By Matt Banks and Will Pickworth
December 13 2019, 5.32
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Dr Rosena Allin-Khan warned there would not be much time for celebration despite her resounding victory in Tooting.
Dr Allin-Khan retained her status as Tooting’s Member of Parliament with 30,811 votes – a 52.7% vote share and a majority of 14,307 over her Conservative counterpart Kerry Briscoe.
This was despite a 6.9% decrease in her vote share from the 2017 General Election.
She said: “The harsh reality is that tomorrow, food banks will be open, record numbers of parcels will be handed out and on Christmas Day 3,000 children in Wandsworth will wake up homeless.
“So apart from Tooting electing the local woman who will never stop fighting for them, there is little to celebrate tonight.”
Dr Allin-Khan was nevertheless enthused by the demonstration of democracy which was on display within her constituency.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s former constituency saw 58,555 people vote: 76.1% of the constituency’s electorate.
She said: “Today saw unprecedented numbers of people voting with queues around the block.
“People voted with their heads and their hearts to fight against division and hatred that is being stirred up by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
“The message was heard loud and clear.
“People in Tooting went out in the cold and the rain to reject division and to elect a pro-remain member of Parliament and I am very grateful to everyone that put their faith in me.
“I want to thank every single person in Tooting that has put their trust in me, and I am not going to stop fighting for every single one of you for as long as I am your Member of Parliament.”
On a vastly disappointing night for the Labour Party, there was a glimmer of hope coming from Wandsworth.
All three Labour candidates from the Wandsworth constituencies won, with Marsha de Cordova winning in Battersea, and Fleur Anderson taking Putney from the Conservatives.
“I can only really speak for the results in Wandsworth, but here the approach has worked perfectly,” Dr Allin-Khan added.
“I think there have been very many locally run campaigns.
“For me, I ran a ‘vote Rosena, vote remain’ campaign and that was very well received.
“That has returned me a really good majority.”
Dr Allin-Khan’s victory in Tooting came as no surprise, as the seat has been held by Labour since its creation in 1974.
She also paid tribute to her followers work in helping secure her re-election.
Dr Allin-Khan said: “I am indebted to the team that have worked so incredibly hard to return me as the member of parliament for Tooting.
“I could not have done this without my supporters.
During her campaign, Dr Allin-Khan said that she believed the current approach to crime in Tooting was inadequate, and that they needed to be more proactive.
She said: “The majority of stabbings happen between 4pm and 6pm – children need a safe space to go to after school like a boxing gym is incredibly important.
“This will be a key issue that she said she will aim to tackle after he re-election.”
She said: “Tooting have voted for their local doctor.
“We want proper policing here and Tooting doesn’t want to lose more unnecessary lives to violent crime.
“Tooting needs genuinely affordable homes not a government that is in the pocket of developers.
“I went in to bat for my constituents and I put them first like I have always done and tonight, I have reaped the rewards of that, I’m really pleased with the majority.”
