Labour candidate John Biggs has won by a landslide to keep his London Assembly seat for City and East.
John Biggs has won by a landslide to keep his London Assmebly seat for City and East.
The Labour candidate is now in his fourth term as London Assembly Member for the constituency and gained 197,667 votes – a significant increase from the 2008 election where he got 63,635 votes.
The City and East London Mayoral vote was also strongly in favour of Ken Livingstone – with the Mayoral race still neck and neck.
“People recognise that with Boris Johnson they are getting a raw deal. Levels of unemployment are tragic, people want someone fighting their corner,” said Assembly Member Biggs.
“It’s clear that Boris has abandoned East London, and people can see this, which is why they haven’t voted for him.”
Throughout the majority of the count, Biggs was comfortably in the lead with Conservative candidate John Moss far behind, finishing with 24,923 votes.
After the result, Moss said: “Labour were flattered by lack of a Respect candidate. We saw people from all communities supporting the Conservatives.”
With the Green Party candidate Chris Smith coming in third with 10,891 votes, it is another blow for the Liberal Democrats who managed only 7351 votes.
Liberal Democrat candidate for City and East, Richard MacMillan spoke earlier in the day about their pending poor results.
He said: “Our poor showing so far is a reflection of this race being characterised as Ken v Boris, and not having as much scrutiny of policies as there should be.”
The consistuency covers the City of London and the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham and Barking & Dagenham.
It also houses the Olympic Stadium meaning the consituency member holds a great responsibility over the next coming months.
Reporting team: Peter Apps, Tristan Carlyle, Robin Jellis & Nate Saunders
