Tony Grew
BBC London

Our live coverage of the 2026 London local elections is coming to a close.

We began in the early hours of Friday morning as overnight counts were under way across the capital.

Over the past three days we have brought you live updates through shock results, late-night counts and the reactions of our London audience.

You can read our live page covering the events of Friday and Saturday here.

It has been the most momentous set of elections in London for decades and the electoral map of our city has been transformed.

For the first time, six political parties run councils in London.

For the next four years, London’s local government will be a multi-party patchwork.

There are hundreds of new councillors across our city’s 32 boroughs who will now be getting to grips with bin collections, care for older people, potholes and the demands of their constituents.

Over the coming days, weeks and months, BBC London will continue to bring you the best political coverage from our city - online, on social media and on TV and radio.

Thanks for staying with us throughout this fascinating weekend.

Election expert Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics, tells BBC London what Thursday's vote means for the capital.

James W Kelly
BBC London

In Dalston on Friday, voters described how they felt after the Green Party won the borough's mayoral election.

The Greens also took control of the council.

Kris said Zoë Garbett's win of the mayoralty was "fantastic".

"I've seen her out in the streets in the last couple of weeks speaking to local people, so to know she's already out there making an impact in the community is quite important," he said.

As a cyclist, Kris said he hopes the Greens would make roads safer, along with improvements to the borough's outdoor spaces.

Another resident said: "Maybe we need a change.

"They're talking about supporting people, helping the community and all those things."

Valerie said she noticed "a lot of young people" when she went to vote.

"I told my daughter, I think the Green Party is going to win in Hackney," she said.

Another voter said: "I think it's a huge move, it's positive.

"There hasn't been much confidence in Labour recently."

Read more reaction from Havering and Hackney here.

On Friday BBC London spoke to voters in Havering about Reform UK taking control of the council.

Kim said: “We are very happy. It’s not been good lately and the town has deteriorated really badly.

“It’s sad to see the decline in the shops and the market used to be really bustling - that’s how we’d like to see it back again.”

Both Lenny and Kim said they want Havering to move back to Essex.

Lenny said: “We want it back as it was.”

Kim added: “We don’t like being called Greater London.”

Politics London visited Hackney on Saturday to hear from residents about what they thought of the local election results.

Hackney saw Labour lose both the mayoralty and the council to the Greens.

Peter, a caller from Lewisham, tells Eddie Nestor: "I wanted Labour out because they've done nothing for us in the last 20 years. They took the vote for granted.

"I voted for Green. It was not a protest vote. I've been in this borough for over 50 years so I've seen the changes."

"The Greens are the party for the future, for the younger generation," he adds.

We'll now turn our coverage to the BBC Radio London election special where presenter Eddie Nestor asks Professor Tony Travers, election expert from the London School of Economics, about what no overall control means after nine councils had no majority party following Thursday's elections.

Travers says: "We have had them before (in 2006). It matters in that you've got configurations there with say Greens and Labour as the biggest party in some councils and a small number of Liberal Democrats and Independents and they have to decide is there going to be a coalition? Unlikely I'd say.

He says the bigger party has to put forward proposals and the others decide whether to support it.

"It leads to a lot of horse trading," he explains.

Caroline Russell is asked to comment on a report in the Spectator magazine about a Green Party candidate who was elected in Hackney on Thursday, who it is alleged to have shared antisemitic posts on social media.

She responds: "Firstly can I say antisemitism is the most abhorrent form of racism and every party needs to do everything it can to get rid of it."

Russell explains that "the party has processes to look into things like that", although she adds that "I don't know about that particular case".

She says: "We have grown as a party from 70,000 to 230,000 members in a few months, our processes are definitely creaking at the seams, we are doing everything we can to upgrade them.

"I think at future elections you will see a much stronger vetting process."

When asked about her message to Jewish Londoners, she says: "To any Jewish Londoner who sees a post that is antisemitic I give my most heartfelt apologies.

"All political parties have a duty to hold all communities together and to stamp out antisemitism."

Speaking about finances in Havering, Keith Prince continues: "We are going to have a complete look at how we do our property portfolios - we have our own property company which actually makes a loss so we are definitely going to look at how that is run and we will probably have to review how we run that."

"We are going to have to have a big look at adult social services because that’s our highest spending area - we have people who have knowledge of that who will do a deep dive into it – it is pretty clear there are areas where a lot of money is being spent so if you can make savings in those areas clearly you are going to head in the right direction."

When asked if Reform will could put up council tax in the borough Prince replies he is "not making any promises at this moment in time, I am going to use my wealth of experience of running a council to have a deep dive and look at everything".

Politics London also hears from the interim leader of the Reform UK group in Havering, Keith Prince.

Talking about what the party will do in the borough, he says: "We are going to have competent management for a start, we will be looking at a whole series of things that are going on. We are going to have a deep dive into the accounts, we know there are issues of fraud going on so there is a whole load of stuff that we have to do."

When asked about a potential £66m budget gap this year, Prince says "it is really an issue that has been brought about by poor government financing.

"If you look at Havering we are the third least funded borough out of the London boroughs, it is really something that is going to be difficult. We will do what we can to reduce the deficit but there's no way we are going to find £60 million down the back of the sofa, that’s ridiculous."

When asked if there could be cuts to services, he replies: "Not necessarily no, there are different ways of doing things – we need to open the books and we need to have a good look."

On the issue of councils not getting enough money from central Government, Labour MP James Murray says the Greens and Reform will now be tested on what they can deliver.

"You have take difficult choices and can’t just campaign in slogans,” he says.

Speaking on Politics London, Caroline Russell, the leader of the Greens on the London Assembly, says the results "feel completely extraordinary and I'm still processing everything just the fact that we have taken two mayoralties... and these huge councils Lewisham and Hackney are absolutely astounding, but also what happened in Haringey, Southwark, Lambeth – just extraordinary".

She continues: "When you think at the last local elections the Green Party had 18 councillors across the whole of London and we have now got hundreds.

"It has just been an extraordinary change and all the people I was talking to on the doorstep, they were coming to me with a heavy heart. People who had voted Labour all their life and were just in despair at the failure to make their lives feel different in terms of austerity."

"People feel that they are working so hard just to stay still, just to manage to pay the rent, just to manage to pay the bills and they are not feeling any kind of difference," adds Russell.

We'll continue to bring you the main lines from Politics London here but now on BBC Radio London we have a Your Voice election special presented by Eddie Nestor, which you can listen to by clicking the play button above.

We will have more analysis and reaction but we also want to hear your views.

Get in touch by calling 0800 731 2000 or email eddie@bbc.co.uk.

Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, Louie French, believes Thursday election results show the Conservatives "are very much back" and in a good place to replace Sir Sadiq Khan at the next mayoral election.

He says: "Londoners have seen through Reform... and the more you move into central London it will be us or Labour for the mayoralty.

"London is very much winnable for us and if we want to get rid of Sadiq Khan the only way to do that is vote Conservative."

Murray continues by saying the prime minister will "set out tomorrow and in the King's speech on Wednesday what we are going to do.

"We have been buffeted by big shocks as a country over the last few years whether it is Brexit, Covid, Ukraine, and what's happened is we have sort of patched things up and gone back to business as usual what Keir is going to set out is what we are going to do to get out of that cycle and to make sure people are more secure"

He says "the focus has got to be on people feeling change in their lives because when I was talking to people on the doorstep, people weren’t saying they disagreed with the 2024 manifesto or what we promised we would do but they want to feel it and that’s what we are focused on as a government."

The programme starts with a question to James Murray Labour MP for Ealing North who says it "really hurts seeing excellent Labour councillors losing their seats.

"We had good results in some parts in Ealing, where my constituency is, we held on in Redbridge, Hammersmith and Fulham, but there is no denying it was a really tough night for Labour and it really hurts."

He adds: "When I was knocking on doors I was out quite a bit in London and some of the people who had voted Labour in 2024, I think what they were saying to us now whether they were thinking about voting for another party was a sense of frustration."

The Politics London live special begins shortly where we will be joined by representatives from various parties who will be giving their reaction.

You can watch on iPlayer, by tuning into BBC One or by clicking the play button above.

It will also be simulcast on BBC Radio London and after the end of the programme there will be a Your Voice election special presented by Eddie Nestor, which will also be available to listen to above.

We want to hear your views on the dramatic results for the programme. Get in touch by calling 0800 731 2000 or email eddie@bbc.co.uk.

Nick Clark
Local Democracy Reporting Service

Image source, Getty Images

Another of yesterday's late declarations was in Tower Hamlets where the Aspire Party increased its number of councillors after winning the mayoral election the day before.

The re-elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman, said Aspire's success was because “we have a good connection with the people of this borough”.

The party increased its dominance on Tower Hamlets Council, winning 33 seats in ward elections, up from 24 at the last election.

Labour and the Green Party now both have five councillors – with Labour’s number falling from 16 before the election and the Greens rising from one. The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives both have one councillor.

Rahman said: “I’m a lad who grew up in this borough. We kept our promises – what we said, we delivered and we’ve done more.”

He added: “People like politicians, they like activists, who make a promise and they keep their promise, and promises that are life-changing.

“The free school meals, the free homecare, the university grant, the youth service – you name it – the safety, the cleanliness.”

Labour lost seats to Aspire in several wards, including Bethnal Green East and Mile End and lost seats to the Greens in Bow West and Bow East.

Abdal Ullah, a Labour councillor who was re-elected in St Katharine’s and Wapping ward, said colleagues who’d lost their seats had been “punished because of international and other issues”.

He told the Local Democracy Report Service: “We shouldn’t be taking out our frustration over international and national issues on the local people with the experience and commitment to deliver locally.”

However, Ullah said Labour had “a lot of making up to do to the people to listen and to move forward”. He said he and the four other Labour councillors “need to be keeping the mayor to account”.

As a reminder here are the final 2026 results for London:

• Barking and Dagenham - Labour hold
• Barnet - Labour loss to no overall control
• Bexley - Conservative hold
• Brent - Labour loss to no overall control
• Bromley - Conservative hold
• Camden - Labour hold
• Croydon - Remains no overall control
• Ealing - Labour hold
• Enfield - Labour loss to no overall control
• Greenwich - Labour hold
• Hackney - Green gain from Labour
• Hammersmith and Fulham - Labour hold
• Haringey - Labour loss to no overall control
• Harrow - Conservative hold
• Havering - Reform UK gain from no overall control
• Hillingdon - Conservative hold
• Hounslow - Labour hold
• Islington - Labour hold
• Kensington and Chelsea - Conservative hold
• Kingston-upon-Thames - Liberal Democrat hold
• Lambeth - Labour loss to no overall control
• Lewisham - Green gain from Labour
• Merton - Labour hold
• Newham - Labour loss to no overall control
• Redbridge - Labour hold
• Richmond-upon-Thames - Liberal Democrat hold
• Southwark - Labour loss to no overall control
• Sutton - Liberal Democrat hold
• Tower Hamlets - Aspire hold
• Waltham Forest - Green gain from Labour
• Wandsworth - Labour loss to no overall control
• Westminster - Conservative gain from Labour

Yesterday we heard from Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan who blamed the government for why voters deserted the Labour Party.

As the party faces its worst losses in decades in the capital, Sir Sadiq said the results were a “wake-up call” for ministers – and he called for “meaningful change from the government”.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "One of the things that's clear to me is that voters didn't just desert Labour to go to the Greens, they went to the Lib Dems, some stayed at home, some voted for Reform.

"That's a wake-up call for the Labour government, but the reason they deserted Labour wasn't because of the performance of the Labour council or the Labour mayor, it was because of the Labour government.”

Sir Sadiq said voters were "angry, they are disillusioned, they are disappointed".

He added: "At the same time you're seeing a fragmentation of politics in our country.

"No longer are we a country where there are just two options, Labour or Conservatives.

"We know now many, many people who normally vote Labour have gone to the Greens or to other parties.

"Many people who vote Conservative have gone to Reform or other parties."