Desperate Labour drafting MPs to canvass London

With the local elections looming, the serious parties are mobilising their supporters to hit the streets and engage with the public. Labour, meanwhile, are panicking, because Starmer encouraged the party’s grassroots to “leave”:

So hardly any volunteers left in Labour, they're having to press gang MPs to save their council seats in London. This has been a long time coming. https://t.co/mfF8POIjec

— Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock 💚🌍 🍉 (he/they) (@alastairis) April 10, 2026

Labour — Shaking off the fleas

In the post above, HuffPost’s Kevin Schofield wrote:

NEW: With the elections on May 7 less than a month away, Labour chair Anna Turley has written to 2024 intake MPs urging them to campaign in London when they return to Westminster next week.

She says: “Every London council seat is up for election in May. I know you’re all doing great work across the country but let’s use our time in the big smoke to help our Labour family there.”

An MP says: “Things must be bad.”

So, Labour are asking MPs to ignore their constituency work for a month so they can prop up the party’s failing London operation. Fair enough, it’s when they’re in Westminster, but it’s still time they could spend responding to constituents or making plans.

If you’re wondering what happened to all the Labour activists and door knockers – well – a lot of them left after Starmer said this:

“If you don’t like the changes we have made, I say, the door is open and you can leave”

and then we did.

en masse.

For the people would rather support someone like Zack Polanski that stands for something instead of someone like Keir Starmer who stands for nothing. https://t.co/njJ6e7daAv pic.twitter.com/aQ4iXJ2Fvw

— thelefttake (@thelefttake) April 3, 2026

As the BBC reported on 7 April:

Six million voters, more than 1,800 councillors across 32 boroughs. The simple numbers behind what could be one of London’s most complicated elections.

On 7 May every council in the capital will go to the polls to decide who will run their authorities over the next four years.

And no longer, it seems, can Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats be confident that they alone will be running town halls.

The rise of Reform UK on the right and the Green Party on the left are presenting real and new challenges.

In other words, Starmer has fucked up so badly that he’s ended the political norms which have persisted for a century.

To be fair, he did have a lot of help from the Labour and Tory MPs who worked tirelessly to convince the public that the two-party system just doesn’t work.

The BBC continued:

After 7 May it’s possible five or even six parties will be in charge of various councils in London.

The previous red blanket, with Labour currently running 21 boroughs, becoming more of a patchwork quilt.

It will go lower

Beyond the local elections, Labour are also at risk of losing most of their MPs in the capital:

🗳️ Current #GE2029 seat estimate for London:

🔴 Lab: 22 (-37)
🟢 Grn: 17 (+17)
➡️ Ref: 15 (+15)
🔵 Con: 10 (+1)
🟠 Lib: 6 (=)
⚪️ Oth: 5 (+4)

+/- vs GE2024 pic.twitter.com/9s2pzrh4Tq

— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️‍⚧️ (@LeftieStats) March 29, 2026

The way things are going, the above map could prove optimistic.

After all, if Starmer has proven one thing, it’s that he can always become more unpopular.

Featured image via The Canary