Islington’s Labour Party remains in control

LABOUR councillors resisted joining calls for the prime minister to step down this week, but warned that the party’s worst election result in Islington for 20 years should be a “wake-up call” to the government.

They watched as long-serving and dedicated colleagues lost their seats to a Green Party surge across the borough.

The party won 48 of 51 council seats at the last elections four years ago – but was down to 32 once the final votes had been counted on Friday, and the days of the so-called “one-party state” at the Town Hall are over for now.

Labour councillors will now look across the chamber at 19 opposition Green councillors.

Other parties remain stuck on the sidelines as a duel was played out almost exclusively between Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and Zack Polanski’s Greens.

Former Islington Council leader Catherine West MP reacted to Labour’s poor showing across London and the rest of the country – it lost control of Hackney and Haringey to the Greens, and Westminster to the Conservatives – by threatening to launch a leadership challenge.

Her thirst to see Mr Starmer announce a timeline for the end of his premiership, however, was not as sharply matched by the woman in her old job, even though there was palpable frustration at the election count at the Islington Tennis Centre.

Leader Una O’Halloran celebrates holding her seat

Council leader Labour councillor Una O’Halloran said she would not “get up today and blame the government”, adding: “People who have lost, I am sad for them – but you go into politics knowing you could lose.

“I just think the Green Party is very, very popular all over – whether that maintains, I don’t know.”

She added: “I have to say what the government has done has had an effect on all local elections, but I went into this wanting to win it, and five terms is a long time to be in.”

Senior and seasoned councillors who lost their seats – four cabinet members have gone – were not sugar-coating the pill for Mr Starmer, however.

Finance chief Flora Williamson, who lost in Tollington, told the Tribune that defeats in previously safe seats must act as a “wake-up call”, adding: “I do think they are doing a lot of good things, but they are just being awful at communicating and having those arguments.

“The renters’ reforms are game-changing and will fundamentally change the lives of people in Islington for the better and we’re just being a bit quiet and sheepish about it.

“Then there’s just noise going into stuff that I don’t think matters, stuff around immigration. I think that’s fundamentally the wrong thing, and that’s why as a Labour council we do stand up to our own government and tell them when they’re getting things wrong.

“And on that, they’re absolutely getting it wrong, and we heard that on the doorsteps.”

Jenny Kay, who lost her seat in Mildmay despite achieving a significant personal vote, told the Tribune that the results showed that more voters, especially a younger demographic, were feeling alienated by the Labour Party.

“I’ve waited and campaigned for a Labour government my whole adult life,” said Ms Kay, who spent 12 years in the Town Hall.

“Yet many people of my generation no longer see Labour as a party for them. That has to change. Labour must stand clearly and confidently with workers and communities – for social housing, strong public services, migrants’ rights, human rights at home and abroad, and climate action.”

Meanwhile, Councillor Nurullah Turan, who kept his seat in Laycock by only 12 votes, said he “could not be happy” with the result while watching so many Labour councillors depart. He said: “I wasn’t expecting so many to lose. Starmer needs to change his politics, and if he doesn’t there is going to be a problem. Islington Council is one of the best councils ever, we’ve given it our best.

“If we are losing, national government needs to look and say ‘what have we done wrong?’” These sentiments were echoed by Islington South and Finsbury MP Dame Emily Thornberry, who said now was “the time to stop and think”.

Reflecting on the losses, she added: “Obviously, we need to think about this. If you look at what’s happening, as far as I can see, they might have kept Camden, but otherwise they have lost north London. We’re going to need to process it and think about it quite a lot.”

Pre-election forecasts for the Labour Party nationally had sparked anxiety among candidates in the weeks leading up to the vote, and Cllr O’Halloran admitted that she had feared losing control of the Town Hall.

She told the Tribune: “I was realistic, thinking ‘oh, I might lose the council’, but I just had to believe in our manifesto and that we had done enough.”

It is the first time since 2010 that there have been more than 10 opposition councillors in Islington, although back then it was the Liberal Democrats challenging.

The council was jokingly referred to as the “North Korea” of local government by Labour’s opponents when, for three elections in a row, it won nearly every seat.

The complexion has now changed and Cllr O’Halloran said she intended to work constructively with the new Green opposition.

“People here, whatever party, if they are working for residents, that’s who I want to work with,” she said. “I don’t want to play this silly politics – with all this nastiness, this has probably been one of the hardest elections.”