Labour Holds on Comfortably in Hammersmith & Fulham
Easy victory rare bright spot in grim night for the party across the country
Labour's councillors following the election count
May 8, 2026
Hammersmith and Fulham has provided a rare bit of good news for Labour on an otherwise grim night for the party in the local elections. The ruling party comfortably held on to control of the council despite the Conservatives adding two councillors to their tally.
The borough once known as David Cameron’s favourite council returned a total of 38 Labour members from 50 available seats. While just short of their result four years’ ago it is up on their number pre-election, having suffered two defections and a councillor become independent during the subsequent term.
The Green Party and Liberal Democrats were unable to secure any seats with Reform also striking a blank, despite standing a full slate of candidates.
Speaking after the election result Cllr Stephen Cowan, the Labour group’s leader, told the hall it was an “honour” to retain control, adding: “We will never let the people of this amazing borough down.”
The borough has been held by Labour since 2014, when it ended an eight-year run of Tory rule. Prior to that it had alternated between Labour and the Conservatives other than the period from 1978 to 1986 when it was under no overall control.
Polling had indicated the council would continue to be held by Labour despite the expected rise in multi-party politics and the party’s plummeting support across the country.
One detailed model, by audience insight company Bombe, even suggested Hammersmith and Fulham may be the only London borough held by Labour, with the others either going to opposition groups or falling under a minority administration. However, Labour did hold onto Ealing despite losing seats there.
At the last election, in 2022, Labour picked up 40 of the 50 seats available in Hammersmith and Fulham with the Tories securing the remaining 10.
Since then, two Labour members have defected to the Green Party while another went independent after being suspended over alleged racist and antisemitic social media posts.
The final results, which were announced just after 5am on Friday (May 8), did see the Tories win a couple of seats from Labour in Sands End, taking two of the three.
Earlier in the evening Tory leader Jose Afonso said it had appeared as if Reform had failed to make any notable inroads. There were also murmurs that the Greens were looking unlikely to take White City, a target ward which had potentially looked close prior to the election.
There was a bit of late-night drama when the Sands End ward had to be recounted, which when delivered saw the Tories’ two gains of the night.
Archie Thomas, a Green Party candidate in White City, said while the results “were not what we wanted or expected…there is a lot to build on there. A lot of second places, a lot of places where we picked up 600, 500 votes where we weren’t expecting. So we need to go back and sort of think about what we’re doing next time.”
Cllr Afonso said, “Tonight we saw big swings towards the Conservatives here in Hammersmith and Fulham. We have won new seats for the first time in 20 years, and look forward to building towards 2030 with the new team.”
In his valedictory speech Cllr Cowan said, “There is hope in the air tonight. Hope defeated despair. A unity that defeats division. And all of us coming together to say thank you to our wonderful residents who once again gave us the honour to serve. And it really is an honour.”
Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter
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