Havering Becomes First Reform Borough As Tories Lose All Seats.

“An historic night in Havering”

Reform UK has won control of a London council for the first time ever with a majority of 39 out of 55 seats, writes Sebastian Mann, local democracy reporter.

Not a single candidate from the Conservatives, which formed the official opposition in the last election, won a seat for the first time in the borough’s 60-year history.

They secured 23 seats in the 2022 elections, but many defected to the incumbent Havering Residents Association (HRA) and left them with 15.

Labour saw similarly heavy losses last night (7th May). The party entered the election with eight councillors and finished the night with just two, in Beam Park.

The HRA held on to eleven seats – down from 25 – and will form the official opposition, replacing the Tories.

The Harold Wood Hill Park Residents Association triumvirate held onto their ward, but the Greens, Liberal Democrats and other independents failed to break into the borough.

The new Reform administration will oversee local issues – such as housing, roads, and bins – for the next four years. The results do not affect the proportion of MPs in the country.

Local Reform leader Keith Prince – who will now serve as the interim council leader – said it was an “historic night here in Havering”.

Councillor Prince also referred to Reform candidate Laila Cunningham as London’s “next mayor” ahead of the elections in 2028.

Speaking to reporters outside Havering Town Hall, party leader Nigel Farage said Labour and Conservatives had been “wiped out” nationally. He declared in front of his dozens of new councillors that Havering was “under new management”.

Other Reform councillors promised a change in how local politics worked in the borough and thanked residents for putting their trust in the fledgling party.

Councillor Gillian Ford, who kept her seat in the HRA stronghold of Cranham, has relinquished her role as deputy leader of the council.

She told councillors she would keep a “shopping list” of Reform’s pledges and demand a timeline on its proposals.

“Reform has got a lot to learn about what a council needs and what the challenges are,” she added.

In the past three years, Havering has borrowed more than £200million from central government. Farage said earlier this year he could not rule out further spending.

The former deputy said independents, such as the HRA, did not have the financial backing or “campaign machine” of other big parties, which prompted jeers from victorious Reform councillors.

Havering is the first London council ever won by Reform, following a night of national upset for Labour and the Conservatives. Many councils are yet to declare a winner, with some counts continuing into the weekend.

Reform candidates had been confident of their victory throughout the night, even before the count got underway around 1.30am.

Cllr Prince said he had seen “lots of thumbs up and lots of smiles” on the doorsteps. Others predicted the right-wing party would “storm ahead”.

The mood among other parties was notably more despondent and anxious, with many candidates saying they were waiting to see how much they had lost by.

Conservative group leader Michael White said the group had been harmed by the election being fought on national issues and “not what matters locally”.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “People just wanted to talk immigration or war. Local government has nothing to do with those things.

“People are voting to stop boats coming over rather than to fix pot holes, and they think the Conservatives had a poor record during their 14 years in power.”

He lost his Squirrels Heath seat towards the end of the count as the Tory wipeout continued.

The HRA’s Cllr Ford echoed his words ahead of the count. She said it was a “shame” that voters had focused on issues like immigration or hospitals, which are “nothing to do with local councils”.

However, she said Reform will “collapse and implode” and that the HRA was expecting by-elections in the borough.

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