Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter, provides live election updates as 51 councillors are due to be elected to Barking and Dagenham Council by the end of Friday afternoon
The votes have been cast and verification of the ballot papers has now begun at Barking Sportshouse with 51 councillors set to be elected to represent Barking and Dagenham Council.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service will be updating this story with live reaction and results as they come in.
Ballot papers are currently being verified, which involves confirming the number of ballot papers. Counting of the votes will begin after that.
A full news report will be available separately once the final results have come in.
12:30pm update
Reform UK candidate Ben Suter says he’s “feeling happy that we have a chance to get a position on this council anb possibly even take control”
However he casts a note of caution. “Were starting from zero and Labour are starting from 51,” he says. “It’s going to take a feat for the voting attitudes to change so much in four years”.
1pm update
Moin Quadri, a Green Party candidate in the Gascoigne ward, says young people in particular have been voting Green. However he expects Labour to hold onto the council.
Quadri had been a Labour Party councillor since 2014, but defected to the Greens in September last year.
He says: “I feel we have an opportunity to take over in Gascoigne, especially with votes from the young voters.
“Many of them at the polling stations mentioned they were support Green and why they support Green.”
Quadri said young people were particularly motivated to support the Greens over Palestine, LGBT+ rights, and university tuition fees.
1:45pm update
Labour leader Dominic Twomey says he’s not seeing much of a “Reform surge” as votes are counted for Eastbury ward, where he’s standing.
But he says much depends on how much of its core vote that Labour loses to the Greens. There are three seats in Eastbury – meaning people can vote for up to three candidates there.
Twomey says Labour’s “bloc vote” – where all three votes go to Labour – seems to have held up well in Eastbury. However he says there are also lots of “split votes”, where people vote for candidates from different parties.
2:15pm: Turnout confirmed
Turnout has just been confirmed as 33.93%. That’s a big increase on the 24.5% at the borough’s last council election in 2022, which was the lowest in London.
2:45pm: Turnout for every ward
Here are the turnouts for each ward:
Abbey: 1,244 total votes, turnout 31.91%
Alibon: 2,289 total votes, turnout 33.22%
Barking Riverside: 2,353 total votes, turnout 28.35%
Beam: 1,757 total votes, turnout 29.67%
Becontree: 2,340 total votes, turnout 34.63%
Chadwell Heath: 3,037 total votes, turnout 31.62%
Eastbrook and Rush Green: 2,549 total votes, turnout 40.51%
Eastbury: 3,517 total votes, turnout 33.68%
Gascoigne: 2,503 total votes, turnout 30.55%
Goresbrook: 3,114 total votes, turnout 35.15%
Heath: 1,994 total votes, turnout 32.92%
Longbridge: 4,046 total votes, turnout 43.64%
Mayesbrook: 3,283 total votes, turnout 33.2%
Northbury: 2,754 total votes, turnout 30.3%
Parsloes: 3,687 total votes, turnout 36.53%
Thames View: 1,340 total votes, turnout 34.82%
Valence: 3,378 total votes, turnout 32.81%
Village: 3,144 total votes, turnout 36.82%
Whalebone: 3,066 total votes, turnout 33.19%
3pm update
Counting seems to have finished in a couple of wards, so we may get some results soon.
One Reform UK candidate observing the Alibon ward count says it looked like a close contest there.
One or two Labour members around the hall seem to feel their vote has held up better than expected.
3:30pm update
Still waiting on results to be announced, but some of the candidates seem to have a good idea of how they’ve done. At one end of the room, a group of Reform candidates appear to be celebrating – hugging and cheering.
Meanwhile a Green candidate is downbeat, saying it’s “not looking good” for their party, and that Labour seems to have held on.
15:50
The first ward result has been declared – Labour wins both seats in Abbey ward.
Councillors elected:
Manzoor Hussain (Labour)
Regina Rahman (Labour)
16:17
Becontree – Labour hold both seats.
Councillors elected:
Edna Fergus (Lab)
Muhammad Saleem (Lab)
16:25
Eastbrook and Rush Green – Reform UK wins its first seats on Barking and Dagenham Council, taking both from Labour.
Councillors elected:
Ron Emin (Reform)
Ben Suter (Reform)
Speaking from the stage, Suter says Reform represents “a real chance for radical change” and describes his win as “a result in Barking and Dagenham we’ve not seen in many years”. He promises more Reform wins to come today: “I won’t be the only one for Reform here on this stage, that’s for sure.”
16:40
Eastbury – Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected:
Mohammed Sadruzzaman Khan (Lab)
Dominic Twomey (Lab)
Maureen Worby (Lab)
Speaking from the stage, Labour leader Cllr Twomey says the council under Labour has “delivered and we’ll continue to deliver” and said there’d be “no rise of populist politicians in this borough”.
He adds: “We’ll be bringing people together, rather than the politics of division that Reform sow in communities”.
16:50
Beam – Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected:
Muhib Choudhury (Lab)
Donna RA Lumsden (Lab)
Glen Spoor (Lab)
17:00
Barking Riverside – Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected: Josie Channer, Cameron Geddes and Marion Leslie Hull.#
17:15
Gascoigne – Greens GAIN two seats, Labour HOLD one.
Councillors elected:
Alison Cormack (Lab)
Nazrul Kazi (Green)
Moin Qaudri (Green)
Heath – Labour HOLD both seats.
Councillors elected:
Ingrid Robinson (Lab)
Harriet Spoor (Lab)
17:30
Thames View
Labour HOLD both seats.
Councillors elected:
Lucy Sara Lee (Lab)
Sabbir Zamee (Lab)
17:35
Alibon
Labour HOLD both seats.
Councillors elected:
Dorothy Akwaboah (Lab)
Muazzam Sandhu (Lab)
So far that’s 20 seats for Labour, two for the Greens and two for Reform.
18:00
Goresbrook
Reform GAIN all three seats.
Councillors elected:
George Miller (Ref)
Manjeet Nandra (Ref)
Caleb Van Ryneveld (Ref)
18:20
Mayesbrook
Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected:
Shamsul Azam (Lab)
Kashif Haroon (Lab)
Faiza Noreen (Lab)
18:31
Whalebone
Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected:
Andrew Achilleos (Lab)
Rubina Siddiqui (Lab)
Mukhtar Yusuf (Lab)
That gives Labour a majority with 26 seats. Reform has five and the Green Party has two. There are still five wards yet to declare.
18:46
Village
Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected:
Ajanta Deb Roy (Lab)
Phil Waker (Lab)
Julia Williams (Lab)
18:52
Chadwell Heath
Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected:
Sade Bright (Lab)
Simon Perry (Lab)
Michel Pongo (Lab)
19:06
Longbridge
Lab HOLD one, Green HOLD one and GAIN one
Councillors elected:
Mashkura Binta Mazid, (Green)
Faruk Choudhury (Green)
Rocky Gill (Lab)
19:19
Parsloes
Reform GAIN all three seats from Labour.
Councillors elected:
Alexandra Arnautu (Ref)
Billy Edmunds (Ref)
Ripon Sheikh (Ref)
19:26
Valence
Reform GAIN one, Labour HOLD two.
Councillors elected:
Kim Barti (Ref)
Syed Feroz Ghani (Lab)
Jane Elizabeth Jones (Lab)
19:43
Northbury
Labour HOLD all three seats.
Councillors elected:
Saima Ashraf (Lab)
Giasuddin Miah (Lab)
Summya Sohaib (Lab)
That’s the last ward to declare.
FINAL RESULT
Labour HOLD Barking and Dagenham Council with a majority of 38 seats.
Reform have nine seats, up from zero.
Green Party have four seats, up from three.
