A re-elected Labour councillor for Wandsworth has expressed dismay at his party’s local loss of control and slammed the first-past-the-post voting system.
Aydin Dikerdem of Shafestbury and Queenstown ward was part of the Labour controlled council – which triumphed in 2022 by taking the reigns from the Conservatives – but his party gave away seven seats to the opposition in a very tight local election, which is currently under no overall control.
Speaking to SWLondoner, he said: “People are questioning the soul of the Labour Party- like what do we stand for?
“As a socialist, as a left-wing person person, as a Labour party member who has decided to stay and fight for my politics, it breaks my hearts what’s been allowed to happen.”
Whilst Dikerdem feels privileged and joyful at being re-elected, he is disappointed that plans he has been working on could be dissolved under a Conservative led authority, which is likely after the independent councillor Malcolm Grimston has suggested he will support them.
In spite of winning the popular vote at 33.6% of the vote share, Labour lost control by just one seat and by just 16 votes – a consequence of our first past the post voting system.
Dikerdem labelled our electoral system ‘buckling and broken’ in a social media video he released in response to Labour losing control of Wandsworth Council.
He said: “Wandsworth is the canary in the coal mine of what will happen if progressives don’t think strategically and seriously about first-past-the-post.
“I think our electoral system is producing perpetually warped right-wing outcomes.”
He also told SWLondoner it particularly effects urban centres, focuses attention too much on marginal seats, and shuts young people out of politics and disillusions them from voting.
He added: “There is paper after paper and report after report that’s coming out that highlights that it damages the progressive majority of Britain.”
Councillor Grimston agreed, adding: “I think we’re going to have to look at proportional representation afresh because the ability to have a huge majority on a very small proportion of the vote is very uncomfortable in democracy.”
Across the UK Labour has seen a dramatic loss in council seats and Dikerdem said their strongholds are being outflanked.
He took to social media to say: “The Green surge that we are seeing across London is fundamentally the result of a national Labour Party that publicly celebrated purging and crushing its own left wing and a government that has chased votes from Reform with the hope that the progressives had nowhere else to go.
“And they’ve said sod this and voted Green.”
Speaking to SWLondoner he blamed, in part, McCarthyism and the disciplining effect it has within the Labour Party for their local and nationwide losses in these local elections.
Looking forward to the next four years Dikerdem is worried that the lack of Labour control could lead to the scrapping of council home building plans and the clearing of a peace encampment on council land outside the American Embassy, as well as concessionary schemes for working class families.
He added “We will be fighting to protect some of the progressive legacy of the last four years.”
Councillor Jo Rigby, a Labour representative for the Balham Ward, has also been re-elected.
Rigby said: “I’m still here to make sure we don’t return to an era of managed decline in local services and lack of compassion for my residents most in need of love from those elected.”
You can check out all of South West London’s 2026 local election here.
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