Last modified on Fri 7 May 2021 07.47 EDT
Just five years ago, London was a key political battleground and County Durham was a Labour heartland. But since Boris Johnson swapped City Hall for Downing Street, those situations appear to have reversed, with the capital a key base for the party.
Labour’s voters in London, however, could soon be leaving. And its hopes for long-term electoral gains hinge not just on winning back seats lost to the Conservatives in northern England, where the party is likely to suffer even further in Thursday’s elections, but on appealing to new, younger voters in the south priced out of popular cities.