The party has been the clear beneficiary of Theresa May’s decision to call an early general election which backfired on the Conservatives, leaving them unable to form a majority government and plunging the prime minister’s own future into uncertainty.
At the start of the election many Labour activists and politicians feared the loss of Ealing Central and Acton where Rupa Huq had a slender majority of 274, Ruth Cadbury’s Brentford and Isleworth seat (465 majority), Wes Streeting’s Ilford North (589) and Joan Ryan’s Enfield North, (majority 1,086).
However a night which was widely expected to deliver a national Tory majority of at least 50 seats ended on a very different note.
Huq turned her 274 lead into a majority of 13,807, while Cadbury extended her majority by more than 12,000, Streeting increased his majority to 9,600 and Ryan boosted her majority to 10,247.
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, who succeeded Mayor of London Sadiq Khan as Tooting’s MP, also increased her majority.
Labour also unseated housing minister and minister for London Gavin Barwell, who lost his Croydon Central seat, and treasury minister Jane Ellison who saw Battersea fall to Labour’s Marsha de Cordova.
Kate Hoey, the popular Labour MP for Vauxhall shrugged off a challenge from the Liberal Democrats who’d hoped to turn her support for Leave in last year’s Brexit vote against her, to win a 20,00 majority.
The party’s surge also saw Tory majorities across the capital slashed as voters embraced its manifesto package of renationalised trains, promises to boost affordable housing and a vow to scrap tuition fees.
Education secretary Justine Greening saw her majority in Putney fall from 10,180 to 1,554 while former mayor Boris Johnson saw his lead in Uxbridge cut from 10,695 to just over 5,000. Mr Johnson is widely considered a serious contender to replace the PM should she decide to step down in the wake of her failed election bid.
The Liberal Democrats enjoyed a limited resurgence in south west London where Sir Vince Cable and Sir Ed Davey retook their Twickenham and Kingston seats which they’d lost in 2015 and Tom Brake defied expectations to retain his Carshalton and Wallington seat which he’s represented for the past 20 years.
However party colleague Simon Hughes failed to regain his Bermondsey seat where Labour’s Neil Coyle majority trebled from 4,489 in 2015 to 12,972 and Sarah Olney lost Richmond Park, which she won in last December’s by-election, to Zac Goldmsith by just 45 votes with Goldsmith taking 28,588 to her 28,543.
