BLACK VOTERS heavily influenced local elections gains for Labour in London and should be rewarded with better Black political representation, campaigners say.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party chalked up victories across several multicultural London boroughs this morning including Southwark, Walthamstow, Waltham Forest, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham. 

Labour took control of Wandsworth town hall for the first time in four decades in a borough where almost a third (29%) of all voters in Wandsworth, with almost half of those voters (44%) from an African, Caribbean or black mixed background.

Campaign group Operation Black Vote said that all the signs pointed to Black voters making a big impact in the local elections.

David Weaver, founder and Vice Chair of OBV told The Voice: “Black communities have become increasingly disenfranchised by the government’s ambivalence around race and their active antagonism in relation to issues around Windrush.

“But there is still a long, long way for Labour to go, and it’s a clarion call and cry for the Labour Party to improve Black representation because they may benefit because of a vote against the government, but they won’t benefit [in the long term] unless they start doing stuff which could only be informed by lived experience in their leadership.”

Labour’s win in Wandsworth – long seen as a ‘crown jewel’ town hall for the Tories – dominated the early headlines today, with results in Birmingham due out later today. The win was celebrated by MP Marsha de Cordova, and councillors like Maurice Mcleod. 

In the capital Labour also made a breakthrough in Sutton, gaining three councillors where they had been squeezed out by the Liberal Democrats in the borough since 2002, but the party suffered defeats in Brent and Enfield, a borough that has been the scene of bitter political fights within Labour between Starmer and Corbyn supporters.

Labour increased its majority in Wolverhampton and Coventry, but Bristol voted to abolish the post of elected mayor, held by Britain’s only black executive mayor Marvin Rees. 

Rees, who is understood to be seeking a parliamentary seat, will step down in 2024 when his post is officially abolished. 

The former OBV alumni denied that the referendum was a personal blow, pointing out that he had twice been elected mayor with a larger majority than the vote on returning to a committee system.

Many black residents remain supportive of Rees, who carried himself in the way that elected mayors were intended to when the role was created, by representing their cities on a wider stage.

However, Bristolians voted to return to a system of lesser-known council committee chairs holding more power.