Member Article

General Election 2017: Labour gains in London reflect the national picture

The Labour Party has gained two seats in London on a disastrous night for the Conservative Party which sees the country hurtling towards a hung parliament.

Jeremy Corbyn’s party capped a stunning UK-wide surge by grabbing the marginal seats of Battersea and Croydon Central from the Tory party, and topping Housing Minister Gavin Barwell in the process.

It means that, at the time of publication, Labour have claimed 39 of the 73 constituencies in London with party figures including Diane Abbott, Keir Starmer and Harriet Harman all holding on to their seats.

In Islington, party leader Jeremy Corbyn unsurprisingly held onto his Islington North seat which, most tellingly, had its highest turnout since the 1950s.

It was not all bad news for the Tory party, however, with narrow victories in some key marginal seats pushing back the Labour tide, including in Putney and Kensington.

Both the swing to Labour and the narrow victory of some of those key marginal seats for the Tories, including Zac Goldsmith’s miniscule majority of 45 in Richmond Park, are indicative of the battering the Conservatives have taken in the polls across the country.

To find out what businesses are making of last night’s shock election result and what it might mean for the UK’s SMEs and entrepreneurs, stay tuned to Bdaily’s election coverage.

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