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Khan: Fewer Labour councils mean less investment

Tony GrewLondon
BBC A close up image of Sir Sadiq Khan. He is wearing a dark blue suit jacket and an open-necked white shirt. Behind him are a crowd of people in an event space. BBC
Sir Sadiq Khan was speaking at the launch of Labour's London local election campaign

The mayor of London has warned that if Labour loses control of London councils in the local elections, there will be less investment in housing, youth services and high streets.

Speaking to BBC London at the start of Labour's campaign, Sir Sadiq Khan said whenever there was a Labour government, Labour did not do so well in council elections which "worries me, because the fewer Labour councils there are, the fewer council homes we're going to build".

"The fewer Labour councils there are, the less investment in youth clubs and youth services. The less investment in our high streets," he added.

Labour currently controls 21 of the 32 London councils that are up for election on 7 May.

The Conservatives control five, the Liberal Democrats three and the Aspire Party runs Tower Hamlets.

Havering and Croydon are run by minority administrations.

A group of Labour politicians holding up signs that say Pride In and the names of various London boroughs.
Ed Miliband and Sir Sadiq Khan attended the London local election campaign launch in Peckham

Also at the launch event was Ed Miliband, the energy secretary.

Asked why the prime minister, who is a London MP, was not at the launch, he said he was "really proud of the job the prime minister is doing".

Miliband added: "He is somebody who in the last few weeks has shown incredibly important national and international leadership in his initial decision not to join the conflict in Iran, which I think has been absolutely vindicated by events."

BBC London's political editor Karl Mercer said it was going to be "very difficult to predict outcomes" ahead of the elections.

He added: "One thing for sure is that the Labour Party are looking like they're going to have a very bad night on 7 May."

'Six-party politics'

A middle aged man with glasses and a beard being interviewed for TV, he is wearing a dark coat and open-necked pink shirt.
Nick Bowes is predicting that Labour will be challenged across London

Nick Bowes, director of insight at LCA Communications Limited, said: "For many years, London's been two-party politics in many boroughs between Labour and Tory with the Lib Dems quite strong in south-west London.

"What we're seeing this time is five, even six party politics in some boroughs with the Independents, the Greens and Reform UK.

"That means that we could see councillors of all different parties on benches in town halls after 7 May, many boroughs where actually no single party wins a majority, and then it becomes very messy after 7 May trying to put together an administration."

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