Labour has held onto Redbridge Council, albeit with a substantially reduced majority.
All 63 council seats were up for grabs in the local elections, held on Thursday 7 May. The results were declared late on Friday 8 May.
The party secured 43 seats, down from 54, a loss of eleven in what has been a Labour stronghold since 2010.
The Redbridge Independents will form the new opposition with nine councillors.
A spokesperson said on X: “Just two years after being formed and from a single councillor, we now have nine elected councillors across our borough, missing out on several more seats by the narrowest of margins.
“We are deeply grateful for the support you’ve shown us and we promise to hold Labour to account and be a strong voice for residents across Redbridge.”
They replace the Conservatives, who kept hold of five seats but were dislodged into a joint third place with the Green Party. Reform also secured its first seat, in Hainault.
There will be pressure on the governing Labour group, headed by Kam Rai, to deliver.
In promotional material, Cllr Rai says the council – led by Jas Athwal between 2010 and 2024 – has protected its services and local parks despite austerity measures implemented by the central government.
But the council is struggling with a severe shortage of homes across Redbridge and ballooning social care costs, problems typical of any borough in East London. Former Labour councillor Paul Donovan said the new Greens need to campaign for the council to focus on environmental issues.
“In Redbridge, the five Green councillors need to pressure the Labour council to prioritise environmental issues, with greater resources dedicated to achieving more ambitious targets,” he said.
One of the biggest casualties of the night was Paul Canal, who had led the Redbridge Conservatives and served as opposition leader. He failed to secure re-election, placing eight in South Woodford behind Labour and Green Party candidates.
He said: “For the Conservatives, the return of five councillors was, in the circumstances, an excellent result.
“Given the national political environment and the increasingly fractured nature of local politics, retaining a credible Conservative presence in Redbridge was important. However, it is equally clear that the splitting of the centre-right vote by Reform UK cost Conservatives dearly in a number of wards.
“In several contests, the combined centre-right vote would likely have secured victory. Fragmentation on the right benefited Labour and contributed significantly to the overall result.”
The former councillor added that the election had been harmed by a focus on national issues rather than what mattered locally.
“Increasingly, local elections are treated as national opinion polls rather than judgements on the competence of councils or the quality of local candidates,” he added.
“Redbridge Council has no influence whatsoever over Gaza or wider Middle Eastern affairs, yet international conflict dominated campaigning narratives in some areas far more than housing, roads, public safety, social care, or refuse collection.
“That is neither healthy for local democracy nor fair to local government.”
Labour councillors who lost their seats included planning committee chair Shoiab Patel, Joe Hehir, Gurdial Bhamra and pension committee chair Tanweer Khan.
Vaseem Ahmed, leader of the Redbridge Independents, was not elected.
