Unusually, a Brent Council by-election this week was held on Tuesday. There is no law that requires by-elections of any kind to take place on Thursdays, as they usually do. That is merely a tradition and councils are free to hold elections on different days of the week if they so wish.
Yesterday’s contest was in Alperton ward on the south west side of the borough. Since 2024, it has formed part of the Brent West constituency. Prior to that it was in Brent North and before that in Brent South – compass points tend to wander in a wedge-shaped borough like Brent.
Alperton adjoins the Ealing ward of Hanger Hill, where there was a by-election in October. But while Hanger Hill is part of Ealing’s belt of genteel suburbia, Alperton is made of grittier stuff. My 1876 Handbook to the Environs of London notes that “the brickmaker and the builder threaten a descent” on the Alperton meadows, and the next century saw industry flourish in the area – it is located just across the North Circular from the Park Royal estate.
Alperton ward is divided up by railways, canals and the River Brent. It remains among London’s most manufacturing-heavy districts. Its population increased from 11,000 to 15,000 between 2011 and 2021, partly due to natural growth and partly because of new development near the tube station and at the Ealing Road end of the ward, where large new residential buildings have appeared. This is not an unusual story for an area with industrial land ready for development and reasonably accessible by public transport thanks to its Piccadilly line station.
Alperton’s housing is divided evenly between houses and flats, but with a relatively low (15 per cent) proportion of social renting compared to owner occupation (48 per cent) and private rent (38 per cent). It is mainly Asian by ethnicity, with 59.5 per cent of people in the 2021 Census claiming Asian origin compared to 18.4 per cent white and 11.7 per cent black. The predominant Asian community by religion is Hindu, with 44.5 per cent of its population professing that faith. It is one of the most Hindu wards in the country.
In recent elections the Hindu vote has swung towards the Conservatives despite the national decline in that party’s support. It is a movement that predates the Prime Ministership of Rishi Sunak, having been obvious in the May 2022 elections in Harrow in particular but also in some Hindu wards in the north of Brent. However, none of this movement was apparent in Alperton in 2022 because the ward’s political context was so different.
Tuesday’s by-election was triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat councillor Anton Georgiou at the age of only 30. Georgiou, who had contested the Brent & Harrow London Assembly seat for his party in 2016, was first elected to the council at a previous by-election, a peculiar contest held in January 2020. This saw him prevail over a Labour candidate who had been disowned by his party for making Islamophobic (and anti-Labour) social media statements. By-election guru Andrew Teale has the full story on the several odd aspects of that contest.
Georgiou’s victory was not a flash in the pan. Alperton had been good ground for the Lib Dems before the 2010s, and their subsequent decline owed much to the 2010-15 national government coalition with the Conservatives. In the full borough elections of May 2022, Georgiou was re-elected along with a Lib Dem colleague, though the ward’s third seat was won by Labour. The split between the two parties was Lib Dems 46.5 per cent and Labour 41.3 per cent.
His decision to stand down came partly because of the release from prison of a man who had been convicted for stalking him – the police warned Georgiou that his public profile compromised his personal safety. He was also, despite the energy he put into the task, tired of being in opposition on a council with an overwhelming majority – 49 Labour councillors outnumbering five Conservatives and three Lib Dems. “I just felt I was banging my head against a red brick wall, and it’s so frustrating,” he told the Brent and Kilburn Times.
Four candidates to succeed him came forward. Marketing and tech development worker Charlie Clinton defended for the Lib Dems. An Alperton resident, he was also a general election candidate for Sir Keir Starmer’s Holborn & St Pancras seat. Student Prerna Thakkar stood for Labour, Harmit Vyas, a local activist who stood in the 2020 by-election here, represented the Conservatives, and retired bank worker Mahendra Nagi stood for Reform UK. The Greens decided not to field a candidate out of solidarity with Georgiou, given the circumstances that had brought the by-election about.
The issues were familiar ones. Each candidate gave a statement to Harrow Online (Alperton has always had links with Harrow what are as strong as those with Wembley and stronger than with Willesden). Crime featured prominently in all of them, as did the state of the local environment. “Safer, cleaner and greener” (in Vyas’s words) were common objectives, even if the candidates disagreed on the best approach to pursuing them. Labour’s Thakkar emphasised affordable housing; Lib Dem Clinton appealed for more of Brent’s dividend from local developments to be spent within Alperton.
The result was in line with expectations. The Lib Dems held the seat comfortably, with Clinton (pictured, foreground right) polling 1,743 votes (48.5 per cent) to finish well ahead of Labour (827 votes, 23.0 per cent). Active Lib Dem campaigning and leaflet blitzes were part of the reason for the very creditable turnout of 33.7 in a generally high-turnout ward, which had the best participation (43.4 per cent) in the borough in 2022.
Labour’s vote share loss (18.3 per cent) was nearly identical to that in last week’s by-election in the Burnt Oak ward of Barnet. And although the Lib Dems have most to celebrate from the result – a large majority in a ward that returned a split result in 2022 – the Conservatives can take some satisfaction from having polled 740 votes (20.6 per cent).
Their vote share was up 8.4 percentage points compared with 2022 and their third best London by-election performance since the general election. They also finished comfortably ahead of Reform (286 votes, 8.0 per cent) in the battle for leadership of the Right.
The Tories probably benefited from the continuing realignment of Hindu voters in their favour, even in a context where the main battle was Lib Dem v Labour. The outcome suggests – tentatively – that the Tories may be in good shape to retain control of Harrow Council in May 2026, and to pick up some seats in the more amenable wards in the north of Brent.
After what felt like a long gap between Greenwich Thamesmead West on 17 December and Barnet Burnt Oak on 13 February, the Brent by-election is part of a run of London by-elections. There are three more to come this week, to be held, in line with convention, on Thursday – one in Barking & Dagenham’s Whalebone ward, the other two in the Lillie and the Hammersmith Broadway wards of Hammersmith & Fulham. Further contests in Westminster, Barnet (again) and Hounslow will follow in the next couple of weeks. On London will report on them all.
Support OnLondon.co.uk and its freelancers for just £5 a month or £50 a year and get things for your money that other people don’t. Details HERE. Follow Lewis Baston on Bluesky. Photo from Charlie Clinton’s X/Twitter feed.