By Ed Southgate
December 20 2019, 11.45
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Spoiled ballots soared by almost a third from the 2017 General Election in south west London.

Constituencies recorded a 32% surge in rejected ballot papers at last week’s election, with 2,552 in 2017 rising to 3,363 in 2019.

Wimbledon MP Stephen Hammond, who held his seat with a reduced majority, said: “For a lot of people this election was very difficult.

“I had a lot of people say ‘we like you, but we don’t want Brexit, we don’t like the Liberal Democrats so we don’t know what we are going to do’. I think there was an element of spoiled ballot papers from that.

“For many people this was a more difficult election in of the choices in front of them, particularly given Wimbledon was a heavily remain constituency and therefore there may have been some element of that difficulty.”

A spoiled ballot, which is counted and included in turnout figures, is often used by voters as a political protest to their dislike of any party or candidate.

Of the 20 south west London constituencies, 17 reported a rise in spoiled ballots since 2017.

The number of voters spoiling their ballots in Croydon South almost doubled from 123 in 2017 to 222 in 2019.

Rejected ballots in Sutton and Cheam rose by more than half from 123 to 211, while Wimbledon reported an increase from 127 to 217.

Of three constituencies reporting a fall, Kensington had the largest down from 118 to 92.

The rise was less dramatic from the 2015 election with just 401 more south west London voters spoiling their ballots last week, representing a 13% increase.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who did not have any candidates of his own party standing in his constituency, notably told the Question Time Under 30s Special audience he planned to spoil his ballot.

He said: “I think you should vote, and spoiling your ballot paper is a form of voting.”

He insisted Boris Johnson’s deal “is not Brexit” as his justification.

Mr Hammond added: “Once the election is over I am there to represent everybody in my constituency whether they spoiled their ballot paper, voted Liberal or Labour or even ed me.

“It is disappointing people were voting for none of the above but the key thing for me now is to represent everybody in Wimbledon.”

He said while it is impossible to speculate if the rise signifies the start of a longer trend in spoiled ballots his guess is that it will more likely be temporary.

Ballot papers can be rejected for want of an official mark, voting for more than one candidate, writing or marking the paper so the voter could be identified, or being unmarked or wholly void for uncertainty.

The 2019 election saw Boris Johsnon win the largest majority for his Conservative Party since the 1980s with 365 seats, while Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour suffered its biggest loss since 1935 with 203 seats.

Five constituencies in south west London saw its colours change. Among them was former MP Justine Greening’s Putney seat being taken by Labour.

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By Aliss Higham
December 18 2019, 14.40
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Former Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad has announced she was diagnosed with breast cancer four weeks before she was due to contest her seat in the general election.

She revealed she had surgery to remove the cancer and a reconstruction just three days before polling day.

In an interview with Victoria Derbyshire on the BBC this morning, she said: “I didn’t want it to be a factor, either a positive or negative in my campaign.”

She added that she did not want to make it public because of possible reactions on social media.

She also praised her family and friends, as well as the doctors and staff at Charing Cross Hospital for their care, describing it as ‘a kind, caring conveyor belt’.

“I’ve got amazing family and friends and colleagues around me,” she said.

“As somebody who likes to be in charge of things, just handing yourself over to a doctor is quite humbling.

“Weirdly, it was a relief to know it was going to be done before the election, even though the timing was horrific.

“So I just sort of submitted to that. I’d allowed people to look after me which I don’t normally do – I’m a looker after-er.

“I had a day of rest and then I pottered around and tried to be visible. It was painful and it still is but I am healing up beautifully.”

She is going back to the hospital tomorrow ‘to see what they have found’ and for detail about any further treatment needed.

She praised the Labour party activists who campaigned for her re-election when she could not.

“The machine of the campaign continued around me,” she said.

“They were out three times a day. People came from all over London to help because it was Kensington, because it was the Grenfell constituency, some people because it was me, which was lovely to know.”

Dent Coad lost her seat to Conservative candidate Felicity Buchan by 150 votes last Thursday.

She publicly blamed former Tory-turned-Lib Dem candidate Sam Gyimah for splitting the remain vote.

When leaving the count in the early hours of Friday morning, she said: “Congratulations to Sam Gyimah for screwing up Kensington.”

Gyimah had previously wrongly accused her of having a role as a local councillor, in discussing the flammable cladding used on Grenfell Tower, ending in Dent Coad reporting him to the police.

She said despite her illness, she didn’t think it would have made a difference to the result if she had been able to be out campaigning for herself in Kensington.

“We were facing a barrage of lies and nastiness throughout the campaign, which was a disgrace.”

Following her defeat, she has discussed her time as a female MP in a male-dominated environment.

Speaking of Parliament, she said: “It’s a horrible place to work actually.

“It’s really brutal, misogynistic and unkind.

“I’ve worked in very male-dominated environments before but that was the most horrible place I’ve ever worked as a woman.”

Dent Coad will continue her role as a councillor in Kensington and plans to continue campaigning on behalf of Grenfell victims and their families.

She has expressed she will be backing Rebecca Long-Bailey as the next Labour leader.

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By Anetha Sivananthan and Anna Mackenzie
December 13 2019, 2.44
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Munira Wilson made safe her Twickenham seat and increased the Liberal Democrat majority over the Conservatives, a valuable good news story on a bad night for Britain’s third party.

Ms Wilson picked up 36,166 votes, while Conservative candidate Isobel Grant won 22,045 votes ahead of Labour’s Ranjeev Walia (5,476 votes) and the Brexit Party’s Stuart Wells (816 votes).

After succeeding Vince Cable, Ms Wilson said: “I would like to thank the returning officer, the counting agents and the police for their hard work in ensuring that the election and  the count had been run so smoothly and so very efficiently.

“I would like to thank my opponents for a good-natured and hard fought campaign and to the Greens for standing aside as part of the United Remain Alliance.

“Thank you above all to the residents of Twickenham, Teddington, St Margarets, Whitton and Roehampton for putting their faith and trust in me.

“I am honoured and deeply humbled to have been elected to serve as your Member of Parliament.”

Conservative candidate Ms Grant said: “You don’t know how it’s going to play out.

“It’s an incredible privilege to be here and have your name on the sheet.”

Labour candidate Mr Walia said: “I think the way we’ve run the campaign has been really fantastic actually, on the level of the information that we’ve put out.”

Mr Wells was not present at the count.

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By Anetha Sivananthan
December 13 2019, 09.20
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Defeated Conservative Twickenham candidate Isobel Grant believes the Tories will be a different party now they have a majority in parliament. 

Ms Grant was defeated after Liberal Democrat’s Munira Wilson won the seat with 36,166 votes – a sharp increase from the 34,969 votes secured by the Liberal Democrats’ former leader Sir Vince Cable in the June 2017 election. 

The Conservative party’s manifesto pledged to get Brexit done by January, extra funding for the NHS, 20,000 more police officers, an Australian style points-based system for immigration control and investment into science, schools and apprenticeships.

Ms Grant said: “It’s an incredible privilege to be here and have your name on the sheet.”

In response to Conservatives winning traditional Labour seats, she said: “If we’re shifting the heartland further north, it will have different priorities, which I find quite interesting. It will be a different party and a different government.” 

Funding cuts to state schools, the proposed Heathrow expansion and Twickenham’s remain majority in the 2016 EU referendum are potential factors for why votes fell short for the Conservatives. 

The decrease in the voting turnout from 78.95% in the 2017 General Election to 76.25% may have played another part in the decline in votes. 

The party also emphasised alleviating the climate crisis by pledging to reach Net Zero by 2050 through investments in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions, however, the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats made the same pledge with earlier deadlines set to 2030 and 2045.

Newly elected Ms Wilson said: “I would also like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Vince Cable, who for the last 20 years has been an outstanding MP for our area and been a towering figure nationally.”

She added that she looked forward to building on Mr Cable’s legacy. 

Vince Cable was MP for Twickenham and leader of the Liberal Democrats until he announced he would be standing down from both positions earlier this year. 

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By Josh Graham
December 13 2019, 09.30
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Sir Ed Davey, MP for Kingston and Surbiton, blamed the fear of Jeremy Corbyn rather than Jo Swinson’s leadership for the Liberal Democrats’ disappointing performance.

Ex-Lib Dem leader Ms Swinson’s campaign was widely panned even before she lost her seat to the Scottish National Party in East Dunbartonshire by 149 votes, a short while after Sir Ed had retained his seat by increasing his majority over the Conservatives in Kingston and Surbiton to 10,489.

Sir Ed refused to comment on Ms Swinson’s future before her result was declared and subsequent resignation officially confirmed.

When asked if he would have run a better campaign than his colleague – who defeated him in the 2019 Liberal Democrat leadership election – he diverted blame onto Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He said: “I think the issue more broadly in this campaign was the fear of Jeremy Corbyn.

“We heard that on the doorsteps, and we have seen it all over the country.”

He expressed his concern for the country’s future and explained that Mr Corbyn’s unpopularity was a double-edged sword in the election: not only boosting the Tory vote but also draining from the Lib Dems.

Sir Ed said: “I do worry that our country now faces a bleak midwinter. A Brexit bleak midwinter.

“I will do my best to make sure that damage to our country is minimised.

“I think our First Past the Post system tends to push people one way or the other and it can be very, very difficult for a third party to break through, particularly when people are extremely worried by one particular outcome.

“I think the Conservative Party shouldn’t be revelling in some sort of Brexit coronation.

“This is more a rejection of Jeremy Corbyn than people being positive about Boris Johnson.”

Sir Ed was relieved the electorate’s reluctance to see Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street didn’t derail his own campaign.

He said: “We were worried here in Kingston and Surbiton that people would have that same reaction. Fortunately I think people knew that Mr Corbyn’s candidate could not possibly win here and as a result they were able to trust it with me again.”

Sir Ed couldn’t hide his delight at being re-elected in Kingston and Surbiton where he first became an MP in 1997.

At the end of the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition government in 2015, Sir Ed, who had served as environment secretary from 2012-2015, lost his seat to the Conservatives before regaining it two years later.

He added: “I would obviously like to thank my amazing team, who have delivered a brilliant result here.

“We are going to have a party soon!

“I will return to Westminster with my second best ever majority here.

“I know what my constituents want and I will obviously be reflecting that in parliament.”

Sir Ed received 31,103 votes, ahead of Conservative candidate Aphra Brandreth, who ed 20,614.

Only in 2001 did Sir Ed record a bigger margin of victory than in 2019, winning by 15,676 votes.

Despite failing to meet expectations across the UK as a whole, winning only 11 seats, Sir Ed was pleased with the Lib Dem’s results in south west London.

Neighbouring constituencies Richmond Park and Twickenham were won by Lib Dem MPs Sarah Olney and Munira Wilson, respectively.

Sir Ed warned that although he feels the Lib Dems will eventually be able to translate their success in south west London into more impressive results on a wider scale, it will take a considerable period of time to become a reality. 

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By Gwyn Wright
December 13 2019, 12.30
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Boris Johnson was a backbench MP in May when he made what turned out to be an uncannily accurate prediction.

“We need to get Brexit done properly and then knock Corbyn out of the park,” he wrote.

In his wildest dreams, he couldn’t possibly have imagined just how far off the park he would knock Mr Corbyn.

Few would have predicted that he would lead the Tories to their biggest majority since the 1980s and take political scalps not just of Corbyn but several other of his main opponents in one of the most astonishing nights in British politics.

DUP leader Nigel Dodds, who led his party’s opposition to every attempt to get Brexit through the Commons- lost his seat to Sinn Fein at 3.06am. Sinn Fein’s main nationalist rival, the SDLP, stood aside in the seat.

As results all went Johnson’s way in Labour heartlands that declared early- from Blyth Valley to Darlington and Workington- Corbyn itted defeat at 3.26am.

He said he won’t lead his party into the next election but didn’t announce an exact date for his resignation.

Jo Swinson- who once threatened to topple the Tories in swathes of Remain-voting southern seats- was out of a job less than twenty minutes later as the SNP won her East Dunbartonshire seat.

Nigel Farage, who had propelled the PM to the top job as sceptical MPs reluctantly agreed to back him or face being gobbled up by the Brexit Party- watched his party clock up just 2 per cent of the vote.

As results poured in from Labour-Tory battlegrounds, it became clear that an unleashed Johnson would not need to rely on the European Research Group of Eurosceptic backbenchers in crunch votes, unless he actively chooses to court them.

Remainer rebels such as Dominic Grieve, David Gauke and Anne Milton also failed to make a Commons comeback as independents.

A triumphant Johnson has just one rival left standing.

Nicola Sturgeon is demanding that Hollyrood be given the unilateral power to trigger a new independence referendum.

Johnson will almost certainly refuse, but a new constitutional crisis may be starting just as the last one has ended.

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Lucrece Grehoua
December 13 2019, 03.59
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The Conservative party has secured their Chelsea and Fulham seat for a second time after their 2017 victory.

Conservative candidate Greg Hands won 23,345 votes, Liberal Democrats’ Nicola Horlick secured 12,104 while Labour’s Matt Uberoi gained 10,872.

Mr Hands who once represented Hammersmith and Fulham held his seat since 2005.

He said: “I’m delighted with the strong result in Chelsea and Fulham, and I’m overjoyed with the national result, I think it’s absolutely fantastic. We need to put it to good use and get on with running the country.”

He added: “I have always been clear that I will vote for the agreement that the Prime Minister has negotiated with the European Union.”

“Jeremy Corbyn would be a disaster for Chelsea and Fulham that’s clear. But I think it was also down to the fact that I had a good local track record – actually a great record of delivery and a promise of more.”

Liberal Democrat’s Nicola Horlick said: “The fear of Corbyn factor in a place like Chelsea and Fulham – there are lots of well-off people. It was just too much for people to bear. That in the end was more important to them than Brexit.”

Labour Party’s Mark Uberoi said: “I look forward to continuing as an elected Labour councillor in Fulham and serving my constituents.”

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By Ed Southgate
December 13 2019, 08.50
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Conservative MP Stephen Hammond praised his family as the ‘bedrock of everything’ he does after narrowly beating the Liberal Democrats in his Wimbledon seat. 

Mr Hammond said following his re-election: “My family are the bedrock of everything I do. My wife and I work together – she was in Parliament before I became an MP. My daughter is hugely ive of what I do. 

“My sister always comes and helps – I always get this great sense of . People say to me on the doorstep, whether they voted for me or not, that they recognise I am someone who tries to do the best for the local community and it’s been deeply humbling to hear that from people.”

In his victory speech he thanked his daughter Alice and wife Sally for their ‘unfailing ’.

Looking to the family-orientated festive season, Mr Hammond said he intends to spend the Christmas holidays with his family and friends.

He said the festivities will “probably be slightly quieter this year. I think we are going to need a rest after this.”

His new year’s resolution will politically be to continue representing his constituents as best as he can, while personally he wants to keep the weight off after losing 13 pounds from walking across Wimbledon during his election campaign.

Mr Hammond’s Liberal Democrat opponent Paul Kohler, who missed out on winning the seat by 628 votes, said his resolution is “to have a good rest before I re-energise and do politics again.”

The close result came following a period of unease among the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat camps as the bundles went to be recounted.

There were scenes of tears among Liberal Democrat ers when it was announced they had failed to take the seat, which would have seen Mr Kohler be the party’s first ever Wimbledon Member of Parliament.

Despite pre-election polls suggesting the Tories would be given a run for their money by the Liberal Democrats, the final exit poll put the race between Mr Hammond with Labour’s Jackie Schneider.

The Conservatives were given a 49% chance of holding the seat against Labour’s 47% chance of gaining it. The Liberal Democrats were said to have just a 4% chance of taking the constituency.

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By Lucille Brobbey and Elizabeth Cook
December 13 2019, 11.35
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Vauxhall’s Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Lewis and Conservative candidate Sarah Bool were both defeated by Florence Eshalomi who achieved a majority of 19,612.

Ms Lewis – who advises businesses and charities on playing a positive role in society – drew in an increase of 677 votes for the Liberal Democrats since 2017 where they won 11,326.

The Brixton resident said: “When it comes to what local people are saying here, obviously this is a heavily Remain constituency, but also people really want to see change.”

She said there was a situation where the incumbent MP was not standing and so people were going to get change either way.

“I am very proud to have been able to listen to people across the constituency and give them a positive choice.”

The Liberal Democrat candidate, who previously worked for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, says that she is going to continue campaigning. 

In response to Jo Swinson’s loss, Ms Lewis said: “The national picture is so much bigger than any of us.

“We are still going, the results are still coming in and I think there will be plenty of time for a post-mortem when we know exactly what the end game is.”

Starting at the age of nine years old helping deliver leaflets for her father in a Council by-election, Ms Bool has been an active er of the party through canvassing, fundraising or general activism.

Ms Bool expected a majority for the Conservatives, but not to the extent which occurred in the result. She attributed the overall majority vote to the campaigning the party did in the North.

Despite her defeat, she said she was delighted to have been selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Vauxhall. 

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By Rachel Steinberg
December 13 2019, 12.30
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On the morning of Boris Johnson’s early Christmas the Liberal Democrats handed over the reins to their sleigh and hoped for a happier New Year.

The party announced deputy leader Sir Ed Davey and party president Baroness Sal Brinton would serve as interim co-leaders until a new boss is chosen in 2020.

Jo Swinson, 39, who had led the Lib Dems since July, lost her Dunbartonshire East seat to the SNP’s 27-year-old candidate Amy Callaghan by 149 votes.

The party’s constitution states the leader must hold a seat in Parliament.

Lib Dem election chair James Gurling issued a statement following Ms Swinson’s defeat.

He said: “We wake this morning to a double blow.

“A Conservative majority government, hell-bent on pushing Brexit through, and the loss of our leader Jo Swinson from Parliament.

“There is much we can build on from here, and we will be careful to learn the lessons to build for the future.”

With only St Ives and the Isles of Scilly to be declared Ms Swinson’s loss means the Lib Dems’ best hope is to break even on seats in the next Parliament.

Bad weather delayed boats from collecting ballots from smaller islands in the Cornish archipelago.

The constituency is one of the most marginal in the UK.

Since 2010 it has been a battle between Conservative Derek Thomas and Liberal Democrat Andrew George.

In 2017 Mr Thomas beat Mr George by just 312 votes.

The Liberal Democrats last held the seat in 2010 when Mr George won by a margin of just 3.7%.

Sir Ed and Baroness Brinton are now left to pick up the pieces and determine where it all went wrong.

The interim co-leaders were both named in early speculation around who would succeed Ms Swinson.

Other candidates proposed included Hanover-born Bath MP Wera Hobhouse and Layla Moran, the returning Oxford West and Abingdon whose vote increased by 9.5% since 2017.

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