Almost 15 hours after counting began, Redbridge’s local election results finally trickled through as frustration over repeated recounts, high turnout and delayed declarations dominated the count.
While much of the country focused on Labour losses and gains for Reform UK and the Green Party, the main conversation inside Redbridge Town Hall on Friday was simpler – why was this taking so long?
Counting started at 10am, but by 10pm only six of the borough’s 22 wards had been declared.
By the time results continued rolling in late into the evening, candidates, supporters and journalists had spent the best part of a day waiting around the count floor.
At one stage, South Woodford candidates were called over for a declaration before the result was suddenly delayed again following two recounts.
Mayfield was also pushed back after what the returning officer described as a “fumble”, forcing another recount and adding further delays.
The exhaustion inside the hall was summed up by the returning officer while declaring the Loxford result late into the evening.
“Is anyone still here from Loxford, before we turn the lights off?” she said.
Claiming 43 out of 63 seats, Labour remains the largest party in Redbridge despite suffering significant losses across the borough.
The Conservatives remained on five seats, while Redbridge Independents increased their representation to nine seats. The Green Party won five seats and Reform UK secured one.
Several candidates blamed repeated recounts and high turnout for the lengthy delays, with many wards recording turnout above 50%.
Loxford Independent candidate Ruthba Amin said increased turnout reflected anger among voters and criticised repeated recount requests from rival parties.
Amin said: “Some people are sore losers, and they keep asking for recounts, hoping that somehow they’re gonna find five votes, 10 votes, 100 votes.
“Sometimes you just have to call it a day. You’ve fought. If you win, you win. If you’ve lost, you just reflect and go home.
“People are angry. People are disenfranchised, and people really want change.”
In South Woodford, Green Party candidate Kallan Greybe said that Labour candidates struggled to accept defeat after two recounts delayed the declaration.
Greybe and fellow Green Party candidate Monika Patel won two seats from Labour in South Woodford.
“It’s now 11 o’clock at night, and we are waiting, finally, for our ward to be called,” he said.
“The blunt, honest fact is that Labour have lost, and they don’t want to accept the loss.
“One recount is understandable but further checks are unnecessary.
“When they called for the block ballots, which we already knew were fairly safe, that was the point where it was just sour grapes.
“We never saw them in our canvassing, even though we were out every single day.”
Health Secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged the scale of Labour’s losses nationally, stating there was “no sugarcoating” the results for the party under Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“We have to respect the voters, take the feedback on the chin and accept that the government nationally bears a huge amount of responsibility for good Labour people losing through no fault of their own,” he said.
Streeting also backed Starmer to recover from the losses, saying: “Keir Starmer will be setting out on Monday how he plans to do that. He will have my support.”
However, Streeting pointed to Labour gains in Ilford North as evidence the party could still recover locally.
“We still can win as Labour,” he said.
“This is my home. I’ve served this community for well over a decade. I’m not going anywhere. I’m in it to win it.”
You can check out all of North East Londoner’s local election results here.
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