As the much anticipated Labour landslide swept throughout north east London overnight, independent candidates, hyper-local campaigning and party divisions indicate the future may not be smooth for the new government.
The main disruptor of the night was in Chingford and Woodford Green.
With the left-wing vote split between Labour’s Shama Tatler and former candidate Faiza Shaheen, former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith clung onto his seat with a decreased majority.
Only 79 votes separated the Tatler and Shaheen in second and third place, respectively.
Shaheen had initially been the Labour candidate for the constituency but was deselected shortly after the election was declared.
The former Tory leader had been predicted by the national exit poll a less than 1% chance of holding into his seat, which he has held since 1992.
And the upset for Labour almost carried over to Ilford North where Wes Streeting held onto his seat by only 528 votes.
Independent candidate Leanne Mohamad challenged the Shadow Health Secretary on a campaign centred around Palestine.
Elsewhere, long-serving MP Diane Abbott held on to her seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, albeit with 10% fewer votes than 2019.
Gaining a majority of votes, today’s results saw Abbott celebrate her 10th victory in a row, despite questions about her running as a Labour candidate dominating the early days of the campaign.
Labour won 13 of the 16 north east London seats, including wins in Barking and Dagenham and Rainham, East Ham and the new seat of Stratford and Bow.
As the Conservatives lost seats across the country, the party maintained a hold of some seats in the Northeast.
Andrew Rosindell remains as MP for Romford, though with half as many votes as in 2019, while Data Minister Julia Lopez held on to Hornchurch and Upminster, closely followed by Reform UK.
Figures so far reflect a historically low national turnout, with 59% of voters nationally.
Constituencies in the north east experienced lower than average turnout, with less than half of voters turning out in East Ham for example.
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