London Assembly Member Bob Neill has won the Bromley and Chislehurst By-Election for the Conservatives.
The election was called after the death of the well known Tory MP Eric Forth who held the seat since May 1997 and who was returned with a majority of 13,000 at last year’s General Election.
Mr Neill also represents the Bexley and Bromley constituency on the London Assembly. He has said he intends to continue on the Assembly until the next GLA elections to avoid the cost of a further by-election.
Coming second in the contest was Ben Abbotts for the Liberal Democrats improving slightly on the 2005 performance of third place. Labour were pushed into a humiliating fourth place behind UKIP with just 1,925 votes.
Turnout was just 40.5 %, down from 64.9% at the General Election.
The campaign was marked by attacks from the Liberal Democrats on Mr Neill’s “three jobs” despite the fact that two of their own London Assembly Members also sit in the House of Lords.
Neill was previously a Councillor on Havering Council where he served terms as chairman of the Environment and Social Services Committees and was first elected to the London Assembly in 2000.
He was re-elected at the 2004 GLA elections and is a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Commission for Racial Equality and has previously stood twice as a parliamentary candidate.
