Seven candidates, one seat, in a ward where the last seat went by 17 votes. Myatt's Fields votes on 8 October, and registration closes at midnight on 22 September.

Lambeth will elect a new councillor for Myatt’s Fields ward on Thursday 8 October. The returning officer, Ian Davis, published the formal notice of election on Thursday 3 September (Lambeth Council, Notice of Election). One seat is being filled.

Myatt’s Fields sits on Lambeth’s eastern boundary, covering SW9 and SE5 streets between Brixton and Camberwell. It is about two miles east of Clapham Common, so this is not a Clapham vote: only people on the register in that ward can take part.

The seat is vacant after the death of Cllr Annie Gallop, who the council said had represented residents for more than a decade (Lambeth Council). The council’s own councillor list now shows one Myatt’s Fields member, Cllr Patience Clague, and one vacancy (Lambeth Council, councillors by ward).

Who is standing

Seven candidates were validly nominated when nominations closed at 4pm on Friday 11 September. The returning officer published the statement of persons nominated the same day (Lambeth Council, statement of persons nominated, notice of poll and notice of situation of polling stations, dated 11 September 2026).

Candidate Description on the ballot
Yemi Awolola Christian Peoples Alliance
Christopher David French Liberal Democrats
Molly Hartill Labour and Co-operative Party
John Francis Hindson Conservative Party Candidate
Anya Krycek The Socialist Party (GB)
Mark Mckee Reform UK
Sonia Winifred The Green Party

Names are as printed on the notice, which lists candidates alphabetically by surname. One of them has stood here before: Molly Hartill was the Labour and Co-operative candidate who finished 17 votes behind in May.

Where you vote

The notice of poll sets four polling stations for the ward, at three buildings. Which one you use depends on your electoral register number, which is printed on your poll card.

Station Address
1 Christchurch (Brixton) CE School, Cancell Road, SW9 6HN
2 Myatts Field North Community Centre, 24 Crawshay Road, SW9 6FZ
3 and 4 Minet Library, 52 Knatchbull Road, SE5 9QY

Polls are open from 7am to 10pm on Thursday 8 October.

The dates that matter

Most of these deadlines fall before the campaign is really under way, which is the usual reason people miss them. The council’s published timetable sets them out in full (Lambeth Council, important dates):

  • Friday 11 September, 4pm: nominations closed. The statement of persons nominated was published the same day, and is set out above.
  • Tuesday 22 September, midnight: last date to register to vote. This is the deadline with no way back from.
  • Wednesday 23 September, 5pm: last date to apply for a postal vote, or to change or cancel an existing postal or proxy vote.
  • Wednesday 30 September, 5pm: last date for a new proxy vote, and for a Voter Authority Certificate or Anonymous Elector’s Document.
  • Thursday 8 October, 7am to 10pm: polling stations open. The count starts at 10pm.
Timeline of the Myatt's Fields by-election deadlines in 2026: nominations close 11 September, candidates published 14 September, register to vote by midnight 22 September, postal vote by 5pm 23 September, proxy vote and Voter Authority Certificate by 5pm 30 September, polling day 8 October.
The Myatt's Fields by-election timetable. Source: Lambeth Council, important dates and Notice of Election dated 3 September 2026. Graphic by Clapham News.
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Poll cards go out from Wednesday 9 September. If something goes wrong late on, there are two fallbacks. Replacement postal ballots can be issued from Friday 2 October, and an emergency proxy can be applied for up to 5pm on polling day, but only if the reason arose after 5pm on 30 September.

You need photo ID

Voter ID applies at this by-election. If you do not have an accepted document, you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate. Apply online, by post, or in person at Lambeth Town Hall. The deadline is 5pm on Wednesday 30 September (Lambeth Council).

The council also sets out who can vote here: British, Irish, Commonwealth, qualifying EU citizens and EU citizens with retained rights. British citizens living overseas are not eligible in a local election.

Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm and the council points voters to the Where Do I Vote service to find theirs (Lambeth Council, polling stations).

Why 17 votes is the number to remember

This ward does not produce comfortable results. In May, Myatt’s Fields elected two councillors and the second seat was decided by 17 votes (Lambeth Council, Myatt’s Fields result).

Candidate Party Votes
Patience Clague Green 1,267 (elected)
Annie Gallop Labour and Co-operative Party 1,179 (elected)
John Lubbock Green 1,162
Molly Hartill Labour and Co-operative Party 1,108

Eleven candidates stood. The electorate was 8,255, 3,062 ballot papers were issued and 39 were rejected, a turnout of 37%. Of the rejected papers, 11 were rejected because the voter had marked more candidates than they were entitled to, which in a two-seat ward means three or more crosses. On 8 October there is one seat, so one cross.

The July by-elections in this borough were just as tight. In Clapham Park on 9 July, the Green candidate Michael Ball took the seat with 842 votes against 799 for Labour and Co-operative. That is a margin of 43, on 1,923 votes cast from an electorate of 9,559 (Lambeth Council, Clapham Park result). In Streatham St Leonard’s the same day, the Liberal Democrat Alex Davies won with 1,161 votes to the Greens’ 972 (Lambeth Council, Streatham St Leonard’s result).

Roughly one in five electors voted in Clapham Park in July, against 37% in Myatt’s Fields in May. That is the practical point about a by-election: fewer people vote, so each vote is worth more.

What is at stake at the town hall

The Greens run Lambeth. They took 29 of the 63 seats in May and hold every cabinet post, with Cllr Martin Abrams as Leader of the Council. Labour has 13 seats, Labour and Co-operative another 13, and the Liberal Democrats 8 (Lambeth Council, results by party).

So the Greens are three seats short of an outright majority, and one seat will not change that. What it does change is the arithmetic on close votes, and it decides who Myatt’s Fields residents ring when a repair, a licence or a planning application goes wrong.

What it means for you

If you live in Myatt’s Fields ward, the only date you cannot recover from is midnight on Tuesday 22 September. Miss the registration deadline and there is no late route in. Register at gov.uk/register-to-vote; you will need your National Insurance number if you have one.

If you already have a postal vote, check the address it goes to before 5pm on Wednesday 23 September, because that is also the deadline for changing one.

If you live elsewhere in Lambeth, nothing changes for you on 8 October. The council’s decisions still do: our guides to planning applications in Lambeth, council tax bands and bin collection days are the practical end of what the town hall decides.

Nominations are now closed, so the ballot paper is fixed. The seven names above are the choice on 8 October.

Updated 21 September 2026: this article now carries the seven candidates and the four polling stations from the statement of persons nominated, published on 11 September. The paragraph on how to stand as a candidate has been removed because nominations closed on 11 September.

Sources