Local election results live!

In several metropolitan areas, Green candidates previously criticised over antizionist or antisemitic comments have been elected in parts of London, Manchester, Sheffield and Newcastle. The Greens made history in Hackney, with Zoë Garbett elected mayor after 24 years of Labour domination. 

Hackney Council itself has still not been called, but the results so far underline the scale of Labour’s collapse in what was once a stronghold. At present, the Greens have won 20 seats, the Conservatives five and Labour none. The Greens need 29 seats to take overall control.

Yet in north London’s “bagel belt”, the feared Reform breakthrough did not materialise. Conservative support in Golders Green, Hendon and Stamford Hill remained resilient, with Jewish Tory candidates comfortably holding key wards despite Reform’s national surge.

The country’s largest Jewish constituency, Barnet, remains on a knife-edge as counting continues.

Elsewhere, Gateshead’s strictly Orthodox ward stayed loyal to Labour even as Reform swept through parts of the North East.

Staff count ballots the morning after local elections at a vote-counting centre inside the count centre for Hackney, north London on May 8, 2026. UK leader Keir Starmer said Friday he took responsibility for "very tough" local election results that saw the hard-right make big gains, but vowed to carry on as prime minister. (Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

18:20 Antizionist Green candidates elected in Hackney

Several Green Party candidates previously exposed for extremist social media posts have been elected in Hackney, where the party has secured its first mayor.

In Stoke Newington, Ifhat Shaheen won 2,351 votes, becoming one of three Green councillors elected in the ward. She previously described October 7 as Palestinians trying to “defend themselves”. After the Golders Green arson attack, she reposted a message claiming the Jewish community in north London host IDF soldiers in synagogues and raise funds for the Israeli military at a “family fun day”.

In Hackney Wick, Jam Anker was elected despite previously reposting a video quoting writer Norman Finkelstein saying: “I won’t condemn H***s”.

In neighbouring Hackney Downs, Laura-Louise Farley also won a seat. She has called for the Israel Defence Forces to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.

18:00 Tory vote holds in Hackney’s Charedi wards

The Conservative vote held firm in two main strictly Orthodox wards in north London.

In Springfield, Simche Steinberger retained his seat with 1,971 votes, alongside Michael Levy with 1,932 and Shaul Krautwirt with 1,858.

In Stamford Hill West, Hershey Lisser held his seat with 1,428 votes, as did Benzion Papier with 1,550.

17:35 Two Green candidates elected in Newcastle despite Holocaust comparison

Green Party candidates who compared the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust have been elected to Newcastle City Council.

Chandni Chopra won 2,329 votes in Heaton, topping the poll in a ward that elected three Green councillors.

Chopra was exposed in a Labour Party dossier which alleged she had questioned whether Hamas used rape during the October 7 attacks and described Zionism as a “mental illness”.

Fellow Green elected in Heaton, Joe Gartland, was also named in the dossier after sharing a post claiming Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had accepted “thousands from the Israeli lobby”.

17:10 Palestinian academic elected to Birmingham City Council

Green Party candidate and Palestinian academic Kamal Hawwash has been elected in Birmingham’s Stirchley ward, winning 1,442 votes.

Hawwash previously claimed that people attending pro-Gaza marches had “been labelled antisemitic simply for speaking at a demonstration where there was a shout for ‘Free Palestine’.”

The Greens and Reform UK have both made gains on Birmingham City Council, Europe’s largest local authority, at Labour’s expense.

17:00 South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard says the Prime Minister ‘put on notice’

The only Jewish directly-elected mayor in the UK has told Sky News, “Keir Starmer has got a lot of soul searching to do, I think and has got to understand that people here are putting this government on notice”

“It looks like Reform might have pulled through” in Barnsley, Coppard said, adding that he will “have conversations with Keir Starmer”

“Parties and governments that don’t listen to people don’t last very long.”

Reform UK has so far won 22 seats in Barnsley, and Labour has five. To win a majority, a party needs 32 seats.

16:50 Miriam Mirwitch holds Waltham Forest seat

The Green Party has seen huge gains in north-east London, but vice chair of the Jewish Labour Movement Miriam Mirwitch has held onto her seat, securing 1,840 in the Hoe Street ward.

16:40 Labour hold Friern Barnet

Labour has held Friern Barnet in north London, despite a strong challenge from the Green Party.

The Greens finished a close second in the ward, but all three Labour candidates were successfully returned.

16:30 Suspended Green candidate elected in Newcastle

A suspended Green Party candidate who reposted claims that “Israel kills babies as a hobby” and shared a video alleging Jewish prisoners of war were willing to bury Soviet prisoners alive under Nazi instruction has been elected in Newcastle.

Mohammed Suleman won 1,220 votes in the Arthur’s Hill ward in Newcastle upon Tyne.

16:15 Jewish Labour Movement chair loses Whetstone seat

The national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, Ella Rose-Jacobs, has lost her seat in Whetstone.

Rose-Jacobs, who is also a trustee of Jewish LGBTQ+ charity KeshetUK, finished behind Conservative candidate Steven Lewis and Labour colleague Ezra Cohen.

16:00 Jewish Tory trio hold off Reform challenge in Hendon

In Hendon, three Jewish Conservative councillors comfortably defeated a challenge from Reform UK.

Isaac Bennett, Alex Prager and Shimon Ryde all secured strong vote shares in the usually safe Conservative Barnet Council ward, which had been heavily targeted by Reform.

The highest-performing Reform candidate finished around 2,000 votes behind the Conservative candidates.

14:50 Victorious Green candidate chants “Free Palestine” at Sheffield count

The count in Sheffield was briefly disrupted after a winning Green chanted “Free Palestine”.

Mustafa Ahmed, the Green’s newly elected councillor for Burngreave ward, raised a Palestinian flag after his result was announced and began chanting “Free Palestine”, momentarily delaying proceedings.

He received boos and jeers from some in the crowd.

The leader of the city council, Labour’s Tom Hunt, has lost his seat to Alan Davies of the Green Party.

14:45 Green MP celebrates with pro-Gaza candidates in Manchester

Newly elected Green MP for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, was dancing this morning with pro-Gaza Green candidates.

Spencer led a chant in support of newly elected Moss Side councillor Thirza Amina Asanga-Rae, who has campaigned against what she described as “draconian” laws targeting those “protesting against a genocide in Gaza”.

14:40 Baggy Khan elected for Greens in Bolton

Another Green campaigner has secured victory.

Twenty-five-year-old Baggy Khan won in Bolton’s Halliwell ward with 1,752 votes.

He was filmed celebrating with a group of men outside the count and posted on Instagram: “Alhamdulillah we did it… May Allah always keep our intentions clean and allow us to fulfil our responsibility of serving the community.”

14:30 Barnet result still too close to call

Counting is continuing in one of London’s key battleground boroughs.

Barnet Conservatives group leader Peter Zinkin and Dean Cohen have both held the Golders Green seat on Barnet Council.

The pair each secured more than 2,000 votes in the heavily Jewish ward, with Labour trailing in second place ahead of Reform UK candidates. The result will be seen as encouraging for the Conservatives in a borough they are hoping to win back from Labour.

Barnet Conservatives secure Edgwarebury ward

Benjamin Goldberg secured 2160 votes in one ward, while Lachhya Gurung won 1951 for the Tories.

Reform UK finished in second, but a long way behind, with Labour in third ahead of the Greens.

Tory mayor turned Reform UK loses

Former Barnet Conservative mayor Mark Shooter, who defected to Reform UK ahead of the elections, failed to win a seat in the West Hendon ward.

14:15 Suspended Green candidate attends Camden count

Suspended Camden Green Party candidate Aziz Hakimi has been spotted at the election count in north London.

Hakimi was suspended after resharing a Facebook post describing the Hatzola arson attack as a “false flag” that suited the “Zionist narrative”, as well as a video alleging that “Zionists” were responsible for the September 11 terror attacks.

Although suspended by the party, election rules meant it was too late to remove his name from the ballot paper in Haverstock ward.

14:00 Conservatives regain Westminster Council

In another setback for Labour in London, the Conservatives have regained control of Westminster City Council, winning 32 seats to Labour’s 22.

The result will be a blow for the council’s Lord Mayor, Paul Dimoldenberg, a Mancunian Jew whose daughter is presenter Amelia Dimoldenberg.

Westminster, home to Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, and the focal point for weekly anti-Israel marches since October 7, had been under Conservative control from its creation in 1965 until Labour captured it in 2022.

13:45 Strictly Orthodox ward stays Labour in Gateshead

The Gateshead ward containing much of the town’s strictly Orthodox community has returned a Labour councillor in the face of wider turbulence for the party nationally.

Denise Robson, a member of Newcastle Reform Synagogue, has been re-elected.

Labour has controlled Gateshead Council continuously since 1974, but Reform UK is now expected to take control after previously having no representation on the authority. The projected result underlines Reform’s rapid growth in parts of the North East.

In neighbouring South Tyneside, the contest is shaping up as a battle between Reform UK and the Green Party. So far, Reform has won eight seats, while the Greens have taken four.

13:25 Recount in Barnet Whetstone

Barnet Conservatives have requested a recount in the key Whetstone seat.

The JC spoke to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch ahead of polling day in the target borough, which the party has hoped to take from Labour.

In the interview, Badenoch claimed that the government’s foreign policy was partly to blame for the rise in antisemitism. Pressure from Sir Keir Starmer’s backbenchers and the recognition of Palestine while Israeli hostages were held in Gaza had been picked up as a “signal” by “people who use antizionism as a cover for antisemitism,” Badenoch said.

Labour took control of Barnet for the first time in 2022, but the Tories are hoping to regain control of the borough, home to the capital’s largest Jewish community, concentrated in Golders Green, Hendon, and Finchley.

The BBC’s election broadcast has described the north London contest as “very close”, with Labour “possibly holding on”.

13:20 Rochford Reform candidate wins after “master race” post

This is Jane Prinsley taking over the blog from Lorin.

Among Reform UK’s victories was Rochford candidate Stuart Prior, who was last month accused of posting social media messages that praised the rape of Sikh women, referred to Muslim people as “rats” and mentioned “the master race”.

Prior, when approached by a reporter from the Mirror, denied that he had made the comments and that he was a racist.

Prior received 911 votes, winning the Sweyne Park & Grange seat in Rochford, Essex.

12:37 Birmingham update

Independent candidate Shahid Butt grabbed headlines across the media after the former jihadi who was convicted of terror offences in Yemen (he maintains his innocence and says his confession was obtained through torture) said he was standing for election in Sparkhill ward.

ITV reports that Labour may have done enough to prevent the independent from winning.
 

12:11 Greens win Hackney Mayoral election

One of the most significant results of election day so far.

The Green Party’s candidate has defeated Labour and won the election to become mayor of the London Borough of Hackney.
 

12:00 Midday update

The situation so far: Nigel Farage is jubilant at a very successful set of results for Reform UK.
 

According to the BBC, Reform UK have gained 416 council seats and control of two councils.
Labour and the Conservatives have lost 260 and 174 seats respectively.

The Lib Dems and Greens have gained 37 and 28 seats respectively. 

Several key battleground seats between Labour and the Greens – such as Hackney and Harringey – are yet to declare.

The north London borough of Barnet, where Labour and the Tories are slugging it out for control, is expected to declare results at around 17:00.

10:51 Led by ex-JLM official, Labour keeps control of Ealing

One of the few good results for Sir Keir Starmer’s party has come in the west London Borough of Ealing.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the prime minister did his TV interviews from there.

Although the party lost 13 councillors, they still keep control of the council.

Peter Mason, the former national secretary of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) and leader of Ealing, said he was humbled to have “been entrusted to once again lead our borough.”

“Grateful beyond words to everyone who puts themselves forward for public service”, he said in a post on X.

10:33: Independent Charedi councillor keeps seat

Andrew Walters, an independent councillor, has kept his seat in Salford, Greater Manchester.

In 2024, the “libertarian socialist” Salford Chasid spoke to the JC about why he thought there was a halachic argument for the medical use of marijuana.

Reacting to his victory, Walters told the JC: “Whilst I’m grateful to have retained my seat in Kersal and Broughton Park, tonight’s results show a major political realignment taking place across the country, with Labour losing significant ground and Reform making substantial gains.

As an independent councillor, I think many voters are increasingly looking beyond traditional party structures and focusing more on authenticity, local representation, and whether councillors are genuinely prepared to stand up for their communities.

I’m very appreciative of the support I’ve received from residents across the ward, and I look forward to continuing to serve all residents with an independent voice and an open door.”

09:52 Lib Dem anti-populist pitch

The Liberal Democrats have had a modestly successful election so far, gaining 32 seats (at the time of writing).

Earlier this morning, the party’s deputy leader Daisy Cooper said we could expect even more Lib Dem gains later in the day “in places like Surrey, Sussex, Huntingdonshire, and Southwark.”

Meanwhile, Sir Ed Davey says his party will lead the fight against “populist extremes”.

Before the election, in an interview with the JC he laid into Zack Polanski for his “perception of unsafety” comments. This morning, he says claims that: “The Liberal Democrats are now the only party strong enough to stand up to the populist extremes and protect our country from chaos. We will be the rallying point for all those who believe in building things up, not burning them down.”

09:34 North London forever

Results in from heavily Jewish north London boroughs aren’t expected until later today.

The Hackney mayoral election results are expected at around 13:00 today. Will Labour’s Caroline Woodley be able to withstand the challenge from the Green Party’s Zoe Garbett?

At 15:00 results are expected in Islington and Waltham Forest, while both boroughs don’t have a sizeable Jewish population, it will be interesting to see if the Greens are able to topple the Labour Party’s control in both seats.

Council election results in Hackney are expected at 17:00 and in Haringey, both home to a sizeable Orthodox community, with the Greens expected to do well in both.

A very different kind of battle is taking place in Barnet, where the Conservatives will be hoping that their better than expected results in the capital continue and they’re able to challenge Labour for control.

09:15 Starmer says he’ll carry on.

Speaking to Sky News, the prime minister acknowledged the disappointing results for Labour but says he won’t be going anywhere any time soon.

"The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved. They was elected to meet those challenges. And I’m not going to walk away from those challenges and plunge the country into chaos.”

08:48 Tories gain Westminster 

Despite a disappointing set of results nationally involving many losses, there is one reason for the Conservatives to be cheerful.

They have won control of Westminster council from Labour. Starmer’s party seized control of the central London borough in 2022 and the Tories have now taken it back.

Alan Mendoza – husband of Jewish Leadership Council chief Claudia – who defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK and became the party’s chief global affairs adviser, has lost his seat.
“Under Kemi Badenoch the Conservatives are coming back in London. This victory is a clear sign of the progress the Conservatives are making under new leadership”, a party spokesperson said.

The Tories also made gains in the south London borough of Wandsworth, which has moved from being Labour-run to having no overall control.

Jack Mayorcas, a Jewish Labour Movement member, was one of the Labour casualties in the borough.

Britain's oldest voter? 103-year-old Jewish Care resident Dinah about to cast her vote, pictured with Danuta Krysiak, Social Coordinator at the Otto Schiff care home (Image: Jewish Care)[Missing Credit]

06:47 The picture from the results declared overnight is an overwhelming success for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

The right-wing party has, at this moment in time, won 329 seats. They have taken control of Newcastle-Under-Lyme council in Staffordshire and seem to be taking seats of both Labour and the Conservatives.

In Tameside in Greater Manchester, Labour has lost control of the council, with Farage’s outfit winning 18 seats on the council and Labour losing 16. Sir Keir Starmer’s party remain the largest group on the council, but without an overall majority.

In Rochford in Essex, Farage’s party are now the largest party on the council, taking over from the Conservatives.

So far, Labour has lost 247 seats and the Tories 123.

Most London councils are set to declare their results throughout the day. Similarly, we can expect results from the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments from around midday.