Last week's election in Wokingham was a multi-layered game of chess and in the end the council looks almost the same as before.
One third of Wokingham's seats were up, with a by-election in Wokingham Without. Of the 19 seats contested, six went to the Conservatives, 12 to the Liberal Democrats and one to Labour; Greens and Reform won none.
The Liberal Democrat majority has grown to 29 seats. The Conservatives remain on 19, Labour on five and the Greens on one.
But the story isn't just about seats. Voting patterns have shifted and more parties now matter locally.
In 2024 the Lib Dems took 41.3% of the vote and the Conservatives 38.1%. Because of where votes fall, that 40% split gave the Lib Dems 27 seats and the Tories 19, with the two parties holding 46 of the borough's 54 seats between them.
Fast forward to 2026 and those two parties only managed about a third each across Wokingham: Lib Dems 34.8% and Conservatives 29.3%.
Local examples show the shift. In South Lake mayor Carol Jewell was defending a 10-vote majority and had faced criticism over a 20mph limit. Her vote fell by 6.9%, but the Conservative vote fell by over 17%, letting her return with a majority of about 250.
The smaller parties moved sharply: Labour's share dropped from about 18% in 2024 to 6% last week. Reform rose from nothing to 18.6%, and the Greens climbed from 2.25% to 9.64%.
With the Lib Dems already strong, this change in who people vote for hasn't yet translated into a big change in representation - our voting system still favours the main winners.
But there's nothing to say the Greens or Reform won't continue to grow here. If they do, control of the council could become much harder to predict.
A conservative spokesperson seemed to sum it up when he said: "A number of wards are on a knife-edge. It's all to play for and really interesting moving forwards."
Ted O'Neill, Local Democracy Reporter
