Lambeth has no Tory councillors for the first time ever after the last Conservative member lost his seat.

Former councillor Tim Briggs was beaten into fifth place by the Lib Dems and Labour in Clapham Common and Abbeville. His defeat means the council is without a Conservative councillor for the first time ever. 

Mr Briggs, who had been a councillor since 2014, previously admitted he was struggling to keep the seat that he won by 32 votes at the last election in 2018. He said voters were mentioning Boris Johnson's rule breaking lockdown birthday party on the doorstep. Mr Briggs left the count hours before the final result was announced after realising he had no hope of victory. 

Labour swept to victory in the borough – winning 58 of 63 seats – the same as in 2018. Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lambeth leader Cllr Claire Holland said the result showed Labour had the backing of residents.  

She said: "The results show that people in Lambeth have put faith in us again and shown support for what we have pledged to do. We have the most diverse set of councillors we've ever seen. We've got a set of councillors that look like Lambeth."

Despite winning three seats from the Greens, Labour lost out to the Lib Dems in the new Streatham Hill West and Thornton ward. Donna Harris and Matthew Bryant became the first Lib Dems elected in the borough since 2010. The Lib Dems also picked up one councillor in Clapham Common and Abbeville – Conservative Tim Briggs's former seat.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Service after the results were announced, Ms Harris, who joined the Lib Dems following Brexit, said she had never imagined herself as a councillor. She said: "I never thought I would be doing this but I became more involved and realised Lambeth Labour is not working for people. We've worked so hard for this from the bottom up. The community is where we are."

The Greens lost three seats to Labour – one in Herne Hill, one in Gipsy Hill and one in Streatham St Leonard's. Following the announcement of the results, ex-Green councillor for Gipsy Hill Pete Elliot said: "I feel sorry for the residents, especially those on the Central Hill Estate who've voted for us. We have been steam-rolled by the Labour machine. We've had MPs coming up to Gipsy Hill. It's not a level playing field. We need proportional representation. Labour have been using the national picture to obscure what's going on locally."

Lambeth leader Cllr Claire Holland will be hoping for a smoother council term than the previous four years, when the council was hit by several scandals. Labour lost two leaders and one former councillor, Philip Normal, was forced to resign after racist and transphobic posts he had made on social media resurfaced. 

High on her list of priorities will be solving Lambeth's growing housing crisis. More than 36,000 people are waiting for a council home in the borough. Just over a 100 new council homes have been built by Lambeth's housing company Homes for Lambeth since it was founded in 2017. 

The Conservatives now have no representation on Lambeth Council for the first time since 1964 when the borough was created.