What happens to Wandsworth on 7 May?

For 44 years, Wandsworth was Conservative. Then in 2022, Labour took it by nine seats in a single night. Now, four weeks from polling day, Labour’s grip on power comes down to a margin so thin you could count it on one hand.

Labour holds 34 of 58 council seats. The majority threshold is 30. Lose four and it’s over.

But this is not just a question of whether the Conservatives win it back. For the first time in Wandsworth’s modern history, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK all believe they can win seats. If they do, nobody runs the council. A handful of independents and minor party councillors would hold the balance of power on every vote, every budget, every planning decision.

Nominations close today. Here is what the battlefield looks like.

The 2022 map is the 2026 battlefield

Labour’s 2022 victory was built on margins that looked comfortable at borough level (42.6% to 34.3%) but razor-thin in individual wards. The swing of 3.3% from Conservative to Labour was enough to flip the council for the first time since 1978, but several wards changed hands by hundreds of votes.

East Putney is the sharpest example. The Conservatives held the ward by just 0.5% in 2022. Former council leader Ravi Govindia saw his previously unassailable lead drop to just 32 votes. A handful of voters switching sides, or staying home, changes the result.

Wandsworth Town (Labour by 5.7%) and West Putney (Labour by 2.2%) are both within striking distance. West Putney has already shifted since 2022: Nick Austin won a by-election for the Conservatives in May 2024, and he is standing again as a Conservative candidate this time.

Where the Conservatives are under pressure

The Conservative path back to power runs through nine net gains. That is a tall order, and they face defensive problems of their own.

Southfields is their most vulnerable ward. The margin in 2022 was 3.5% and Kim Caddy, who served as Cabinet Member for Finance, is not standing again. The party has deployed Emmeline Owens, a strong performer who won 45.6% in the safe Conservative ward of Northcote in 2022, to shore up the defence. That redeployment tells you something about how the party rates the threat.

In Thamesfield, two of the three sitting Conservative councillors (James Jeffreys and John Locker) are not standing. The margin was a more comfortable 9.8% in 2022, but replacing two thirds of a ward’s representation in a single election is a significant challenge, particularly with an energised opposition.

The wildcards that change everything

Three wards sit outside the main Labour-Conservative contest.

West Hill is dominated by Malcolm Grimston, the independent councillor who took 43.5% of the vote in 2022, more than Labour and the Conservatives combined. Grimston is standing again. His presence makes West Hill essentially a three-way marginal with an independent favourite, which scrambles the arithmetic for both main parties.

Nine Elms has the borough’s only Reform UK councillor. Mark Justin left the Conservative Party in August 2025 and joined Reform. The ward has one of Wandsworth’s smallest electorates, meaning individual candidate recognition matters more than party swing. Whether Reform can hold this seat, and whether they field strong candidates elsewhere, will shape the fragmentation picture across the borough.

The national mood has shifted sharply since 2022. In the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, the Green Party overturned a Labour majority of 13,000 to win by 4,402 votes. Labour came third, behind Reform. Hannah Spencer, the new Green MP, won with 40.7% on a 27.5-point swing. “We ran a hopeful campaign,” Spencer said in her victory speech. “We have shown that we don’t have to accept being turned against each other.”

Compass director Neil Lawson put it bluntly: “The two party stranglehold on the UK’s politics looks broken.” If the Greens can translate even a fraction of that energy into Wandsworth, wards like Tooting Broadway become genuinely competitive.

What a hung council looks like

Here is the scenario that keeps both main parties awake. If the Greens win one seat, the Liberal Democrats win one, and Reform holds Nine Elms, those three individuals would hold the balance of power on a council of 58. Every contested committee appointment, every budget vote, every planning decision could come down to which way they lean.

This is not fantasy. In 2022, the Greens took 11.3% of the borough-wide vote without winning a seat. The Liberal Democrats took 8%. Reform did not exist as a local force then. They do now.

The financial crisis facing the council, with budget gaps running into the tens of millions, would need to be navigated by a coalition rather than a single party.

What to watch for

Nominations close at 4pm today. Once the full candidate lists are published by the council this evening, the picture will sharpen. The wards to watch: how many candidates are the Greens and Liberal Democrats fielding in Putney-area wards? Are there strong independent candidates beyond Grimston? And in the wards Labour must hold, are the Conservative challengers incumbents with name recognition, or new faces starting from scratch?

The previous Putney.news election coverage tested both parties’ claims against the evidence. Over the coming weeks, this series will profile the key battleground wards, fact-check both manifestos, and track the candidates standing in our coverage area.

Polling day is Thursday 7 May 2026. You will need photo ID to vote. If you do not have an accepted form (passport, driving licence, Oyster 60+ card, Blue Badge or others), you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate at gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate by 5pm on Tuesday 28 April. The deadline to register to vote is midnight on Monday 20 April. Check your ward candidates at wandsworth.gov.uk/elections once tonight’s list is published.