The colour of the political map changed dramatically in London when election results were announced. Labour fared badly, with some serious gains for the Greens, who took overall control of Hackney, Lewisham, and Waltham Forest Borough Councils. The Greens also won two of the six mayoral seats up for election – Zoë Garbett in Hackney, and Liam Shrivastava in Lewisham.

We anticipate that these results will give a fillip to our Nuclear Free London campaign. We’re asking London Councils to join cities across the world and pledge their support for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The first of those are already coming in from newly-elected and re-elected London councillors. We anticipate seeing some Labour, LibDem, and independents among them, as well as Greens. Before the elections, the London Green Party agreed in principle to encourage its councillors to sign our pledge. We look forward to those Green pledges starting to roll in over the next few weeks.

Not all the London results are a cause for celebration by peace campaigners, of course. The Reform vote increased in London as it did in many other localities, with Reform taking control of LB Havering in outer London, a shift from no overall control. Many London CND supporters were among the hundreds of thousands who joined the Together Alliance march, and continue to support local anti-racist initiatives.