The Green Party leader in Southwark has claimed his local party are part of a wave after they forced Labour to lose control of a council they’ve held for 16 years.
Labour councillors won just 29 seats out of 63, down 23 seats compared to 2022, while the Greens surged to 22, despite not having an elected councillor for the last 20 years.
Labour has led the council since 2010 and had been expected to win a majority, with the Liberal Democrats, who ended up with 12 councillors, forecast as the second-largest group.
Leader of the council’s Green group Sam Foster said: “I’m feeling incredibly happy and relieved.
“We’ve had a lot of extremely close nail-biters throughout the day and we’re all just extremely proud.
“It’s a much bigger phenomenon than just Southwark, this is part of a wave.
“We’re seeing the fragmentation and collapse of the main two-party system after a gradual loss of legitimacy of that model.
“It’s a huge credit to the Greens that they are able to offer an alternative that people are excited by, alongside a much more toxic vision of society offered by Reform.”
Foster is one of four Greens who already sat on the council having defected from Labour.
He added: “I feel so proud of my decision to join the Greens and I feel so happy to be able to propel the party to greater success.”
Voting turnout was unusually high, at an average of 40% across the borough compared to 34% in 2022.
Count declaration was delayed in some wards by a high number of ‘split ballots’ where voters supported multiple different parties on their paper.
Labour council leader Sarah King held her seat convincingly in Champion Hill, but her colleague Bill Williams only narrowly took the ward’s second seat, securing just nine votes more than Green candidate Michael Ronald Millar.
The mood among Labour candidates and their supporters remained muted throughout the day, and most declined interview requests.
Labour councillor Margy Newens, who held her Dulwich Village seat, said: “It was a tough election, we worked very hard.
“I’m quite devastated about the wider picture, but obviously very pleased to have won my seat.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Victor Chamberlain was asked earlier in the day how his party would work alongside new Green councillors.
He said: “We can work very constructively with the Green Party as much as we do with the Labour Party.
“We obviously share a lot of common values, as we’re both environmentalist parties and we’re green to our core.
“If we get the opportunity to have more allies on the council to help us progress that, to progress more social justice, and happily and openly call out Labour’s housing crisis, that would only be a constructive thing for Southwark.”
Foster said it was too early to say how the Greens would form alliances within the council.
He said: “Over the next few days, there’s going to be a lot of activity and a lot of conversations.
“I can’t say what the outcomes of those will be, but we’re very excited to get together and try to build a future in Southwark.
“We’ll have to see what shape that takes – we’re in unchartered territory because people are used to a borough like this having big majorities for one party.
“But certainly, this is a historic and incredibly exciting result for us.”
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