The 2022 Westminster City Council election is due to take place on 5 May 2022. All 54 members of Westminster London Borough Council will be elected. The elections will take place alongside local elections in the other London boroughs and elections to local authorities across the United Kingdom.
In the previous election in 2018, the Conservative Party maintained their longstanding control of the council, winning 41 out of the 60 seats with the Labour Party forming the council opposition with the remaining 19 seats. The 2022 election will take place under new election boundaries, which will reduce the number of councillors to 54.
The thirty-two London boroughs were established in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. They are the principal authorities in Greater London and have responsibilities including education, housing, planning, highways, social services, libraries, recreation, waste, environmental health and revenue collection. Some of the powers are shared with the Greater London Authority, which also manages passenger transport, police, and fire.[1]
Westminster City Council has continuously been under Conservative Party control since its establishment. In the most recent election in 2018, Westminster was considered a key target for Labour in London.[2] The Conservatives won the election, with 41 seats on 42.8% of the vote across the borough while Labour won 19 seats with 41.1% of the vote.[3]
Council term[]
The Conservative councillor Robert Davis, who represented Lancaster Gate and had served on the council since 1982, resigned after an investigation into his conduct found that he broke the councillors' code of conduct for receiving a large number of gifts and hospitality from property developers.[4] The 22 November 2018 by-election was held for the Conservatives by Margot Bright with the Labour candidate coming in second place.[5] In March 2021, Andrea Mann, a Labour councillor for Churchill ward, resigned for family reasons.[6] The by-election to fill the seat was held on 6 May 2021 alongside the 2021 London mayoral election and London Assembly election. The Labour candidate Liza Begum won, with an increased majority compared to the 2018 election.[7]
Along with most London boroughs, Westminster will be electing councillors under new ward boundaries in 2022. Following local consultation, the Local Government Boundary Commission for England produced new boundaries, reducing the number of councillors from 60 to 54 across eighteen three-councillor wards.[8]
Campaign[]
The Conservative peer Robert Hayward listed Westminster as one of four Conservative councils in London that his party risked losing control of in the wake of the partygate scandal. The concentration of Labour voters in a small number of wards means that relatively few seats in the borough are marginal.[9] Labour criticised the Conservative council over the Marble Arch Mound over its cost, which had led to the resignation of the council's deputy leader Melvyn Caplan.[9][10]
Electoral process[]
Westminster, as with all other London borough councils, elects all of its councillors at once every four years, with the previous election having taken place in 2018. The election will take place by multi-member first-past-the-post voting, with each ward being represented by two or three councillors. Electors will have as many votes as there are councillors to be elected in their ward, with the top two or three being elected.
All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) living in London aged 18 or over will be entitled to vote in the election. People who live at two addresses in different councils, such as university students with different term-time and holiday addresses, are entitled to be registered for and vote in elections in both local authorities.[11] Voting in-person at polling stations will take place from 7:00 to 22:00 on election day, and voters will be able to apply for postal votes or proxy votes in advance of the election.[11]
