Labor dominates London but Corbyn takes Islington North

Labor dominated the London general election, winning 59 out of 75 constituencies, but their former leader Jeremy Corbyn claimed victory in Islington North.

Corbyn polled 24,120 votes to hold his seat since 1983, beating Labour’s Praful Nargund, who polled 16,873 votes.

Corbyn called the result: “A resonant message from the people of Islington North.

“I have dedicated my life, learning and skills to the people of Islington North – this win is a win for them.”

While Islington North slipped out of Labour’s hands, the party won nine Conservative seats in London, including the Cities of London and Westminster, all three Barnet constituencies and Boris Johnson’s former constituency of Uxbridge and Ruislip South.

The Tories have dropped from 21 seats in 2019 in the capital to just nine in 2024, on course for their biggest national defeat in 190 years.

They lost nine seats to Labour, as well as three to the Lib Dems, who doubled their number of seats in the capital alongside an increase in seats nationally.

Among the Tories they beat were London minister Greg Hands in Chelsea and Fulham and Thresea Villiers in Chipping Barnet.

Hands did not make a concession speech but his victorious opponent Ben Coleman, who ousted him by just 152 votes, said: “The whole country needs change, we need to get the NHS back on its feet, our schools need more many teachers, we need to get the police back on the street.

“Chelsea and Fulham got Wes Streeting to come here just a few weeks ago and underwrite the rebuilding and upgrading of Charing Cross Hospital and I’m looking forward to doing that.”

It wasn’t all rosy for Labour, as new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer saw his majority in Holborn and St Pancras reduced to just over 11,500 votes against former ANC MP Andrew Feinstein.

Starmer called it a huge privilege to be re-elected in his constituency, saying his wife and children grew up there and their love kept him grounded.

He told his constituents: “I will serve every person in this constituency.

“I will speak for you, I will support you, I will fight your corner every day.”

Furthermore, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting survived a scare by holding off independent candidate Leanne Mohamad, who ran on a platform challenging the party’s position on the Israel/Gaza conflict.

However, the 59 landslide victories are two more than Tony Blair’s 1997 Labor landslide, which remains Labour’s biggest electoral success.

For the Tories the result was a total disaster and could have been worse as Iain Duncan Smith in Chingford and Woodford Green and Chris Philp in Croydon South barely hung on to their seats.

Duncan Smith was helped by the split of the Labor vote between his candidate Shama Tatler and her predecessor Faiza Shaheen, with Tatler finishing only slightly ahead of Shaheen in the poll.

Shaheen hit out at Labor saying: “They have let my community down. I am so mad at them now. This shouldn’t have happened.”

Philp was predicted to have 1% of his seat in the exit poll, but survived by 2,313 votes.

The Liberal Democrats won six seats in the capital but took key targets such as Wimbledon, Carshalton and Wallington and Sutton and Cheam from the Tories as part of its best ever performance.

Its leader, Sir Ed Davey, said after winning in Kingston and Surbiton: “I am humbled by the millions of people who supported the Liberal Democrats both to oust the Tories and to deliver change which our country needs”.

Neither the Greens nor Reform managed to win any seats in London, although both won four seats nationally.