Conservatives Just Hold on To West Central
Tony Devenish remains London Assembly member for local area
The Conservative Party has held the London Assembly constituency seat of West Central, as the first election results roll in.
The constituency, which includes the whole of the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, 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.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Tony Devenish | 55,163 |
38.9 |
–5.3 |
| Labour | Rita Begum | 52,938 |
37.3 |
+2.6 |
| Green | Zack Polanski | 16,427 |
11.6 |
+2.4 |
| Liberal Democrats | Ted Townsend | 13,462 |
9.5 |
+3.6 |
| Let London Live | Heiko Khoo | 1,977 |
1.4 |
N/A |
| Reform UK | Saradhi Rajan | 1,954 |
1.4 |
N/A |
| Majority | 2,225 |
1.6 |
–7.9 |
|
| Turnout | 141,921 |
39.0 |
–6.0 |
|
| Conservative hold | Swing |
–4.0 |
||
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.
In the final results of the night, Labour retained the North East constituency, with Sem Moema taking the seat that had been held by Jennette Arnold for 17 years before she retired, while Keith Prince of the Conservative Party held his seat of Havering & Redbridge.
Havering & Redbridge had been identified as a potential swing seat, but Mr Prince eventually beat his Labour rival Judith Garfield by 15,327 votes, increasing his party’s majority from 1,438 in the previous election.
Results for the remaining seven constituencies as well as the London-wide seats will be announced tomorrow (May 8), with the London Mayoral election results to be announced either tomorrow night or Sunday (May 9) morning.
Owen Sheppard - Local Democracy Reporter
May 8, 2021