Thursday 07 May 2026 5:41 am  |  Updated:  Wednesday 06 May 2026 4:07 pm

However London votes today, not enough will change

By: Tom Harwood

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Whether Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, Greens, or Reform – all local politicians are all incentivised by the system that elects them. Every party promises to protect “green spaces”, all councillors perform lip service towards supporting affordable homes, while campaigning vociferously against what they arbitrarily determine to be “inappropriate development”, says Tom Harwood

While London (and much of the rest of the country) goes to vote today, I’m left wondering how much might actually change. Call me a curmudgeon, but in many boroughs the incentives for local politicians remain broadly the same no matter who ends up winning.

Just as Labour somehow found the gall to fight the Uxbridge by-election on an anti-ULEZ ticket, in Wandsworth they boast about keeping council tax the lowest in the country. Meanwhile over in Westminster the Labour Party has taken precisely the same attitude to Soho pedestrianisation and outdoor........

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