On London Latest: Fragmenting loyalties

Recent election contests have revealed Londoners' political impatience. Plus EV chargers, cop culture wars and much more from the website OnLondon.co.uk

All my income from this personal Substack helps to fund the no-ads, no-paywall, high-quality journalism website OnLondon and its contributors. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber to this Substack and don’t support OnLondon by others means, please consider taking the free trial. Individual supporters provide nearly all of OnLondon’s funding. Thanks.

Are we seeing an ongoing unravelling of the coalition of voters that has sustained Labour’s dominance in the capital for many years? If recent council by-elections are any guide, the answer appears to be yes.

The general fall in Labour support at such contests since July’s general election was to be expected - that’s what people do after new national governments have been elected. Furthermore, swings against Labour have tended to be smaller in the capital than they have elsewhere in the country.

But the past few weeks have seen results suggesting that across the city enthusiasm for Sir Keir Starmer’s party has been sinking and also fragmenting