Labour hold Croydon North - UKIP force Lib Dems into fourth place

 
30 November 2012
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Labour retained the constituency of Croydon North in a Westminster by-election today, romping home by a margin of almost 12,000 votes.

The party's candidate Steve Reed secured 15,898 votes and a massive 47.9% margin of victory, up from the 31.9% recorded at the 2010 general election by former minister Malcolm Wicks, whose death in September triggered the poll.

Conservatives took second place, with their candidate Andy Stranack receiving 4,137 votes, but Liberal Democrat Marisha Ray came fourth behind the UK Independence Party and lost her deposit.

A predicted challenge from Respect failed to materialise, as Lee Jasper - a former aide to ex-London Mayor Ken Livingstone - scooped just 707 votes.

Turnout was just 26.4% and there was an overall swing of 8% from Conservatives to Labour.

Mr Reed, the current leader of Lambeth Borough Council, dedicated his win to his late predecessor Mr Wicks, pledging to carry on his work, and attacked David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson in his acceptance speech.

"Tonight the people of Croydon North sent a clear message to David Cameron," he said.

"He cannot be the one-nation prime minister Britain needs if he stands by doing nothing while Croydon faces one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in London.

"He cannot be the one-nation prime minister Britain needs if he is giving tax cuts to millionaires while pensioners here in Croydon are left to pay more.

"David Cameron needs to listen. People are hurting because his economic policies are not working. He must change course on the economy."

Mr Stranack said he was disappointed to come second in his home town but admitted winning such a safe Labour seat was a "big challenge".

The Conservative, who was born with cerebral palsy, used his speech at Archbishop Lanfranc School to call for more disabled people to be chosen as parliamentary candidates.

"I would like to challenge all of the main party leaders to look at the inspiration our Paralympians bought us over the summer and take the bold decision to select more candidates with disabilities."

To applause he added: "I believe my team and my opponents will tell you my disability has in no way held me back from running an energetic campaign that has engaged many people in North Croydon."

Lab hold

Steve Reed (Lab) 15,898 (64.71%, +8.69%)

Andy Stranack (C) 4,137 (16.84%, -7.28%)

Winston McKenzie (Ukip) 1,400 (5.70%, +3.97%)

Marisha Ray (LD) 860 (3.50%, -10.48%)

Shasha Islam Khan (Green) 855 (3.48%, +1.51%)

Lee Jasper (Respect) 707 (2.88%, +2.35%)

Stephen Hammond (CPA) 192 (0.78%)

Richard Edmonds (NF) 161 (0.66%)

Ben Stevenson (Comm) 119 (0.48%, +0.17%)

John Cartwright (Loony) 110 (0.45%)

Simon Lane (Nine eleven) 66 (0.27%)

Robin Smith (Young) 63 (0.26%)

Lab maj 11,761 (47.87%)

7.99% swing C to Lab

Electorate 93,063; Turnout 24,568 (26.40%, -34.25%)

2010: Lab maj 16,483 (31.90%) - Turnout 51,678 (60.65%)

Wicks (Lab) 28,949 (56.02%); Hadden (C) 12,466 (24.12%); Jerome (LD)

7,226 (13.98%); Khan (Green) 1,017 (1.97%); Serter (Ukip) 891

(1.72%); Williams (Ch P) 586 (1.13%); Shaikh (Respect) 272 (0.53%);

Stevenson (Comm) 160 (0.31%); Seyed (Ind) 111 (0.21%)

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in