Labour now holds 31 of Hounslow Council's 62 seats, one short of a majority, after a Heston East councillor became an Independent. What changes for Chiswick.
No party now has a majority on Hounslow Council. Labour holds 31 of the 62 seats, one short of the 32 it needs.
The change is recorded in the council’s own register of councillors by party, which we checked on Thursday 8 October. It lists Gurbachan Athwal, a councillor for Heston East, as an Independent.
Mr Athwal was elected as a Labour candidate in May. The Heston East declaration of result shows him taking the ward’s second seat with 977 votes, level with his Labour running mate Fiza Ahmed. Heston East is about five miles west of Chiswick.
How the seats have moved since May
At the election on 7 May, Labour won 32 seats, exactly the number needed to control the council. It had held 52 after the 2022 election.
The register now shows:
| Party | Seats in May | Seats on 8 October |
|---|---|---|
| Labour (including Labour and Co-operative) | 32 | 31 |
| Conservative | 17 | 17 |
| Reform UK | 8 | 8 |
| Green | 3 | 3 |
| Independent | 1 | 2 |
| Liberal Democrat | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 62 | 62 |
The two Independents are Mr Athwal and Theo Dennison, who sits for Syon and Brentford Lock under the Brentford & Isleworth Independent label.
The register does not give a reason for the change. When we checked, neither the council nor the Labour group had published a statement on their own websites. Other outlets have linked the change to a police matter. The Metropolitan Police has not published a statement on its own site, so we are not reporting the details.
Who runs the council now
Labour still leads it. The register lists Shantanu Rajawat, a Labour and Co-operative councillor for Heston West, as Leader of the Council. The Mayor, Ranjit Gill, is also Labour.
Labour’s 31 seats are now matched exactly by the 31 held by everyone else combined. That matters at full council, where the big decisions are taken, including the budget and council tax, which are set each February or March.
If a full council vote is tied, the person chairing the meeting gets a second, casting vote. That rule is in paragraph 39 of Schedule 12 to the Local Government Act 1972. At Hounslow the Mayor chairs full council.
In practice, Labour can still win a vote if all 31 of its councillors turn up and vote together. A single absence or rebellion would hand the result to the opposition, if the opposition parties all vote the same way.
The next full council meeting, called Borough Council, is listed for Tuesday 24 November at 7.30pm. Cabinet meets on 20 October and 10 November.
Chiswick’s nine councillors
Chiswick’s three wards elect nine of the 62 councillors. None of them has changed party since May. According to the register:
- Chiswick Gunnersbury: Joanna Biddolph, Vickram Grewal and Ron Mushiso, all Conservative
- Chiswick Homefields: Michael Denniss, Jack Emsley and Linden Grigg, all Conservative
- Chiswick Riverside: Amy Croft (Labour), Gabriella Giles (Conservative) and Rick Rowe (Green)
That is seven Conservatives, one Labour and one Green councillor for W4.
What it means for you
- Your bins, parking and council tax carry on as normal. Council services do not depend on which party has a majority, and the cabinet still makes day-to-day decisions.
- Votes at full council become harder to predict. That includes next year’s council tax and budget, and any vote on the Local Plan. Your ward councillors’ votes now carry more weight.
- You can contact your councillors directly. Their work emails and phone numbers are on the council’s register. Use them if there is a decision you want them to support or oppose.
- Check your council tax band on our Chiswick council tax bands page, and follow decisions affecting the area on our Chiswick planning news page.
We will update this story if the council or the Labour group publishes a statement, or if the balance of seats changes again.
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