England elections 2022: The London battlegrounds

Every council seat in London's 32 boroughs is up for election on Thursday - a chance for London's 6.2 million voters to bring in a new set of councillors alongside five local mayors.

The elections will decide who runs local services - such as schools, libraries and bin collections - in all 32 boroughs.

BBC London is taking a look at four key battleground boroughs that will decide how London is run over the next four years.

A totemic Conservative borough since 1978, Wandsworth is known for having been a favourite of the late former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and also for its low council tax rates.

But after a decade of Labour gains it is now the closest south-west London borough in terms of seats - with 33 Conservative councillors and 26 Labour.

These elections are Labour's best chance to take the borough in decades.

Barnet has been held by the Conservatives in all but two elections since 1964, but Labour smell an opportunity to take control of the borough.

The 2014 election result was a real cliff-hanger, with the 2010 Conservative majority reduced from 15 councillors to one.

The Conservatives have made gains since then but Labour leader Keir Starmer has focused his party's efforts on the borough, launching Labour's nationwide local election campaign there on 8 April.

Croydon Council has barely been out of the news since declaring bankruptcy almost 18 months ago.

The Labour-run council was forced to put a temporary ban on any non-essential spending.

Conservatives, independents and some smaller parties will be looking to seize control of the council as the borough holds its inaugural vote for a directly-elected Croydon mayor.

Held by the Liberal Democrats since 1990, Sutton has been a flagship council for Ed Davey's party.

Unusually for a Lib Dem stronghold, Sutton voted Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum, and elected Conservative MPs to represent two parliamentary seats.

In 2018, the Conservatives doubled their seats on the council to 18, and are now looking to increase their share and potentially snatch a victory.

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