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Last week’s local elections serve as a wake-up call to every political party, independent candidates and all politicians in the UK.
What we are witnessing is not simply frustration with governments, but a growing crisis of trust in politics itself.
What is clear is that people are not disengaged from the issues shaping their lives. They care deeply about housing, public services, safety, opportunity and whether their children will inherit a better future. But increasingly, people feel disconnected from a politics that appears distant, transactional and out of touch.
That is a message from all sections of society.
These elections also show that issues such as potholes, refuse collection and the day-to-day quality of local public services matter, particularly in poorer communities where Black and minority communities are disproportionately represented and where public service decline is often felt most sharply.
But people are increasingly voting on much bigger questions as well.
They are voting on leadership, values, economic insecurity, global instability and whether political leaders genuinely understand the pressures and anxieties shaping everyday life within their communities.
The political landscape is shifting rapidly. Labour has lost almost 1,400 council seats nationally. Reform UK has made major gains; and the Greens continue to grow in urban areas traditionally associated with Labour support.
In the London borough of Hackney, long seen as a Labour stronghold with large Black and minority communities, the Greens secured the mayoralty and took control of the council for the first time in decades. This is mirrored in other parts of the country showing that our communities are increasingly prepared to move politically when they feel unheard or taken for granted.
Black communities are central to this story. Despite continuing to experience disproportionate inequality across housing, education, health, policing and criminal justice, our communities tell us that they increasingly feel their concerns are acknowledged only when electorally convenient.
But there is also a responsibility on us as Black, Asian and minoritised communities. We cannot remain idle passengers in democracy and then be surprised by where the journey leads. OBV believes the answer is deeper civic and democratic engagement, more voting, organising, strong ethical leadership and more political education within our communities.
That work must happen not only in formal political spaces but within churches, mosques, temples, schools and the everyday places where our communities gather and shape opinion.
At the same time, we must continue building solidarity across communities. Many Black, Asian and white working-class communities are living through similar pressures and increasingly recognising that ordinary people are not the enemy.
Acknowledging what we have in common does not dilute the specificity of anti-Black racism; it strengthens our collective ability to confront injustice in all its forms.
These results are a reminder that democratic progress is real but never guaranteed. As OBV marks 30 years of working to ensure Black and minority communities have a voice in the decisions that shape their lives, the issues that drove our founding: inequality, underrepresentation and communities feeling unheard, have not disappeared.
They have simply found new expressions.
The work continues, and so must we.
