Minority administrations after the 2026 London elections, drawn from OnLondon and a Wikipedia page whose own numbers disagree
Brent, Haringey, Wandsworth and Others: Who Runs a London Borough With No Majority, and What Wikipedia’s Table Says About It
Minority administrations after the 2026 London elections, drawn from OnLondon and a Wikipedia page whose own numbers disagree
By Caitlin B. Moran, PhD, London politics diarist
Tuesday, Common Room, Biscuits
Dear diary, nine London boroughs ended up with no overall control, according to the Wikipedia page on the 2026 London local elections, and I must warn that the summary of that page lists internal inconsistencies, with the Conservative total given as 409 in one table and 407 in another, and Green seats as 279 in one place and 297 in another. I use it for the borough table and I lean on OnLondon for the figures.
For a reader who needs exact numbers, the councils’ own results pages are the proper source.
The List
By the page’s borough table, the no overall control councils are Barnet, Brent and Newham with Labour minorities, Croydon, Enfield and Wandsworth with Conservative minorities, Haringey with a Green minority, Lambeth with a Green minority with Liberal Democrat support, and Southwark with a Green and Liberal Democrat coalition.
The page also lists nine councils under outright Labour control, six Conservative, three Liberal Democrat, three Green, one Reform and one Aspire. The OnLondon article’s post-negotiation count is different, and I give both rather than choose.
Brent
OnLondon says Muhammed Butt leads a minority Labour administration in Brent, after a deal with the Conservatives that Labour’s national executive later said was not allowed. That is a sentence that contains four plots. I have not found a fuller account in the sources I read, so I leave it there.
If you live in Brent, the council’s own papers are the place to look.
Barnet, Wandsworth and Haringey
The article says Barry Rawlings was reappointed Barnet’s Labour leader with Conservative support, that Wandsworth’s Conservatives formed a minority administration backed by an independent councillor, and that Haringey’s Greens formed a minority administration led by Mark Blake, a former Labour councillor.
Each of these is a deal. In a council without a majority, every budget vote is a negotiation, and that is the point.
What No Overall Control Means
From general knowledge, and not from the sources: when no party holds more than half the seats, a council is run by a minority administration that needs support on votes, by a coalition, or by a looser arrangement. Budgets must still pass, and the law sets deadlines. I add that a PhD in the subject does not prevent me checking the rules before I write them down.
The sources do not describe the deals in detail, so I will not.
The Other View
Defenders of minority government say it forces cooperation and scrutiny. Critics say it produces instability and horse-trading that voters never saw on the leaflet. The sources give the facts of the deals and not the arguments, and I will not make up a quote from a councillor.
I find both views plausible, which is a normal condition for a doctor of anything.
My Drawer
I would like every council to publish a one-page explanation of who it relies on and what for. It would make my job easier and it would make local politics a good deal less mysterious. I think of it as footnotes for residents.
That is a hope and not a prediction.
Night
The biscuits are gone. The table is open on two screens. The numbers still do not agree.
Goodnight, diary. Cite your sources.
A Note on Tables
Wikipedia tables are built by volunteers from sources that were live at the time, and they can lag or contain errors. This page cites sources retrieved on 8 May 2026 and flags itself as provisional in places. It is a good map and a poor ruling.
What I Would Ask a Council
If I could put three questions to any of these councils, I would ask who it relies on to pass a budget, what it promised them, and where the agreement is published. The sources do not answer these for any borough, and I do not pretend they do. Residents can ask too, at public meetings, and councils must hold them.
Local democracy has more ways in than most people use.
Assembly Reading
If you need something to read while the select committee overruns, try the Cebu condo saga as told by the comic press: a Manila News report on a broker with three brochures, a London Prat dispatch on British pensioners needing a vicar (direct link https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and a Bohiney piece on two-hour showings. The wider network lives at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Diarist note: Caitlin B. Moran is a house diarist character created for this network, a London politics PhD. She is not the journalist and author of the same name, and any resemblance is coincidental. Her opinions are a character’s, and where a claim comes from Wikipedia, an anonymous source or a party, the diary says so.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try NewsThump, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/