The Conservatives have reached a new low in London after winning the fewest seats since the 1997 general election. In 2019, the Tories picked up 21 seats, with the Remain vote split between Labour and the Lib Dems. This time around, with Brexit off the political agenda, the Tories lost more than half of those seats, ending the night on nine after Hendon swung to Labour after a recount.
In 1997, when Tony Blair stormed to victory with a landslide majority, the Tories picked up 11 seats. It means the Conservatives have had their worst night in London for 27 years. While it was always expected to be a bad night for Rishi Sunak’s party, some of the biggest shocks of the night came in former Tory strongholds, like Chelsea and Fulham and the Cities of London and Westminster.
Both seats turned red for the first time in their history, with Labour’s Ben Coleman beating the incumbent Tory Greg Hands, the Minister for London, by just 152 votes Mr Hands, an MP for more than two decades, won almost 50 per cent of the vote and a majority of more than 11,000 at the last election in Chelsea and Fulham. At 6.30am, after a recount, that lead was wiped out.
LIVE: Tory stronghold seats in London turn Labour for first time
Labour’s Rachel Blake pulled off an even more impressive victory in the Cities of London and Westminster seat, winning by a majority of 2,708 votes to flip the constituency for the first time in its history. Blake is the first Labour candidate to win the seat, which has returned a Conservative candidate in every general election since it was created in 1950.
There were also triumphs for Labour in the seats of two Conservative prime ministers. Boris Johnson’s former constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip swung to Labour for the first time, after a nail-biting contest saw Danny Beales win by a razor-thin majority of 495 votes. In Finchley and Golders Green, Margaret Thatcher’s old stomping ground, Labour’s Sarah Sackman saw off her Tory rival by nearly 4,000 votes.
It was also a bad night for Theresa Villiers, a cabinet minister under three successive governments from 2010 to 2020, who oversaw a defeat for the Tories in the Chipping Barnet for the first time. Labour’s Dan Tomlinson beat Ms Villiers by around 3,000 votes. Mr Tomlinson told MyLondon that his time as the MP would be dedicated to combating crime.
While it was misery for the Conservatives across London, Labour lost the battle to hold onto Islington North after Jeremy Corbyn, running as an independent, held onto the seat he has had since 1983. Enjoying local name recognition that most MPs could only dream of, Mr Corbyn smashed Labour hopeful Praful Nargund by around 7,000 votes following his expulsion from the party earlier this year.
In his victory speech, Mr Corbyn said his campaign had tried to bring hope to people in housing stress, the homeless, and those going through mental health difficulties. The former Labour leader, who won a vote share of 32.2 per cent in 2019 compared to 34 per cent this time around, also warned the low vote share would raise questions about the UK’s first past the post system.
Elsewhere, Labour’s Wes Streeting, who is set to become the next Health Secretary, very nearly lost to Leanne Mohamad, an independent British Palestinian candidate standing against Israel’s massacre of civilians in Gaza. Mr Streeting won by just 528 votes, demonstrating the level of dissatisfaction among voters to the party’s response to military actions in the region.
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