It has been a Conservative safe seat since its incarnation in 1964.

Yet the upcoming local elections for Westminster City Council - with councillors serving one of the wealthiest boroughs in the United Kingdom - are being widely tipped for an upset.

Currently, the local authority is three-quarters blue and one-quarter red.

It's the battle between Labour and the Tories that will likely draw widespread attention to the Westminster count on May 3, where the two key parties have waged intensive doorstepping campaigns.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been making his presence felt in the flagship Tory borough, speaking at local events and backing the campaign to turn the council red.

Addressing the speculation that Westminster could change hands and colour, opposition leader Adam Hug, who is defending his Westbourne seat in the all-Labour ward, said: “We’re hopeful but not expectant. We’re the underdog in the race and we’ve got a historic chance to take the council, but it’s an uphill challenge."

Labour's vision for Westminster focuses on the London Living Wage, investment in young people, affordable housing, air quality and services for the elderly and vulnerable.

A Labour council would also focus on reforming Westminster’s planning strategies.

Mr Hug explained: “There was a culture that tended to put developers past residents, in the sense that all checks and balances were not in place. We think there’s a need for reform and we think we can deliver that.”

Tory leader in Westminster, Nickie Aiken

Conservative leader Nickie Aiken is confident the Tories can retain power in the key borough, but she did not dismiss Labour's challenge, saying: “We certainly don’t take voters for granted and they have the opportunity to choose on the third of May.”

She said the Conservatives' fiscal stewardship had ensured responsible spending resulting in "the lowest council tax and some of the best services in the country”.

Her continued leadership would be tough on developers, with the planning system set to come under review if the council stays with a blue majority, Ms Aiken said.

“My message to the developer community is that if you want to build in Westminster, you have to build for Westminster," she said.

The Tory manifesto focuses on improving Westminster's environment and air quality, keeping council taxes low and on affordable housing. The plan is to create around 2,000 council-built homes.

Pedestrianised vision for Oxford Street

Newcomer party, the Campaign Against Pedestrianisation of Oxford Street , is running three candidates across three wards, pledging to fight London mayor Sadiq Khan's plan to close the 1.2-mile shopping street to vehicles by 2020.

Westminster will also see movements and a number of departures, with some veteran members among the councillors demurring from vying for seats again.

Westminster Lord Mayor Ian Adams is not standing for Little Venice again, instead going into contention for the Hyde Park seat. Former Lord Mayor Steve Summers is not defending his Vincent Square seat.

Paul Church cited a discomfort over the Conservatives' relationships with developers in Soho when he tweeted the news he would not be defending his seat for the party, which he continues to support. Fellow West End councillor Glenys Roberts has also stepped aside.

Conservatives Brian Connell and Suhail Rahuja are not defending their Bayswater seats, while Julia Alexander and Adnan Mohammed are not standing again in Bryanston and Dorset Square.

Jean-Paul Floru's Hyde Park seat will also invite fresh contenders, as will fellow Conservative Philippa Couttie's in Knightsbridge and Belgravia, and their compatriots' Thomas Crockett's in Maida Vale and Daniel Astaire's in Regent's Park.

Tory Cameron Thomson is exiting St James, while fellow party members Peter Cuthbertson and Nick Evans are not standing again in Tachbrook.

Among the Labour seats, Barbara Grahame is not defending her Church Street ward and Barrie Taylor is exiting the Queen's Park race.

Here is a full list of the wards, candidates and parties for the 2018 Westminster City Council elections.

Abbey Road

  • Conservative - Peter Freeman, Lindsey Hall, Judith Warner
  • Green Party - Emmanuelle Tandy, Judith Warner, Sam Gardner, Phillida Inman, Connor Jones
  • Liberal Democrat - Helen Davies, Peter Toeman, Seth Weisz

Bayswater

  • Conservative - Francis Elcho, Richard Holloway, Emily Payne
  • Green Party - Lionel Fry
  • Labour - Maggie Carman, Dafidd Elis, Max Sullivan
  • Liberal Democrat - Phillip Kerle, Patrick Ryan, Sarah Ryan

Bryanston and Dorset Square

  • Campaign Against Pedestrianisation of Oxford Street - Kevin Coyne
  • Conservative - Barbara Arzymanow, Richard Beddoe, Eoghain Murphy
  • Green Party - Michael Fry
  • Labour - Mohamed Hammeda, Rima Horton, Neil Taylor
  • Liberal Democrat - Nicola Browne, Thierry Serero, Martin Thompson

Church Street

  • Conservative - Rachid Boufas, Margot Bright, Adam Dean
  • Green Party - David Blyth
  • Labour - Aicha Less, Matt Noble, Abdul Toki
  • Liberal Democrat - Rachel Jagger, Mathieu Primot, Andrew Shaylor
Westminster City Hall

Churchill

  • Conservative - Murad Gassanly, Bota Hopkinson, Shaista Miah
  • Independent - Muhammad Uddin
  • Labour - Andrea Mann, Shamim Talukder, Jason Williams
  • Liberal Democrat - Richard Bath, Keith Dugmore, Omar Hegazi

Harrow Road

  • Conservative - Grazyna Green, Aled Jones, Thomas Weekenborg
  • Green Party - Roc Sandford
  • Labour - Ruth Bush, Guthrie McKie, Tim Roca
  • Liberal Democrat - Kevin Greenan, Michael Griffin, Dorothy Newman

Hyde Park

  • Conservative - Heather Acton, Ian Adams, Antonia Cox
  • Green Party - Alex Horn
  • Labour - Barbara Hainsworth, David Lumby, Judith Southern
  • Liberal Democrat - Sian Morgan, Valentine Moscovici, Roy Yaghi
Hyde Park

Knightsbridge and Belgravia

  • Conservative - Tony Devenish, Elizabeth Hitchcock, Rachael Robathan
  • Labour - Peter Heap, James Thomson, Marini Thorne
  • Liberal Democrat - Rosamund Durnford-Slater, Chas Foulds, Jonah Weisz

Lancaster Gate

  • Conservative - Susie Burbridge, Robert Davis, Andrew Smith
  • Labour - Angela Piddock, Liz Whitmore, Simon Wyatt
  • Liberal Democrat - Sue Baring, Sally Gray, Nathalie Ubilava

Little Venice

  • Conservative - Melvyn Caplan, Lorraine Dean, Matthew Green
  • Labour - Iman Less, Murad Qureshi, Sue Wolff
  • Liberal Democrat - Roberto Elkholm, Benjamin Hurdis, Marianne Magnin

Maida Vale

  • Conservative - Amanda Langford, Nathan Parsad, Jan Prendergast
  • Green Party - Lynnet Pready
  • Labour - Geoff Barraclough, Rita Begum, Nafsika Butler-Thalassis
  • Liberal Democrat - Michael Cox, Charles Goodman, Haude Lannon Polner

Marylebone High Street

  • Conservative - Iain Bott, Ian Rowley, Karen Scarborough
  • Green Party - Zack Polanski
  • Independent - Michael Dunn
  • Labour - Cheyenne Angel, Barbara Johnston, Florence Kettle
  • Liberal Democrat - Alistair Barr, Andrew Byrne, Stefan Nardi-Hiebl
Marylebone High Street

Queen's Park

  • Conservative - Timothy Cohen, Laila Dupuy, Sarah Rick-Harris
  • Labour - Paul Dimoldenberg, Patricia McAllister, Hamza Taouzzale
  • Liberal Democrat - Robert Cottrell, Andrew New, Jane Smithard

Regent's Park

  • Conservative - Gotz Mohindra, Robert Rigby, Paul Swaddle
  • Green Party - Vivien Lichtenstein
  • Labour - Hussain Ahmed, Janet Seale, Liam Taggart
  • Liberal Democrat - Kathryn Kerle, Sam Peterson, Julian Sims

St James's

  • Conservative - Louise Hyams, Tim Mitchell, Mark Shearer
  • Green Party - Sean Ironside
  • Labour - Zayna Ali, Dorothy Edwin, Georgina Newson
  • Liberal Democrat - Paul Diggory, Freddie Poser, Gabrielle Ward-Smith

Tachbrook

  • Conservative - Jim Glen, Angela Harvey, James Spencer
  • Labour - Gillian Arrindell, Terry Harper, William Thomson
  • Liberal Democrat - Paul Pettinger, Sophie Service, Sarah Tebbit

Vincent Square

  • Conservative - Danny Chalkley, David Harvey, Selina Shor
  • Green Party - Stephanie Landymore
  • Labour - Justin Maynard Jones, Ananth Paskaralingam, Henry Tufnell
  • Liberal Democrat - Russell Kirk, James Morgan, Andrew Rogers

Warwick

  • Conservative - Nickie Aiken, Christabel Flight, Jacqui Wilkinson
  • Christian Peoples Alliance - Gabriela Fajardo Palacios
  • Labour - Bren Albiston, Shelly Asquith, Andrew Taylor
  • Liberal Democrat - David Derrick, Mark Platt, Stephanie Tyrer

West End

  • Campaign Against Pedestrianisation of Oxford Street - Ronald Whelan
  • Conservative - Timothy Barnes, Jonathan Glanz, Hillary Su
  • Green Party - Minne Fry
  • Labour - Pancho Lewis, Patrick Lilley, Caroline Saville
  • Liberal Democrat - Florian Chevoppe-Verdier, Alan Ravenscroft, Sophie Taylor

Westbourne

  • Conservative - Thomas Davies, Theodore Roos, Angus Wyatt
  • Green Party - Holly Robinson
  • Labour - David Boothroyd, Adam Hug, Papya Qureshi
  • Liberal Democrat - Mary Armstrong, Angelos Chryssogelos, Anthony Williams