Labour candidate Joanne McCartney will enter her third term as Enfield and Harringey’s London Assembly Member, beating Conservative Andy Hemsted.
Labour’s Joanne McCartney will enter her third term as Enfield and Harringey’s London Assembly member, comfortably beating Conservative Andy Hemsted.
McCartney reclaimed the London Assembly seat she won in 2008 with only 0.8 percent of the vote.
She said: “Labour has delivered for North London, not only for the GLA but for Ken as well. We have had some stunning results today.
“I am very pleased that North London is red. It is the right colour to be.”
She added: “Labour members on the Assembly will be standing up for London and fighting this Conservative and Liberal Government and the fight back does start for those parliamentary seats particularly here, where we are standing in Hornsey.”
The Liberal Democrat candidate Michael Cox and Green Party candidate Mike Harling were locked in a close battle for third, with the Lib Dems winning the position.
Conservative candidate Hemsted said: “Of course I am disappointed but you have got to put yourself forward. I really wanted to represent the entire area of Enfield and Harringey not just the people who came out and voted for me.
“This was a Labour seat already so we knew that they were going to win. It is just one of those things.”
McCartney, a qualified barrister, currently chairs the Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee and called for more police on the beat in the run up to the election.
At City Hall McCartney has called out Boris Johnson over cuts to the local policing budget saying reductions in front-line officers have left London residents at risk.
The Labour stronghold returned a strong majority in favour of Ken Livingstone for London Mayor and held the Assembly seat since it was established in 2000.
“It’s a very good day for Labour across the country and a specifically for us here in London,” said McCartney.
“It marks a resurgence of support for Labour, both locally and nationally dramatically.
“It sends a message to the coalition that they’re heading in the wrong direction, and Labour will change that.”
McCartney also sits on the Transport Committee and has claimed Johnson’s ideas, like a cable car crossing for the Thames, target tourists not Londoners.
The votes from constituency were delayed after the count at Alexandra Palace was hit by electrical problems in the morning.
Reporting team: Nicholas Bonfield, Adam Knight, Lydia Morton & Tom Sweetman
