The local implications of the London Election Results

Despite Ken Livingstone losing the Mayoral race the result was good for Labour at this point in the national political cycle and reflected our strong results in the Council elections in the rest of the country on the same day.  In South West London, a naturally Tory seat as we are twinned with Richmond and Kingston, we did fantastically well with Lisa Homan.  We had a 12.7% swing to Labour on the constituency seat,  normally coming third. Lisa had a 20,000 lead over the Lib Dems, and increased the Labour vote on the party list by 10.2%. 

Labour’s representation on the 25 seat Assembly increased by 4 to 12 (2 constituency seats and 2 list seats – including Onkar Sahota next door in Ealing & Hillingdon).  Frustratingly the Tories only dropped 2 seats  to 9 so they still have enough to wave the Mayor’s budget and other plans through, although they did lose two of their key figures, Brian Coleman and Richard Barnes.  Well behind were the other parties, the Greens pushing  the Lib Dems into fourth place, and they both end up with two seats each on the Assembly.  One of the real high spots was that the BNP no longer have a seat on the London Assembly, and UKIP also failed to get one too.

So we have another four years of Boris – acting as little more than an arm of the Tory-led Government.  Superficially he seems to distance himself from Cameron and the national party, but he has done little for London and promises little more: since he became Mayor four years ago pollution levels have risen, injuries and deaths to pedestrians and cyclists have grown, fares have gone up, crime levels rising and the housing crisis has risen to epidemic proportions.  Boris has done nothing and promises nothing to challenge central Government on its role in London’s specific and chronic needs: not only housing, but the widening gap between rich and poor, growing youth disaffection and alienation, crime levels, transport infrastructure and funding and so on. 

Livingstone came to this election with a record of standing up for London and delivering radical change: from effective equalities policies and Fares Fair in the 80s; to the congestion charge, the Olympics, improved public transport and safer neighbourhood teams when elected as London’s first Mayor.  He promised more this time – the return of the Education Maintenance Allowance so young people could afford to stay in education, fares cuts, more policing and affordable housing etc.  Sadly these won’t be delivered as the electorate voted for the media darling rather than the man of substance.  London, outer and inner, will be worse off as a result.