Why Labour's London squeeze exposes a fragmented modern British politics

Why Labour's London squeeze exposes a fragmented modern British politics9 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleNick RobinsonToday programme presenterBBC"Do you know the result which is keeping them awake in Number 10?," a Cabinet minister recently asked me.Scotland, I asked? Wales? No, I was told. The answer was London.The reason Sir Keir Starmer and his team are waiting so nervously for the results of next week's council elections in London is that it represents Labour's new heartland.One in seven Labour MPs represents constituencies in the capital. The prime minister is a London member of parliament, as is his deputy, David Lammy, as well as the man who wants Starmer's job, Health Secretary Wes Streeting. The Secretary State for Housing, Steve Reed, completes the quartet of powerful London MPs in the Cabinet. A significant percentage of the party's activists, and the members who choose the party's leaders, live in the capital. Losses here will hurt Labour's core.Getty ImagesOne in seven Labour MPs represents constituencies in the capitalOf course, politicians from all sides are known to make dramatic claims in the run-up to elections - sometimes out of fear, and sometimes to manage expectations. But this year, virtually everyone expects serious losses for Labour in London. The pollster YouGov predicts it could be Labour's worst result in the capital for almost 50 years.And those losses would come from a squeeze from both sides of politics. Labour is under attack from the Greens in London's progressive inner boroughs; and from Reform in the traditionally more socially conservative outer ring. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats expect to gain some councils too.The veteran academic of London's politics, Tony Travers, a politics professor at the London School of Economics, says the capital may be about to witness a "political earthquake".It's a frightening prospect for Labour'...