Chingford and Woodford Green was anticipated to be a key battleground in this year’s General Election and so it proved, with former Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen taking a chunk of the party’s votes and appearing to prevent them taking the seat from the Tories.
The race for the key seat featured a three-way contest between former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, Labour’s Shama Tatler, and independent candidate Ms Shaheen.
It was the Conservative Party that came out on top, with Sir Iain Duncan Smith being re-elected as the MP for the North East London constituency. The winning candidate received 17,281 votes, securing 35.6% of the vote.
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Labour’s Shama Tatler came second with 12,524 votes, just 79 votes of difference with independent Faiza Shaheen, who was de-selected from the Labour Party for liking tweets that allegedly downplayed allegations of antisemitism. She then resigned from the party.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith said in his speech: “No matter what parties say or party values are, I will pursue what is necessary and right for my constituents.”
Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Conservative party, has represented Chingford and Woodford Green in the House of Commons since 1992. Despite his long tenure, he faced a nervy night as it was unclear whether Labour would take it off him.
Labour was marginally ahead according to a YouGov survey published just over 12 hours before the polls opened. But candidate Shama Tatler was only able to secure 25.8% of votes.
Ms Shaheen left a message for the Labour Party after eating into their votes and narrowly coming third to Tatler, who she said was ‘parachuted in’. She told MyLondon: “You ignored our community’s various wishes, you imposed a candidate that no one knew, you thought you could treat me and our community any way you wanted, but we stood up and said no! Parachuting candidates, trying to destroy someone’s life that hasn’t done anything, is not okay!”
Reform UK candidate Paul Luggeri received 3,653 votes, while the Green Party’s Chris Brody garnered 1,334 votes. The Lib Dems’ Josh Hadley came last with 1,275 votes.
