By the early hours of Friday morning, almost all the Labour activists, candidates and councillors had drifted away from the Westminster count before the final three wards had even been declared.
Adam Hug, the outgoing council leader, declined to give interviews to the media.
Among Labour figures there was a palpable sense that nothing more could have been done to save their seats.
A traditional Conservative stronghold, Westminster had never before fallen under the control of another party until Labour swept to victory in 2022.
By 5.30am on Friday it was clear that the Conservatives had regained control. Kemi Badenoch’s party won 32 seats, a gain of eight, to Labour’s 22.
The result came shortly after news filtered through the hall that Wandsworth, another flagship inner-London council wrested from the Conservatives in 2022, had also been lost.
“There’s nothing we could have done, we couldn’t have worked harder or knocked on more doors,” one Labour activist said.
“Some voters were very angry at central Government, disappointed in Starmer. We lost some votes to the Greens.
“It’s nothing the council has done. It’s all frustration with Starmer and the Labour Party.”
Both Westminster and Wandsworth councils had continued under Labour to levy the lowest council tax rates in the country.
This year, the administrations refused to raise bills by the full 5 per cent permitted to local authorities, opting instead for a 2 per cent increase to help fund adult social care.
Council leaders said the decision reflected the cost of living pressures facing residents in the capital.
Westminster council also maintained twice-weekly bin collections and invested in CCTV as part of a wider crackdown on crime.
Mr Hug had publicly voiced concerns to Sir Sadiq Khan over the Mayor’s plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street using new planning powers that would remove control of the area from the council.
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After the count, Westminster’s new Conservative leader, Paul Swaddle, did not criticise the administration he is preparing to replace.
He said: “We spent the last four years listening to residents and then building a plan based on those ideas that they’ve come forward with.
“We then put that into a plan and presented it to the public, and because it was their ideas, they liked it, and then they voted for.”
He added: “We have always been a very progressive party here in Westminster, and we often lead the way in the changes in the nation for the party.
“So we hope that we will be able to deliver a great Conservative council here, and perhaps show people what conservative councils can do.”
In an intervention ahead of the elections, Sir Sadiq urged Londoners not to vent their frustrations with central government on local councils.
“What I would say respectfully is don’t use May 7 as a referenda on how perfect or imperfect the Labour government is, and I appreciate in two years they have not done all you wanted them to do,” he said.
“But remember what the Labour government has done. If you are a renter you have rights you never had before, if you’re a worker you have rights you never had before, if you are a parent you have free childcare you have never had before.”
But the plea appeared to go unheard in Labour’s newest flagship London boroughs.
The Conservative victories , with the party also holding Bexley and Kensington and Chelsea, came against the backdrop of a grim national picture elsewhere in the country.