Comms change – Labour MPs in London are pushing for communications change after council losses left the party’s “red” map shrinking sharply.
Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is facing a painful internal reckoning in London, with lawmakers there linking Thursday’s council setbacks to a failure to communicate with voters—an issue they say has now become impossible to ignore.
Labour’s hold over London borough councils ended Thursday. with the number of Labour-controlled councils falling from 21 to just nine by Saturday afternoon. according to the report.. MPs in the capital described the losses as a referendum on the Prime Minister’s government. saying voters appeared to use local ballots to register dissatisfaction with Starmer’s leadership.
The wider picture also worsened outside London.. The report said Labour suffered major losses across the country on Friday. including in Wales. with voters shifting toward both left-leaning and right-leaning alternatives.. By Saturday, the number of Labour MPs publicly calling for Starmer to go was described as steadily rising.
Inside London, frustration has coalesced around the message Labour carried to residents.. Multiple Labour MPs told the outlet that the party’s “status quo” is not working and that “everything comes back” to Labour’s ability—or inability—to communicate with the public.. The London Parliamentary Labour Party was set to meet in the coming week to discuss the results and next steps. the report stated.
The pressure is not confined to a single internal forum.. The report said other Labour groups were preparing to meet as well. including Mainstream. a soft grouping with links to Andy Burnham. scheduled for a call on Monday.. In parallel. the Red Wall caucus was set to hold its own meeting on Wednesday. reflecting how the mood in the party has turned from anger at outcomes to debate over what must change.
The report also laid out how quickly Labour’s map shifted.. With three councils still to be counted. Labour had already lost control of 11 councils. turning London from a largely single-party “red” landscape into a multi-coloured patchwork within roughly a day.. By name. Labour had reportedly lost control of Barnet. Brent. Enfield. Ealing. Hackney. Waltham Forest. Wandsworth. Westminster. Southwark. Newham. Haringey. and Lambeth.
Those borough losses struck close to the centre of government. the report noted. because several senior figures hold parliamentary seats in London.. Four members of the cabinet serving as MPs in the capital were identified. including Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Starmer himself. making the political blow feel both symbolic and personal.. The losses in Lambeth and Southwark were singled out as particularly damaging for Labour’s standing in areas it has long treated as electoral heartlands.
Labour’s London Mayor Sadiq Khan weighed in on Friday. describing the results as “bitterly disappointing” and warning the party faces an “existential” threat nationally.. The report added that in some boroughs the contests were tight. underscoring how small shifts in voter behaviour can produce outsized changes in local power.
Several individual races illustrate the scale of the churn described in the report.. In Barnet. Labour won 31 seats. matching the Conservatives. while the one seat taken by the Greens would have delivered a majority to whichever side could have secured it.. Meanwhile, Labour reportedly lost control of Westminster and Wandsworth, with Kemi Badenoch celebrating gains.
Outside London, the report said Conservative fortunes were far from steady.. In Essex. Reform was reported to have taken the council from the Tories after 25 years—an example used to show that while London may not have mirrored the national trend. the competitive threat Labour faces is larger than geography.
Still, the report argued that London was comparatively “better” for Labour than parts of the country.. A local government expert. Professor Tony Travers. was quoted explaining that despite a very bad overall election for Labour. the party would remain the biggest force on the centre-left in Britain.. Travers also suggested that residents in Green councils and those who voted Green would now have to decide whether to support the Greens—or back Labour in an effort to keep Reform from gaining further ground nationally.
That shift could place the Greens under a new kind of scrutiny, Travers was also described as arguing. The report framed it as a spotlight moment: Greens, having gained traction in the capital, would face questions similar to those Reform has faced over the past months.
The mood among Labour MPs on the ground was depicted as notably more bleak than expert framing. Regardless of the analysis, the report said MPs feel the outcome in London was even worse than expected, contributing to a sharp rise in calls for Starmer’s resignation.
Tensions appeared to spike further after a leaked conversation between London MP Catherine West and Housing Secretary Steve Reed. reported to have been published.. West. meanwhile. was reported to have joined a growing number of MPs—both long-time figures and those outside the usual categorisation—who have argued Starmer should step aside.. West was also cited pointing to a Lewisham result in which a Green mayor was elected.
In remarks to the report. West said the situation in London required much better performance and that the leadership debate should not be treated as waiting for a “perfect” candidate.. She indicated she understood some MPs were waiting for a potential challenger. but suggested that if no one put themselves forward. she would seek support and put herself forward. the report stated.
More broadly, Labour MPs described the campaign and outcome in language that conveyed shock and anger.. One London Labour MP told the outlet that the defeat was “catastrophic. ” going as far as to describe it as “beyond a shit show.” Another said the atmosphere inside the party groupings was not a “happy place. ” while a separate MP described London as “awful” and unlike anything they had experienced.
That anger is also being expressed through comparisons and campaign critique.. The report included a London-based MP disputing a line that earlier Labour defeats—such as one in 1999—should be treated as proof that the scale of losses could be managed.. The MP argued that the comparisons were “weak and lazy. ” and said Starmer came up repeatedly during the doorstep campaign in ways that did not feel positive to voters.
Calls for Starmer to change his approach were tied to expectations that the Prime Minister and senior leadership should be more visible in the public square.. Neil Coyle. the Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark. was described as saying Starmer needs to “allow” those around him to do more. including being more visible and taking a governing style he linked to Clement Attlee.. Coyle also suggested using media such as YouTube to reach voters, with localised advertising by postcode to match community-level issues.
For Southwark specifically—described as a surprise loss where Labour walked away with 29 councillors while losing 23—the report said Coyle argued there was a “targeting issue.” He said Labour’s national message to run the “most localised campaign” did not always translate into identifying local concerns for voters. leaving some residents unable to connect the local candidates’ work to distinct borough priorities.
Greens’ performance in the capital was treated as both an explanation and a warning sign.. Coyle was quoted reflecting that the Greens did better than expected after gaining 22 seats. which shaped how Labour now views its opponents and its campaigning strategy.. He also raised the idea that Labour should improve performance management of councillors and candidates. including better measurement of campaign activity. casework. local surgeries. and advice sessions.
Despite the criticism, Coyle remained cautiously upbeat.. He said Labour would still be the biggest party in London and that the results were nowhere near the “catastrophic estimates” some polling had suggested.. He also described Conservative gains as something Labour should interpret as a sign of the Tories’ broader weakness. saying they were “toasting their own funeral. ” according to the report.
A separate concern growing among MPs is the longer-term impact of losing councillors on Labour’s campaigning muscle.. One MP agreed with the idea that every councillor lost weakens campaign force. describing councillors as those at the centre of the “coal face” who lead hyper-local change.. Another anonymous London-based MP warned that membership strain could further reduce the party’s capacity. linking organisational stress to fewer activists available to campaign.
The report connected those concerns to earlier reporting that Labour organisers had warned about a growing disconnect between the Labour government and party members—one factor said to be contributing to a decline in activists willing to work.. In the current round of defeats. some MPs described a similar pattern repeating: when Labour underestimated threats during the last cycle. Reform was the focus. but this year. they said the Greens emerged as a comparable challenge.
In this context, the report said Labour’s national next steps are now being watched closely.. Starmer is set to make a speech on Monday outlining more of the Labour government’s policy agenda for the next few years.. Many MPs. the report added. view the London election results as part of a broader problem of communicating with the public—meaning they will closely assess whether the Prime Minister’s intervention addresses the central complaint coming from inside the party.
Labour London losses Keir Starmer council elections communications strategy Green Party gains Reform surge UK local politics