The 2022 Lambeth London Borough Council election is due to take place on 5 May 2022. All 63 members of Lambeth London Borough Council will be elected. The elections will take place alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom.

In the previous election in 2018, the Labour Party maintained its control of the council, winning 57 out of the 63 seats with the Green Party forming the principal opposition with five of the remaining six seats. The 2022 election will take place under new election boundaries, with the number of councillors remaining the same.

Background

History

Result of the 2018 borough election

The thirty-two London boroughs were established in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. They are the principal authorities in Greater London and have responsibiilites including education, housing, planning, highways, social services, libraries, recreation, waste, environmental health and revenue collection. Some of the powers are shared with the Greater London Authority, which also manages passenger transport, police and fire.^[1]

Since its formation, Lambeth has generally been under Labour control apart from one period from 1968 to 1971 of Conservative control and several periods of no overall control. The council was controlled by a Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition from 2002 to 2006, and since 2006 has continuously had a Labour majority. The Green Party won their first seat in the 2006 election, which they lost in the 2010 election. The Green Party regained their seat in the 2014 election, while the Liberal Democrats lost all their representation. In the most recent election in 2018, Labour won 57 seats with 51.7% of the vote across the borough, the Greens won five seats with 19.3% of the vote, and the Conservatives won a single seat with 12.6% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats received 12.3% of the vote but didn't win any seats.^[2][3]

Council term

A Labour councillor for Coldharbour, Matt Parr, died in July 2018.^[4] A by-election to fill his seat was held on 13 September 2018, which was won by the Labour candidate Scarlett O'Hara.^[5] A Labour councillor for Thornton, Jane Edbrooke, resigned in early 2019 to take up a politically restricted job.^[6] The by-election was won by the Labour candidate Stephen Donnelly while the Liberal Democrats gained voteshare to come in a strong second place.^[7] Another councillor for Thornton, Lib Peck, resigned shortly after to take up a roll working for the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Labour held the resulting by-election in April 2019 with candidate Nanda Manley-Browne, with the Liberal Democrats making further gains, reducing the Labour majority to nineteen votes.^[8]

As with most London boroughs, Lambeth will be electing its councillors under new boundaries decided by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, which it produced after a period of consulation. The number of councillors will remain at 63, under new boundaries with thirteen three-councillor wards and twelve two-councillor wards.^[9]

Electoral process

Lambeth, like other London borough councils, elects all of its councillors at once every four years. The previous election took place in 2018. The election will take place by multi-member first-past-the-post voting, with each ward being represented by three councillors. Electors will have as many votes as there are councillors to be elected in their ward, with the top two or three being elected.

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in London aged 18 or over will be entitled to vote in the election. People who live at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, are entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities.^[10] Voting in-person at polling stations will take place from 7:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters will be able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.^[10]

Previous council composition