Labour holds its Greater London Authority seats as Merton & Wandsworth swings further away from Conservatives

By Joe Talora, local democracy reporter

Labour has held on to four of its London Assembly constituency seats as the second day of vote counting begins to wind down.

Merton & Wandsworth, which swung from the Conservatives to Labour in 2016, had been identified as a potential swing seat this year but incumbent Leonie Cooper won comfortably, increasing her majority from 4,301 in 2016 to 14,500 this year.

Elsewhere, Joanne McCartney retained her seat of Enfield & Haringey while long-serving Assembly member and Labour group leader Len Duvall held his seat of Greenwich and Lewisham.

Mr Duvall, who has held the seat since the Assembly’s formation in 2000, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that his victory was “a fantastic result for Labour”.

He said: “For me personally, its about being able to represent Greenwich and Lewisham again and be a strong advocate for the issues of those two boroughs. I represent everybody, regardless of who they voted for, and will continue to do so.”

Labour also held on to the Barnet & Camden constituency, with Anne Clarke set to replace Andrew Dismore, who had held the seat since 2012 before stepping down ahead of this election.

There are now just three constituencies left to declare results, with City & East expected to be held by Labour while Croydon & Sutton is expected to be held by the Conservatives.

The South West constituency, which had been held for 21 years by Conservative Tony Arbour before his retirement, is likely to be the closest constituency this election.

Before London Elects stopped publishing live data on the results, Liberal Democrat candidate Gareth Roberts was just four per cent behind Conservative candidate Nick Rogers in first place.

The remaining constituencies are expected to announce results shortly, with the results for the Mayor of London election expected shortly after.