From Labour’s freshly rebranded leaflets to the Conservatives’ long-standing colour switch, environmental imagery is fast becoming campaign material ahead of May’s elections.

“Wandsworth’s nature, rivers and air to benefit from council’s new five-year action plan,” read the council’s latest press release, issued on Thursday, 26 February. It continues: “The Biodiversity Action Plan sets out clear actions that we will take together with partners and communities from 2026 to 2031 to deliver the ambitions of our Biodiversity Strategy.”

The plan, presented to the cabinet this week, and sounds ambitious on paper. But is it? A closer look at the small print raises doubts about whether this is a real commitment or simply pre-election greenwashing. The document approved by the council (Biodiversity Action Plan Paper No.26-69) is explicit:

“There are no direct financial implications arising from this report. Any implementation costs associated with actions within the plan would be met from within existing approved budgets.”

And when it comes to teeth in planning or enforcement terms, it’s equally clear:

“There are no legal implications arising from this report.”

In summary: No money and no binding obligation.

Whether this plan survives may depend as much on politics as policy. The previous Biodiversity Strategy, adopted in 2020 under Conservative control, was quietly sidelined by both parties when inconvenient. One striking example is the approval of the Gasworks site, in breach of guidelines made in the Masterplan regarding the River Wandle area.

• Read our report: Gasworks site: “It’s a joke! I understand how the public lose faith in the Council”

According to the planning document, “tall buildings must respect the small scale of the River Wandle.” Therefore that part of the site adjoining the river should have buildings not exceeding four to eight storeys. In a very controversial Planning Application Committtee the Labour councillors approved the 12 to 29 storey blocks proposed in the application, commented the Wandsworth Society.

The Wandle Valley Forum also raised the “[insuffiscient] flood risk assessment” and “little biodiversity net gain across the development“, which is particularly striking knowing that the site is currently a former gas holder and therefore deeply contaminated (which was a reason put forward for allowing this development).

The visual messaging has shifted too.

The traditional red rose has disappeared from recent Labour leaflets, replaced by a stylised “W” that closely resembles the council’s branding introduced in 2025.

And since last autumn, the Wandsworth Council logo on cabinet reports – traditionally black – has been switched to green.

So why the sudden burst of “green” enthusiasm?

Possibly because the political temperature has shifted. Nationally, Labour faces growing unease over the government’s record, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer now experiencing levels of unpopularity unprecedented in modern British politics, less than two years after his landslide victory. The Greens’ by-election win in Gorton and Denton, a Labour stronghold since 1931, may prove cataclysmic for some Labour councillors, or at the very least, deeply unsettling.

Wandsworth is no exception. When Labour took control of the council in 2022 after 44 years of Conservative rule, confidence was high. Today, conversations with local councillors sound more cautious. Some now preface answers with: “If we are still in power after May…”

On the doorstep in Battersea, campaigners are keen to distance themselves from Downing Street. “We’re not like the government — we’re much more local and socialist here in Wandsworth,” one canvasser said. It’s a sentiment that Councillor Maurice McLeod – a prominent figure on the party’s local left and self-declared pro-Corbyn voice – might take issue with, having been barred from standing as a Labour candidate in the upcoming local election (“Maurice will spend more time in Tooting constituency” as his ward colleague Cllr Tony Belton delicately put it in a recent newsletter).

McLeod was previously blocked by the national party from seeking selection in the Camberwell and Peckham parliamentary by‑election in October 2022.

The Conservatives went green first

If Labour’s recent embrace of green branding feels new, the Conservatives actually got there first. They began shifting towards green tones ahead of the 2022 local elections—ironically, when their own national government under Boris Johnson was mired in unpopularity.

At least the Tories kept their logo. Unlike Labour’s leaflets, which now echo the council’s official design, the Conservatives didn’t blur party and institutional symbols on this front.

Still, according to their new 2026 campaign materials, they too have almost completely abandoned their traditional blue colours in favour of green once again.

Wandsworth Green Party’s Glyn Goodwin isn’t impressed.

“You cannot patent the colour, so I got used to it,” he said. “In 2022 the Conservatives rebranded their blue tree and painted it green. They reused the Green Party template for their leaflet. They should be looking at themselves—it’s deceptive. They try to pretend they are someone else. It shows they recognise the importance of environmental messaging without actually doing anything.”

So, is every party turning green in Wandsworth? Not quite. The Liberal Democrats have taken a different path. Their latest leaflet stands out precisely because green is nowhere to be seen. Instead, they’ve leaned heavily into their traditional orange, combined with dark blue, a shade long abandoned by the Conservatives and not associated with Reform either. They might be just betting that orange loyalty trumps environmental trend-chasing.

In Wandsworth’s pre-election landscape, colour has become part of the contest. In British political jargon, this is classic spin—“the attempt to control or influence communication in order to deliver one’s preferred message.” Branding shapes how voters perceive credibility and intent. Whether voters are swayed by shade rather than substance will become clear in May.