By Joe Talora
THE Conservative Party has held the London Assembly constituency seat of West Central, as the first election results roll in.
The constituency had been earmarked as a potential swing seat for Labour, but Conservative Tony Devenish narrowly defeated Labour’s Rita Begum to retain the seat he won in 2016.
But the Conservative Party’s majority has fallen dramatically, from 14,564 in 2016 to just 2,225 in this year’s election.
Elsewhere, the Conservatives comfortably retained the constituency seat of Bexley and Bromley, with Peter Fortune to take over the seat vacated by MP Gareth Bacon, beating Labour candidate Stefano Borella with 97,966 votes to 47,389.
Labour, meanwhile, have retained their seats in Lambeth and Southwark as well as Brent and Harrow.
Dr Onkar Sahota, Labour Assembly Member for Ealing & Hillingdon since 2012, also retained his seat.
Marina Ahmad will take over the seat held by MP Florence Eshalomi, while Krupesh Hirani will take over Brent and Harrow from former Assembly chair Navin Shah.
In Lambeth and Southwark, Green Party candidate Claire Sheppard beat the Conservative candidate Hannah Ginnett to second place, securing 36,933 votes, which is an increase of 11,140 votes since 2016.
Turnout in this year’s election had been expected to be low, but figures from the constituencies that have so far declared results show only a slight drop from 2016 figures.
In Bexley & Bromley, voter turnout fell from 47 pet cent in 2016 to 44 per cent this year, while Lambeth & Southwark saw turnout fall from 44 per cent to 41 per cent.
Results for Havering & Redbridge and the North East constituency are expected later this evening, while the remaining seven constituencies will be counted tomorrow (May 8).
(Local Democracy Reporting Service)
FBU chief raises concern over rise in racist online posts by union members