Stunning Result for Lib Dems in Hammersmith & Fulham


Party wins most votes locally in European election by a wide margin

Irina von Wiese topped London wide poll for Lib Dems
Irina von Wiese topped London wide poll for Lib Dems

The Liberal Democrats are celebrating in Hammersmith & Fulham after winning the local vote by a huge margin. The declaration of voting in the borough in the European Parliamentary elections showed them performing well ahead of their expectations.

They topped the poll locally with 34.3% of the votes well ahead of Labour in second place with 19.6% Hammersmith based Irina von Wiese topped the London wide poll for the Lib Dems. She is also currently the Lib Dems proposed candidate for the next general election in the UK for the Hammersmith constituency.

The Conservatives could only manage 5th place with just 9% of the vote. The Brexit Party got 14.1%

Hammersmith & Fulham European Parliamentary Vote
Party Number of votes %
Liberal Democrats 17,344 34.3%
Labour Party 9,906 19.6%
The Brexit Party 7,123 14.1%
Green Party 5,839 11.5%
Conservative and Unionist Party 4,558 9.0%
Change UK - The Independent Group 3,297 6.5%
UK Independence Party (UKIP) 784 1.5%
Others 2539 5.0%
Total number of votes 50,606 -
Turnout 45.08% -

Across London, the Liberal Democrats have won three of the eight seats available for the London constituency after achieving the highest vote of any party in the elections for the European parliament.

Their share of the vote surged by 20 points to 27.1% ahead of next placed Labour on 24% This meant that the Lib Dems gained three seats having had none before while Labour lost two.

The result was a disaster for the Conservatives who gained 7.9% of the vote thereby losing their two seats. The Brexit Party achieved 17.9% of the vote winning two seats although one of them was at the expense of UKIP. The Greens retained their seat in London increasing their vote by 3.5 percentage points.


The votes being counted at Hammersmith Town Hall

Successful Lib Dem candidate Luisa Porritt said, "Real and pressing issues have long been ignored by our two main parties, that is why we must have a people's vote."

A London Labour Party spokesman said, "We're ecstatic that both Claude Moraes and Seb Dance have been elected as MEPs for London.

"Our MEPs will go to Brussels championing workers rights, fighting climate change and the other issues important to our party."

Benyamin Habib, one of the two newly elected Brexit Party candidates in London said, "We launched seven weeks ago and proved in that short time the nation still wants Brexit and Brexit with a no deal".

Turnout in London was 41.3% slightly up on 40.1% in the previous election.

Eight members elected for the London region
Seat Full name Party
1 Irina von Wiese Liberal Democrats
2 Claude Ajit Moraes Labour Party
3 Benyamin Naeem Habib The Brexit Party
4 Dinesh Dhamija Cinnabar Liberal Democrats
5 Scott John Ainslie Green Party
6 Seb Dance Labour Party
7 Luisa Manon Porritt Liberal Democrats
8 Lance Philip Forman The Brexit Party

The number of votes which each successful party had during the process of allocation of seats was as follows:

Party Vote total Allocation
Liberal Democrats
608,725
Seat one
Labour Party
536,810
Seat two
The Brexit Party
400,257
Seat three
Liberal Democrats
304,363
Seat four
Green Party
278,957
Seat five
Labour Party
268,405
Seat six
Liberal Democrats
202,908
Seat seven
The Brexit Party
200,129
Seat eight

In other nearby boroughs Labour's vote has held up relatively well compared to other parts of London. In Ealing Borough Labour got 32% of the votes against the Lib Dem's 26% Rupa Huq the Labour MP for Ealing Central and Acton commented after the result on Twitter, "Conservatives are fifth behind the Greens which is pitiful for a borough run by then until 2010 and who held my seat until 2015."

Euro Election Vote - Ealing Borough
Party Vote share
Labour
32%
Lib Dems
26%
Brexit
13%
Green
10%
Conservative
7%
Change UK
5%

In Hounslow borough there was a similar outcome with Labour achieving the highest proportion of votes at 30% well above their average for London beating the Lib Dems into second place unlike in Islington, Jeremy Corbyn's home borough, where the Lib Dems achieved the most votes.

Euro Election Vote - Hounslow Borough
Party Vote share
Labour
30%
Lib Dems
23%
Brexit
18%
Green
8%
Conservative
8%

Nationally the Brexit Party won the largest share of the vote at 31.6% with London the only region declared so far in which it didn't top the poll. Out of 64 MEPs declared so far, they will have 28, the Lib Dems 15, Labour 10, Greens seven, the Tories three and Plaid Cymru one.

However, the combined vote of parties explicitly backing a second referendum (Liberal Democrats, Greens and Change UK) was 5.95 million compared to 5.79 million for the Brexit Party with votes in Remain supporting Scotland and Northern Ireland still to be declared.

May 27, 2019

Related links

and HammersmithToday.co.uk