like this and at a national party level have not affected how voters feel about them. Labour council leader Kieron Williams said that no one was bringing up Neil Coyle when he was out campaigning, despite the Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP being suspended earlier this year for an alleged racist outburst. Meanwhile the Conservatives have said that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak being fined for breaking lockdown rules is not an issue for local voters either.
Candidates for the Green Party are standing in twenty out of 23 Southwark wards, with a full slate of candidates in each of London Bridge and West Bermondsey, Faraday, Nunhead and Queen’s Road and Rotherhithe. Like the Tories, the Greens currently have no seats on the council and are clear that they are not going to take control of the town hall this year. But if they get any councillors elected, they aim to act like a pressure group, pushing the ruling party to do more and act faster to tackle the climate crisis.
Other parties that residents can vote for in various wards include Piers Corbyn’s Let London Live party. Mr Corbyn, who is standing alone for his party in Faraday ward, would take an anti-lockdown, anti-vaccination stance on Covid, as well as blowing Labour’s housing plans out of the water with 50,000 new council homes in the borough by 2029.
The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition are running four candidates: one each in Borough and Bankside, Camberwell Green, Rotherhithe and Rye Lane. The party wants to bring a “working voice to the council” and build more housing for key workers. Meanwhile Reform UK, the former Brexit Party, has a single candidate running in Old Kent Road ward – former bin man John Cronin, who wants to keep the streets clean, build more housing and get rid of LTNs.
Realistically, it will be a huge challenge for the Liberal Democrats to take back control of the council on May 5, with Labour so solidly established across most of the borough. But with key points like council house building, low-traffic neighbourhoods and council home repairs still very contentious, it would be unwise to rule anything out.
One thing people of every political stripe in Southwark can hope for is an increase in voter turnout. Just over a third of people voted in the local elections last time. Who runs the council has a huge effect on everybody’s lives, and your vote every four years is your only chance to affect that.
If you are registered, make sure you go to the polls on May 5 to make your voice heard.
READ MORE
- Labour currently runs the council, what does their leader has to say? – Click here
- WATCH: We did a special Gogglebox-style coverage in the in the run-up to the election – click below to view what residents have to say
Southwark Elections 2022: What do the ordinary people of Southwark think?
- The Lib Dems are the only other party with seats on the council, what does their leader have to say? – Click here
- The Greens say they won’t win but wants seats on the council, what they have to say? – Click here
- The Conservatives are hoping to get back seat on the council – how are they planning to do that? – Click here
- Outside the mainstream three other parties are standing in some areas of Southwark – who are they? – Read below
Trade Union & Socialist Coalition:
- READ MORE: – What you need to know – click here