Following Tuesday’s contest in Alperton ward in Brent, there have been three extra London by-elections on the same old election day of Thursday. Two have been in Hammersmith & Fulham, one was in Barking & Dagenham and Labour have been defending in all of three. Let’s begin with the one in (Barking &) Dagenham as a result of its identify, Whalebone, is intriguing and weird.
The story of Whalebone ward begins on 3 September 1685 when there was a storm alongside the Thames east of London. The wild situations on the river deposited a whale, a uncommon customer from the deep oceans trapped within the tidal river, within the marshes close to Dagenham.
A lifeless whale was the item of sensible curiosity for oil and its smaller bones, but additionally of curiosity. The proprietor of a giant home a few miles north of the river acquired two big bones from the whale, which he put up both aspect of the gateway of his property. The home turned referred to as Whalebone Home, and the identify was utilized to native roads and the realm round.
Whalebone Home was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1941 however some objects, together with the whale bones, have been donated to the native Valence Home Museum. The bones stood outdoors the museum for some time however have been eroded by acid rain and have been put in storage. The whale’s legacy endures, 340 years after the unlucky creature’s Thames mishap, on the political map of Barking & Dagenham.
Whalebone is north of Dagenham, a part of the salient of the borough sticking up between Redbridge and Havering. It incorporates the neighbourhood of Becontree Heath, some streets north of the Valence space of Dagenham and a slice of Chadwell Heath south of the Excessive Street.
It’s served by Chadwell Heath station on the Elizabeth Line. Simply outdoors the borders of the ward is the previous Dagenham Civic Centre, now the London website of Coventry College – one of many outcomes of Darren Rodwell’s insurance policies as chief of the borough council from 2014 to 2024.
Whalebone is likely one of the extra owner-occupied areas of a renting borough – 56 per cent – with 17 per cent social lease and 27 per cent non-public lease, principally complete homes quite than flats. The Asian inhabitants giant for the borough – 33 per cent, in comparison with 21 per cent black and 40 per cent white.
It additionally has extra skilled and managerial employees than common for the borough, a proportion that’s more likely to enhance due to the Elizabeth Line connection. The housing is generally inter-war public sector suburban, though there are some older terraced streets on the Chadwell Heath finish of the ward, and a few current growth.
The emptiness arose due to the loss of life in November 2024 of Labour councillor Glenda Paddle, who had represented the ward since 2018. Paddle chaired the council’s overview and scrutiny committee and had served as a faculty governor since 1982. She labored as workplace supervisor for the commerce union solicitors’ agency, Thompson’s. Council chief Dominic Twomey paid tribute to her as “selfless” and “a voice for those who didn’t have a voice”.
The borough elections in Might 2022 weren’t aggressive in Barking & Dagenham – Labour received each seat for the fourth time in a row – and positively not in Whalebone, the place Labour had an enormous majority. Just one Conservative candidate stood towards three Labour candidates, so Labour was assured two seats earlier than a single vote was solid.
Conservative opposition to Labour in Barking & Dagenham can rating respectable shares of the vote in some circumstances, such because the 2021 London Mayoral elections and very often in by-elections, however it struggles with the organisational problem of fielding candidates in whole-borough elections. Labour’s dominance has solely elevated: again in 2002, the Residents’ Affiliation received two seats out of three in Whalebone and in 2006 the 2 Tory candidates polled a extremely respectable 45.4 per cent.
The Tories will not be alone in not having ample candidates for his or her potential voters. On this week’s by-election Reform UK failed to face regardless of the social gathering’s relative energy on this north-eastern quadrant of London.
Within the absence of Reform, candidates from the 4 different foremost events stood in Whalebone. Three had stepped up in Barking & Dagenham by-elections on 28 November 2024 – Conservative Angelica Olawepo contested Northbury, whereas Liberal Democrat Herbert Munangatire and Inexperienced Tope Olawoyin fought Village ward on the identical day. However none of them posed a lot of a menace to the possibilities of the electoral newcomer, Rubina Siddiqui (pictured, left), representing Labour, who prevailed with 625 votes (54.9 per cent).
The Conservatives retained second place with 287 votes (25.2 per cent), the Greens have been third (117 votes, 10.3 per cent) and the Lib Dems fourth (109 votes, 9.6 per cent). Each Labour and Conservative shares of the vote have been down and the web swing was 5.7 per cent to the Tories. Turnout was an abysmal 12.3 per cent.
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Thursday’s different two by-elections have been in London’s different borough with an “and” in its identify – Hammersmith & Fulham. Considered one of was in Hammersmith, the opposite in Fulham.
Not like Barking & Dagenham, Hammersmith & Fulham has been vigorously contested between the 2 foremost political events, with Labour successful from 1986 to 2006, the Conservatives ruling from 2006 to 2014 and Labour successful the final three units of borough elections.
It has just lately been thought to be a “flagship” council by each events, priding itself on low Council Tax and good companies – it was a shock to the Tories after they misplaced it in 2014, however within the age of Brexit and tradition wars it isn’t shocking that this prosperous cosmopolitan borough has remained on the centre left.
Hammersmith Broadway is a compact and accurately-named ward. It’s on the centre of Hammersmith, containing the Broadway procuring centre, the primary procuring road of King Avenue, some business headquarters (together with the Ark) and the borough’s City Corridor.
In case you are driving alongside the A4, it is kind of the realm that you just fly over from begin to end of the Hammersmith Flyover. The elevated view isn’t unrepresentative of the ward – a business centre surrounded by giant blocks of flats of various classic and possession.
Many, notably alongside Queen Caroline Avenue, have been council-built however there are substantial Guinness Belief and Peabody estates too. Extra just lately, the river frontage within the south of the ward has been built-up by upmarket builders; the inhabitants of the ward rose by 20 per cent between 2011 and 2021.
Hammersmith Bridge, closed to motor site visitors since 2019, overshadows a part of the ward, a reminder of failing infrastructure and lack of sources. The ward’s inhabitants is youthful (median age 31, and 76 per cent of working age) and ethnically various – solely a 3rd are white British.
It has a comparatively excessive proportion of social renters (38 per cent) in comparison with non-public lease (37 per cent) and proprietor occupation (26 per cent), though the proportion of social lease fell from 48 per cent between the censuses of 2011 and 2021. It’s a comparatively disadvantaged a part of the borough and of London.
The reason for the by-election was the resignation of Labour councillor Emma Apthorp after being appointed to a job with the United Nations. Apthorp was first elected in 2022 however had a meteoric municipal profession, turning into the youngest-ever (ceremonial) mayor of Hammersmith & Fulham shortly after being elected. Her successor as Labour candidate was Callum Nimmo, a public affairs advisor with Luther Pendragon, and he was the favorite on this secure Labour ward. The opposite 4 foremost events all contested the election.
The end result was mildly shocking – not for the winner (Nimmo polled 578 votes, 53.4 per cent) however for the way in which the opposition votes cut up. Reform candidate Anthony Goodwin (who stood for the London Meeting constituency of Ealing & Hillingdon final Might) received his social gathering’s first second place in a borough by-election, his 148 votes (13.7 per cent) narrowly pipping Conservative Nora Farah (144 votes) and Lib Dem Meerav Shah (135 votes). Colin Murphy for the Greens introduced up the rear (77 votes). Turnout was 21.2 per cent.
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Lillie ward is north Fulham. It stretches from simply north of Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge stadium to only south of the empty Earls Courtroom growth website, which could finally see some constructing beginning in 2026. The London Oratory college is inside its boundaries.
The ward takes its identify from Lillie Street, which types its northern border, which in flip took its identify from John Scott Lillie who developed the realm within the first half of the nineteenth Century. A part of its boundary runs alongside the “Wimbleware” department of the District Line. West Brompton station is within the north east nook of the ward, however components of the south look extra in the direction of Fulham Broadway.
Lillie ward was created in boundary adjustments in 2022. It’s a diminished model (two councillors quite than three) of the previous marginal Fulham Broadway ward which swung with management of the council (Labour 2002, 2014 and 2018, Conservative 2006 and 2010). The boundary adjustments noticed a lot of the finest Tory areas from that ward transferred elsewhere and Labour received a convincing 62.9 per cent of the vote in Lillie’s inaugural contest.
Demographically, Lillie isn’t not like Hammersmith Broadway in some respects. It’s a youthful ward (median age 32) with a excessive fee of employment and a white British inhabitants additionally of round a 3rd – 24 per cent are “different white”, principally from the European Union.
Thirty-eight per cent of households are social renting. However visually it presents a distinct image. Most of Lillie ward consists of Victorian terraces off North Finish Street and Lillie Street subdivided into flats, a extremely fascinating residential space that offers the ward a quite prosperous profile as soon as one considers earnings and employment standing.
Clem Attlee Courtroom is the large exception to generalisations in regards to the ward. It’s a giant Nineteen Sixties council-built property mixing excessive and low rise blocks of flats, with some current redevelopment on a smaller scale. Whereas Attlee predominates, blocks and roads are named after different figures from Labour historical past together with Harold Wilson and Hugh Gaitskell.
A more moderen a part of the property is round John Smith Avenue. For a lot of its historical past the property has supplied a stable basis for the Labour vote, however declining turnout and loyalty imply that it can not account for the big Labour majority within the 2022 elections – the Victorian streets should have supplied a considerable Labour vote in current contests.
The Lillie by-election is the newest, however presumably not the final, London by-election to end result from a councillor being elected to Parliament within the July 2024 Basic Election (I listed all of the circumstances of this occurring in a publish again in September).
The constituency of Chelsea & Fulham was one of many harder nuts for Labour to crack, not a lot as a result of it had a big Conservative majority however due to the deep-dyed, low-swing Conservatism of a few of London’s wealthiest residential areas and a more practical native Tory organisation than most.
However Ben Coleman prevailed over incumbent Greg Fingers by a majority of 152 votes, and he has stepped down from Hammersmith & Fulham council, the place he had beforehand been deputy chief and a councillor since 2014.
4 candidates stood within the Lillie by-election. Lydia Paynter, marketing campaign supervisor for the event charity Malaria No Extra, was defending for Labour. She received (466 votes, 40.4 per cent), however the fall within the Labour vote because the full borough elections in Might 2022 was the worst up to now in 2025 – 22.5 per cent.
The Conservatives’ Matt Sinclair carried out creditably, successful 352 votes (30.5 per cent) and making Lillie look nearly marginal. The swing from Labour to Conservative was 13.7 per cent. The 2022 start line on this ward could be an unusually good election for Labour and the swing due to this fact a bit exaggerated, however it’s nonetheless a foul end result for Labour in a majority middle-class ward.
Lib Dem Conor Campbell was third (212 votes, 18.4 per cent) and Reform’s Peter Hunter was fourth (123 votes, 10.7 per cent – not all that a lot lower than in Hammersmith Broadway). Turnout was 24 per cent.
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