In January 2022, the Conservative peer
Robert Hayward said that in the wake of the
Westminster lockdown parties controversy, his party risked losing control of
Wandsworth,
Westminster,
Barnet and
Hillingdon London Borough Councils. Polls of London in January and March 2022 showed Labour with a large lead over the Conservatives. Dave Hill in
OnLondon wrote that the poll results would make Labour more confident of making gains in Barnet, Wandsworth, Hillingdon and Westminster, and of winning the new
directly-elected mayoralty of Croydon despite financial issues in the borough. He also wrote that the Conservatives were aiming to make gains in Harrow. Nick Bowes, the chief executive of the
Centre for London, wrote that Labour gaining control of Barnet and Wandsworth councils would "be a good night for the party in London". The academics
Colin Rallings and
Michael Thrasher wrote that Labour's strong result in the 2018 election meant "it may be hard for Labour to make much headway or for the Conservatives to fall much further". A poll by
Survation on what issues would affect how people voted showed
Council Tax, the Westminster lockdown parties controversy, and social care quality as the main issues, with far fewer voters ranking
Low Traffic Neighbourhood schemes as one of the issues that would most affect how they vote. The Liberal Democrats launched their local election campaign on 6 April. The party were targeting seats on
Merton Council. Labour launched their London local election campaign on 9 April, with the national party leader
Keir Starmer and the
mayor of London saying that the Conservative government had "abandoned" London and were not concerned about the rising cost of living. The journalist Ben Walker, writing in the
New Statesman, modelled what the election results would look like according to the voteshares in an April poll by Opinium. His model showed Labour gaining control of Wandsworth and Barnet, with 1,157 to 1,188 seats across the city, while the Conservatives would win between 428 and 452 seats, the Liberal Democrats would win between 149 and 179 seats, and the Green Party would win between 11 and 22 seats. ==Council results==