The ward-by-ward and borough-level results from the recent Mayoral and London Assembly elections have been released.
In the mayoral election, Newham voted (unsurprisingly) overwhelmingly for Labour’s Ken Livingstone. On first preference votes, the results were:
Siobhan Benita (independent) – 1,536 (2.33%)
Carlos Cortiglia (BNP) – 918 (1.39%)
Boris Johnson (Conservative) – 12,139 (18.42%)
Jenny Jones (Green) – 1,630 (2.47%)
Ken Livingstone (Labour) – 47,388 (71.89%)
Brian Paddick (Liberal Democrat) – 1,413 (2.14%)
Lawrence James Webb (UKIP) – 893 (1.35%)
In the London Assembly election for the City & East constituency, the results were:
John Biggs (Labour) – 47,226 (71.18%)
Paul Borg (BNP) – 1,773 (2.67%)
Paul Davies (Communist League) – 447 (0.67%)
Richard Macmillan (Liberal Democrat) – 2,064 (3.11%)
Kamran Malik (Communities United Party) – 3,677 (5.54%)
John Moss (Conservative) – 6,578 (9.91%)
Chris Smith (Green) – 3,078 (4.64%)
Steven Woolfe (UKIP) – 1,505 (2.27%)
For the election of the London-wide members:
BNP – 1,428 (2.15%)
Christian Peoples Alliance – 1,701 (2.56%)
Conservative Party – 6,753 (10.14%)
Green Party – 2,988 (4.49%)
Labour Party – 48,241 (72.47%)
Liberal Democrats – 1,620 (2.43%)
National Front – 247 (0.37%)
House Party – 245 (0.37%)
Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition – 400 (0.60%)
UKIP – 1,569 (2.36%)
Rathy Alagaratnam – 227 (0.34%)
Ijaz Hayat – 688 (1.03%)
So, what do we learn from all this?
Across London Ken Livingstone polled behind the Labour Party, which is why he lost the mayoral election when his party made big gains in the Assembly. But that didn’t happen in Newham. His vote and the general Labour vote were all but identical.
That wasn’t true for the the Tories though. Boris was close to twice as popular in Newham as his party. The Conservatives continue to be – in vote terms, at least – the main opposition party in the borough, although their share of the vote was somewhat lower than at the general election (around 10% this time compared to 15% in 2010).
It’s also worth noting that Labour’s share of the vote was up from the 2010 general election, where Lyn Brown (West Ham) took 62.7% and Stephen Timms (East Ham) took 70.4%.
The Liberal Democrats did hopelessly badly. It’s hard to see even a spark of life for a party that finished with fewer votes than the Christians and barely beat UKIP.
These results, along with those from the general and council elections in 2010, confirm that the far-right has no meaningful presence or support in Newham. We should be grateful for that.
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