At 3:07 this morning, The Mayor of Sutton announced that leafy south west London suburb Carshalton and Wallington had been won by the Liberal Democrats in a landslide after the party lost narrowly to the Conservatives in 2019.
Newly elected MP Bobby Dean won 20,156 votes in the constituency, with Conservative incumbent Elliott Colburn only securing 12,221 votes.
Dean, a Carshalton resident who grew up in council estates in the area, has pledged to stop healthcare cuts to St Helier hospital, cost of living support, and to reverse pollution in the River Wandle.
He said: “I’m feeling humbled. People from families like mine don’t often end up in politics, so I’m feeling quite a big sense of responsibility for that. But I’m excited and ready to get on with the job.
“We’ll be working on the priorities that people spoke to us about on their doorsteps, number one being the NHS, in particular our local hospital St. Helier. The future of that hospital has been up in the air for too long.
“The cost of living crisis is also still a priority, people are really struggling, and we’ll be campaigning a lot for the state of our local river, and the pollution levels in the Wandle.”
Considered part of the stockbroker belt, the area is a largely affluent demographic with issues centred around minimal social housing, healthcare funding cuts, and environmental pollution.
Carshalton and Wallington has been a Liberal Democrat/Tory marginal since 1997, with Colburn securing a narrow 629 vote margin in 2019, one of the tightest majorities in the capital.
While Colburn was a prominent figure in the community (and aged just 26 at the time of his victory), ultimately the Conservatives lost out, and the seat has been claimed once more by the Liberal Democrats.
Colburn said: “It’s been truly the honour of my life to be the MP for the place that I’ve been calling home since I was born.
“It is a wrench to leave, of course it’s a wrench to leave, but I’m so proud of what we’ve managed to achieve together, and I’m so proud of my time in a role that I did not think I would do at that age.”
For the Liberal Democrats, however, the win signals a positive future for the party.
Dean said: “It’s looking much better than it was before. It’s certainly going to be a bigger result than we have had in the last three or four elections.
“We put the NHS and social care right at the heart of our manifesto, and people are responding to that.”
The Lib Dems surged in south west London, also winning in neighbouring Sutton and Cheam as well as toppling the Tories in Wimbledon.
