Barnet’s former Conservative leader has already joined Reform. A two‑horse race is on in every ward. A vote for anyone but Labour is a vote that risks undoing four years of delivery — and giving Reform a foothold in our borough.
What is actually happening in Barnet
In December 2024, Mark Shooter — the former Conservative group leader on Barnet Council — defected to Reform UK. Shooter now represents Hendon and is standing again in West Hendon. Reform is fielding a full slate of candidates in all 63 seats for the first time.
In October 2025, the Conservatives just held off Reform in a Hendon by‑election, with Reform polling over 30 per cent. The Barnet Post’s curtain‑raiser on 19 April 2026 confirms that Cllr Barry Rawlings is seeking a second term in a genuinely competitive contest.
And across the country, Reform is already winning seats that on paper belonged to the centre‑left. On 22 April 2026, Reform took Salford’s Barton and Winton ward — a seat Labour held with 71.8 per cent in 2022 — with 676 votes to Labour’s 643, the Greens’ 363 and the Liberal Democrats’ 94. The progressive majority was there. It just wasn’t behind one candidate.
What a Labour Barnet has actually delivered
Labour won Barnet from the Conservatives in 2022 after a generation of Tory control. Cllr Barry Rawlings’ administration has spent four years rebuilding the basics the Tories let slip:
- 83 per cent more roads repaired under Labour in Barnet than under the Tories — a direct, measurable turnaround on the issue residents raise most.
- CCTV fixed and expanded across the borough, after the Conservatives left cameras broken and off.
- Free community skips brought back to tackle fly‑tipping in every constituency neighbourhood.
- 1,000 social‑rent homes secured in the first term, with 1,000 more pledged in the second.
- £97 million committed to roads and pavements, alongside new powers to fine slow utility companies who block streets for weeks on end.
- A clamp‑down on gambling and fast‑food proliferation on Barnet’s high streets, protecting the character of Hendon, Finchley, Golders Green and Edgware town centres.
This is what a competent Labour council looks like: roads repaired, cameras working, skips back on the street, homes actually being built.
What Reform and the Tories actually offer
The Barnet Conservatives left CCTV broken, roads in disrepair, and had so little to be proud of that their former leader joined Reform. We cannot let them back in to undo four years of repair — and we cannot let them hand Reform a foothold in our borough.
Nationally, the record of Reform councils is consistent. In council after council where they campaigned on cutting waste and cutting taxes, they’re putting council tax up and slashing services, while getting embroiled in chaotic infighting and even racism scandals. Reform’s pitch in Barnet is the same pitch they made across the country. The outcome has been the same every time.
What is at stake in every constituency
The work of the last four years is being delivered across every part of the borough.
In Hendon, West Hendon and Edgware, the wards where Reform is pushing hardest, CCTV has been fixed, town centres invested in, and record numbers of roads resurfaced.
In Finchley, Finchley Church End and East Finchley, new social‑rent homes, protected libraries, and investment in neighbourhood safety are reshaping what a Labour borough looks like.
In Golders Green, Childs Hill and Garden Suburb, free community skips have returned, high‑street enforcement against illegal dumping has been stepped up, and the borough’s CCTV network has been brought back online.
In Burnt Oak, Colindale and Mill Hill, road repairs have accelerated, new council housing is being delivered, and funding has been directed into parks and leisure.
In Barnet Vale, High Barnet and Underhill, the council is delivering on town‑centre regeneration, rebuilding the relationship between residents and their council that the Tories broke.
In Cricklewood, Woodhouse, Totteridge and Whetstone, enforcement against fly‑tipping, anti‑social behaviour action and investment in community facilities are the daily work of a Labour council.
The choice on 7 May
Local elections take place across Barnet on Thursday 7 May 2026. In ward after ward this will be a two‑horse race. The Conservatives cannot win in Barnet — but a vote for the Tories, Reform, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens or an independent is a vote that could split the progressive majority and let Reform slip through.
If you care about roads being repaired, CCTV working, skips on the street, gambling shops kept off the high street and 1,000 more social‑rent homes built — there is one way to protect that: vote Labour.
A vote for any other party risks letting the Tories back in to undo our progress, and giving Reform a foothold in our borough. That is exactly what Shooter’s defection was designed to do. On 7 May, residents get to decide whether it succeeds.
Cllr Barry Rawlings leads a Labour council that has done 83 per cent more road repair than the Tories managed, brought back CCTV and free skips, secured 1,000 social homes, and governed with care and financial seriousness through the hardest period local government has faced in a generation.
On 7 May, vote Labour — and keep Barnet delivering.
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