A senior Haringey Labour councillor blamed his party's loss of seats on a "constant" external media campaign.

Although Labour maintained its majority on Haringey Council at yesterday's local elections, it lost seven seats to the Liberal Democrat party.

Labour now have 42 seats and the Liberal Democrats 15.

In the west of the borough, the Liberal Democrats made key gains in all five wards.

Deputy leader Cllr Joseph Ejiofor, who is tipped to be the next leader of the Labour group after the resignation of council leader Claire Kober earlier this year, said: “In Haringey there was constantly an external media campaign that made it very difficult to get the message across during the election campaign.”

Following the resignation of Ms Kober, there has been speculation that grassroots and hard left-wing Labour group Momentum has been causing a rift in the party.

In his speech following the results Mr Ejiofor said: “Obviously we’re disappointed about the seats that we have lost but I thought we ran a good campaign.”

Labour party canvassing has also been overshadowed over the last few weeks by claims that there was anti-Semitism in the party.

Mr Ejiofor said that it would be disingenuous to say that anti-Semitism did not have an impact on campaigning and election results.

He added: “The Labour leadership has made it clear that anti-Semitism has no place within the Labour party and anyone who is proven to be anti-Semitic will be drive out of the party.”

The Labour party deputy leader refused however to comment on whether or not the resignation of Claire Kober had caused people to lose confidence in the Labour party in Haringey.

Liberal Democrat Liz Morris also addressed the crowd after the results had all been announced.

Ms Morris said: “Labour may have won the election today but they have not won the hearts and minds of thousands of people living in this borough."