Voice of London

The results for Harrow East and Harrow West constituencies for the general election are now in

For Harrow East, Bob Blackman has retained his seat with more than 54% of the vote share – and a total of 26,935.

Speaking after the result was announced, Mr Blackman said:

“It is an honour and a privilege to be re-elected as your MP. This is one of the most multicultural seats in the country and I am so proud to serve such a diverse area.

I’d like to thank the police for enabling this election to take place in peace and harmony. The national result tonight means that we can now end the uncertainty over Brexit and move forward with our One Nation Conservative agenda and start to fund our public services much more.

This is a superb result and I look forward to getting back to work on Monday.”

But his Labour opponent, Pamela Fitzpatrick, said: “The Tories are dangerous and divisive – I am very fearful for the future of our country. Bob Blackman did not lead a clean campaign.”

On the national result for Labour, she said:

“Don’t be in despair about our party. We will come back from this. The world doesn’t have to be as Bob Blackman envisages.”

Labour’s vote share dropped by more than 8% – the party receiving 18,765 votes.

And the Liberal Democrat candidate Adam Bernard – who received 3,791 votes and increased his party’s vote share by over 4% from 2017 – said:

“This has been one of the most negative campaigns ever. People saying that you have to vote for ‘X’ if you want to elect ‘Y’. We have to reform our entire voting system.”

In the neighbouring constituency of Harrow West, the Labour candidate and sitting MP Gareth Thomas retained his seat in the House of Commons.

But his vote share dropped by more than 8% – gaining just over half of the entire vote share – 25,132 votes in total.

Speaking on the future direction of the Labour party and of the current Labour leadership, Mr Thomas said:

“A very serious and major rethink is needed – urgently.”

Brexit party candidate Richard Jones received 931 votes, just under 2% of the entire vote share.

Words: Scott Mathew | Subbing: Michelle Del Rey | Featured image credit: 123RF.com