Cllr Tom Mytton is a Wandsworth councillor and has been Chairman of Tooting Conservative Association since 2022.
“Labour gain Wandsworth”. The words that we had all feared had come true. For years, we had watched the red tide spread across the political map of Wandsworth like the intro to a tacky 1970s horror movie. Then in 2022, Wandsworth changed hands politically for the first time in 44 years. For generations, Wandsworth Conservatives had built a reputation for competent local government, low council tax, and effective services. The borough was regarded nationally as the crown jewels and a model of Conservative municipal success. Then we lost it.
The defeat was significant not simply because Labour won, but because it exposed deep structural problems within our local organisation.
For many of us in Tooting and Wandsworth, 2022 was not merely an electoral setback. It was a wake-up call.
Then on 7th May 2026 just over a month ago, on a night when the Conservatives lost over 560 councillors across the country, we won back Wandsworth at the first attempt.
Since 2012, Wandsworth Conservatives had operated under a grouped structure, which included the three constituencies that made up Wandsworth borough as well as Wimbledon constituency that made up part of Merton borough. This structure had grown out of the previous Wandsworth Conservative Group pre-2012. The intention was laudable – greater coordination, shared resources, economies of scale and a stronger campaigning machine.
In practice, however, this structure was not delivering the best results. In 2012, the position was as follows:
By contrast, following the elections in 2022, the position was:
Some of this was down to the national political landscape shifting as well as that within London too. However, we also had to look inwards at lessons learned and what we could be doing better locally. Decision-making had become slower, accountability at times weaker, and local associations struggled to develop their own identity and campaigning strategies. With hindsight, combining two boroughs with very different political makeup and background in a single, rigid financial and management structure became a fatal flaw.
In early 2024, Tooting and Putney voted to leave the grouped structure entirely at their respective AGMs, believing reform was essential if Wandsworth Conservatives were to recover – and more importantly if we wanted to win back Wandsworth Borough Council at the first opportunity.
For Tooting Conservatives, leaving was not about personalities or factionalism. It was a very difficult decision for us to make and was extremely painful for all involved. Our decision was about effectiveness. We believed the organisation needed to innovate, pivot and modernise, become more agile, and reconnect more deeply with members and voters at a local level. Tooting had historically been tasked with handing over financial and volunteer resources to other associations to shore up electoral chances elsewhere, mainly to the detriment of the success of our own Association. Our belief post-2022 was this needed to change. We needed to operate as one collective team in Wandsworth. There was a new-found recognition of the need for Tooting Conservatives to play a key, active role in Wandsworth.
Ironically, just a few months after our decision to leave, we were faced with a local by-election in West Putney following a Labour councillor’s resignation, interestingly this was on the same day as the London Mayoral election – we soundly won it. It was the Wandsworth Conservatives first gain in a local by-election since 1976 and where we won on the day that we lost the GLA seat and sadly didn’t take the Mayoralty either. This outstanding result was achieved thanks to a break away from the orthodoxy of the past and centred around a hyper local campaign, an exceptionally hard working candidate supported by a collective of volunteers and local leadership who truly believed they could win. A prime example of what could be achieved when given the opportunity.
I should make one thing clear. While we were not in a grouping anymore, Tooting Conservatives, Battersea Conservatives and Putney Conservatives continue to have a strong collaborative working approach at a practical level as demonstrated by a range of cross-association working in delivering the success of 2026.
Following the 2022 defeat, Tooting Conservatives undertook a complete overhaul of its officer team.
We needed to part with the ways of the past, which had worked to a point but like any organisation that wants to be successful, you have to evolve with the times. We brought in people with new ideas, fresh energy, and a willingness to challenge assumptions that had gone unquestioned for years. The emphasis shifted from preserving existing structures to building a winning organisation from the ground up. This was going to be the biggest challenge we had faced locally in a very long time. 2022 had seen us experience our worst results in Tooting since 1974 – reduced to just three councillors in Wandsworth Common Ward.
That meant professionalising fundraising, modernising communications, improving volunteer engagement, and rebuilding campaigning infrastructure ward by ward. We had to confront the argument, “but we’ve always done it this way”, and had to take difficult decisions about property and staffing.
Most importantly, we stopped accepting decline as inevitable.
Rather than dwelling on what had been lost, we focused on what needed to change. That night of losing Wandsworth Borough Council was when our target for the next four years was set – Win Back Wandsworth at the first opportunity. We had seen Conservatives in nearby boroughs enter a death spiral, falling away after a big loss to a level that makes it near impossible to rebuild, let alone win a council back at the first time of asking. Those that eventually do, take several electoral cycles, sometimes over decades or only do so when a council has either had a large scandal or national winds of change have had an effect.
The first task was setting out a clear strategy that everyone could buy into. Previously, even those of us who were seasoned volunteers didn’t quite understand how our role played into the bigger picture. This resulted in frustration when our volunteers had worked exceptionally hard but then were always faced with lack of success at an election. We treated it like any other organisation would, a simple strategy that was easily communicated: focusing on local issues, building name recognition as local champions in the community and embedding ourselves, rather than just making ourselves out as a local candidate for the conservatives. We were working hard for residents rather than just working for votes.
The previous few years and in particular in our 2022 campaign we had played an ultra-defensive strategy, leaving no margin for setbacks in a particular ward and with a top-down strategy which tended to ignore the knowledge and insight of local campaign teams. We had to move away from this while utilising data where possible to measure our performance over the next few years, for example, the data from the GLA election in 2024 helped guide us towards which wards were going to be ‘in play’ 2 years later. Rather than thinking in a short-term view of campaigning based on whatever the next election was, we took a four year view, using elections in between as stepping stones to build up our targets.
Rebuilding the volunteer base was essential. Electoral defeat does not just cost elected representatives and financial resources; it can also weaken morale and reduce volunteer engagement. After 2022, we reached a crossroads: either accept the result and decline further, or rebuild with a renewed sense of purpose. We chose the latter because we had to. Without renewal, the Borough risked becoming permanently Labour-controlled.
The first step was making the Association feel like a thriving organisation again – somewhere people wanted to belong. Creating a new narrative of success is difficult and takes time. It begins with setting out a clear vision and then steadily reinforcing it through tangible progress. Small victories became important proof points. In two by-elections in one of Labour’s safest wards, Tooting Broadway, in 2022 and 2024, we increased our vote share despite the Party’s national unpopularity. Supporting the successful West Putney by-election campaign also helped build momentum and confidence.
Alongside campaigning, we organised events simply focused on bringing people together and enjoying themselves. With each event, attendance grew, helping to create an atmosphere people wanted to be part of. That enthusiasm translated directly into increased volunteer participation, both at organised campaign sessions and through people giving their own time independently.
Tooting Conservatives’ volunteers are a different breed. They are among the hardest-working campaigners you could hope for, a necessity when competing against the red tide in Tooting. That same work ethic would also define our candidates for the 2026 elections. They would not need encouragement to spend lunch breaks, trips to the local shop, or spare half-hours delivering leaflets or knocking on doors in addition to regular campaign sessions. 30,000 steps in a day is the standard, a target set and regularly beaten rather than just as a one off.
Our volunteers were and are at the centre of delivering success for us.
Historically, associations such as Putney and Battersea had been regarded as the financial powerhouses within Wandsworth Conservatives. Tooting was not expected to compete at that level.
That changed dramatically.
Under the new leadership team, and in particular the establishment of a world class volunteer events team, Tooting Conservatives transformed itself into a strong fundraising operation. Through disciplined organisation, stronger donor engagement, innovative events, and a culture of ambition, we increased our fundraising profits by 170% from 2022 to 2026.
We hosted international cuisine evenings, then introduced an annual dinner that raised more in one night than that we had ever raised solely by ourselves, and even established a patrons club – a particularly difficult task when you don’t have a sitting MP to anchor around.
That financial turnaround mattered because resources win campaigns. Effective fundraising allowed us to invest in literature, data, campaigning technology, volunteer activity, and candidate support at a level previously thought impossible for Tooting.
More importantly, it demonstrated something larger: that organisational culture matters. Once members believed success was achievable, standards rose even higher across the board. Lastly, we were having fun while doing it all. Events regularly sold out not through us pushing people to come along but because people wanted to come along and enjoy themselves.
Political organisations ultimately have to be judged on outcomes.
Since 2006, Tooting Conservatives had not made a single gain at a local level. Now there are a number of reasons as to why this was the case and more than can be explained here. However, some key factors are that back in 2006 we were at an unbelievably high watermark – holding 15 out of the 21 councillors in Tooting at the time. Secondly, Tooting has become a much harder constituency to be successful in as a Conservative – the lower part of the constituency taking in the Northern Line corridor which has helped to accelerate a change in demographics. Places like Balham, Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway have some of the largest population demographics of those aged 18-39. An age group that is more challenging but not impossible to persuade to vote Conservative.
The argument internally was always that the Brexit referendum was the reason for our declining fortunes at elections. However, some of us just saw this as an excuse. Wandsworth Conservatives have had a history of defying political gravity. One year after the Labour landslide in 1997 Wandsworth returned 50 Conservative councillors out of 61 available, actually increasing the number since four years previously. The same had happened at the height of the national party’s unpopularity in the early 90s. We just had to rediscover that ability.
Our campaigning was relentless. Now with more readily available funds at the disposal of Tooting Conservatives we could put out considerably more literature. Between September 2022 and polling day in 2026 we had put out close to 800,000 leaflets with the majority across our four target wards – way more than we had done in a long time. At the same time between January 2026 and 7th May 2026 we were speaking to close to a thousand residents a week.
We also had the freedom to develop different types of campaigns, design our own leaflets – some avoiding Conservative branding to carry more of a punch on a specific issue – using different sizes and even different colour palettes, getting away from the cookie-cutter party templates that we had largely used prior to 2022. It was also personally rewarding to be in a position where if local candidates asked for something, they got it. Campaigning was all year round, every year. Not just at election time. To be successful this has to be the basic requirement.
What did this get us? At the 2026 local elections we made our first two gains at a local level since 2006 – both in previously Labour held wards, knocking out Labour incumbents and despite a markedly increased voter turnout since 2022, which doesn’t normally go in our favour. Only one other instance of this happened in the borough, in Battersea Park – another fantastic achievement. Let’s also not forget that we achieved this against the national backdrop as well. This increased our number of councillors from three to five and played our part, alongside Battersea Conservatives and Putney Conservatives in winning back Wandsworth Borough Council (Battersea made three gains relative to 2022 and Putney made 2 gains – all equally needed to win).
Those victories did not happen by accident. They came from relentless campaigning, clear local messaging, stronger community engagement, and an organisation willing to adapt to political reality rather than deny it.
We had achieved our goal. Wandsworth is Conservative-run once again. You can’t win the Council in one constituency. We won it across all three. We also have an unbelievably strong, capable councillor group with experience from all walks of life, and which is already rising to the challenges we face to get the council back on track after four disastrous years of Labour.
And those candidates who weren’t successful this time? They will absolutely be back – some of the hardest working and most capable candidates you could ask for and ready to take the fight to Labour again just a few weeks after polling day. The future is now looking much brighter in “The Brighter Borough”.
The lesson from Wandsworth is simple: renewal only happens when people are prepared to confront uncomfortable truths.
Losing the council in 2022 was painful. But in hindsight, it forced necessary change. It challenged complacency, exposed organisational weaknesses, and created the opportunity to rebuild on stronger foundations.
Winning Wandsworth back was never about nostalgia for the past. The political environment has changed, the borough has changed, and the Conservative Party itself must continue to evolve.
But what we proved is that acceptance of the need for organisational reform, and a refusal to accept decline underpinned by a clear vision for the future can deliver results.
That is how recovery begins and renewal is achieved.