1998 Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council election

In the years between this election and the last there were 2 by-elections to replace councillor who either resigned or died, however none of these elections resulted in the seats changing parties.^[5]

The election saw the Conservative Party only put up five candidates in the election,^[6] and they failed to win any seats on the council.^[7] The Labour leader of the council, George Brooker, stood down at the election after 51 years.^[8] He opposed the Greater London Authority referendum that took place at the same time as the election, however Barking and Dagenham saw 73.49% vote in favour and 26.51% against.^[8][9] Overall turnout in the election was 25.41%.^[3]

Shortly before the election a single Labour seat became vacant and there was not enough time to hold a by-election to replace them, meaning that the composition of the council just before the elections was as follows:^[10]

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Barking and Dagenham local election result 1998^{[2][11][3][4]}

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	47	0	0		92.16	72.40	44,885	0.95
	Residents	3	0	0		5.88	7.34	4,550	3.43
	Liberal Democrats	1	0	0		1.96	18.42	11,424	1.03
	Conservative	0	0	0		0.00	1.84	1,140	2.06
Total		51						61,999

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After the election the composition of the council was as follows:

(*) - Indicates an incumbent candidate

(†) - Indicates an incumbent candidate standing in a different ward