Local elections 2023: Can Labour continue its winning run in Luton?
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Labour currently holds a majority in Luton and the Liberal Democrats are the main opposition party
Luton has been a Labour party stronghold in recent years: it has held power on the local council for over 30 years, with the exception of four years in the noughties. As the May elections approach, will it be business as usual, or can the Liberal Democrats spring a surprise?"
Labour has 28 councillors and the Liberal Democrats 17. The number required for overall control is 25.
Only the Liberal Democrats have enough candidates to even entertain the idea of beating Labour this time.
The Conservatives are standing in just a third of the seats and neither of their two councillors is standing again.
The Greens, meanwhile, are focusing elsewhere and have no candidates in Luton.
Despite it being more than a year since Covid restrictions were lifted, the impact of the pandemic could still be a factor.
The council lost money when Luton Rising, its company that runs the airport, saw planes grounded.
More recently, eight Labour councillors were deselected, including three who broke lockdown rules.
So if this is a two-horse race, what are those parties saying about this election?
'Good stuff in difficult times'
Labour's leader is Hazel Simmons. She has been in charge of the council since 2007.
Despite the issues faced by Luton during the pandemic, she is confident people in the town will still vote for her party.
"We need to go out and sell the Labour message; it's an ambitious agenda," she says.
"We've done a lot of good stuff in difficult times, so we just need to tell the public what we've done and what we'll do in future."
Luton Council leader Hazel Simmons hopes people will still vote for her party.
Ms Simmons says parking, waste and fly-tipping are concerns, but that people "still want to see the airport grow, jobs created and improvements to the town centre".
'Never go into the town centre'
The Liberal Democrat leader David Franks has been a councillor since 1983. He says he is confident there will be some surprises for his party in May.
He is pretty clear about where Luton's problems lie.
Lib Dem leader David Franks says Luton town centre isn't safe for everyone.
"Fifty per cent of people in my ward never, never come into the town centre. They don't feel it's safe and they don't feel comfortable," he said.
Mr Franks supports council plans to redevelop Bute Street Car Park, external, but feels the rest of the town centre needs a clean-up, otherwise "people won't go near it".
'Fairness no longer working'
In the run-up to these elections, eight standing Labour councillors were deselected by the party's national executive because both local constituency parties were in special measures.
Three of those were councillors who broke lockdown rules during the pandemic: former mayor Tahir Malik, Waheed Ahkbar and Asif Masood.
When he was deselected, Mr Ahkbar told the BBC the deselections could impact on Labour's performance in this election.
"Because of decisions taken somewhere else, this is no longer a democracy, and the party has worked against the principles of fairness, justice and socialism which are no longer working in Luton," he said.
There was speculation the eight might stand as independents or join another party.
In the end just two, Summara Khurshid and Ghulam Javed, crossed the floor to the Lib Dems and are running.
At the time, a Labour party spokesman said its selection processes were carried out "in line with our rules and procedures, and include robust interviews and due-diligence checks".
A boundary review, external means there's now one more ward in Luton, taking the total to 20.
The selection process has also seen a number of established councillors switching seats.
There will be seven independents and two candidates from Reform UK
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