The leader of Havering Council’s Labour group says he is pleased with the progress being made by his party after they more than doubled their representation at town hall in yesterday’s election.

Keith Darvill, who was a Labour MP for Upminster from 1997-2001, was one of only two Labour councillors elected in 2014 but last night saw his complement of Labour councillors rise to five.

He told the Recorder: “I’m pleased in the sense that we’ve increased our representation on the council from two to five, but I’m disappointed we didn’t manage to win a couple of others that were very close.

“We came very close in Gooshays, where our candidate Adam fought a very good campaign and lost by just 50 votes to the Harold Hill Independent Party, and in Rainham, our candidate Faye Jough lost by around 200 votes, so we came close again.

“Overall I think we made some really good progress, particularly if you look at where we were four years ago.”

And when it came to his personal campaign in Heaton, Mr Darvill was delighted to earn the single most votes of any candidate, being returned to the council with 1,109 votes.

He said: “On a personal level it is obviously great to come top of the pile and have been awarded the confidence of the ward yet again.

“Now we’ll continue our work in Gooshayes and Heaton and across the borough to keep building up that Labour support.”