Blues banished to outer edges as London turns red

INNER-CITY STRONGHOLDS FALL TO LABOUR

- Nicholas Cecil and Noah Vickers

THE Tories were wiped out in inner London in a historic defeat, but kept hold of some seats in the suburbs.

They went into the election with just three seats left in this central area of the capital. But they swiftly lost Cities of London and Westminster, which includes Buckingham Palace, the Square Mile and Parliament, as well as the new seat of Kensington and Bayswater.

In Chelsea and Fulham, the contest went down to the wire with Labour’s Ben Coleman being declared the winner over outgoing London minister Greg Hands by just 152 votes. The triple loss meant that there are now no Tory MPs in inner London for the first time.

“The King now lives in a Labour parliamentary seat, having seen his local council, Westminster, won by Labour in the 2022 borough elections,” said Professor Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics. “Neither of these things had ever happened before.”

But Labour jubilation was slightly tempered by Jeremy Corbyn, standing as an independent, beating the party’s candidate in Islington North, Praful Nargund, by more than 7,000 votes.