By Mindy Burrows, Catrin Picton and Cat Graffius
December 13 2019, 03.30
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Conservative candidate Felicity Buchan stole Kensington from Labour’s Emma Dent Coad.
The Conservatives lost by 20 votes in 2017, but this time Ms Buchan won 16,768 votes, while Ms Dent Coad gained 16,618 votes.
Liberal Democrat’s Sam Gyimah won 9,312 votes while Green Party’s Vivien Lichtenstein gained 535 votes and The Brexit Party’s Jay Aston Colquhoun won 384 votes.
Christian Peoples Alliance’s Roger Phillips won 70 votes, while Touch Love Worldwide’s Harriet Gore gained 47 votes and Workers Revolutionary Party candidate Scott Dore got 28 votes.
Elected MP Felicity Buchan said one of her priorities is ensuring the truth comes out about Grenfell.
She said: “It was an appalling tragedy. The first thing I did was write to Boris Johnson and make this a focus of his promotion.
“I want to bring all the communities together whether that’s north south and I want to get to the truth and accept all the findings of the enquiry”.
On Brexit, Ms Buchan said: “I’m delighted we do have a good deal with the EU and I’m very happy to support Boris’ deal”
Following the announcement of a recount, Emma Dent Coad said to South West Londoner: “Congratulations to Sam Gyimah for screwing up Kensington.”
In her speech, she said: “I didn’t think I was going to be up this long. Let’s hope decent and honesty prevail in Kensington.
“I think Kensington is better than that.”
After the speeches, Ms Dent Coad left without giving any interviews.
Mr Gyimah refused to speak to reporters before the vote was announced but he was heard saying: “I just want to lie in a bed, forget about this.”
There were chants of “shame, shame, shame” as he gave his speech.
In his speech, he said: “This is the 90th day I’ve been in the Liberal Democrat’s and we have doubled our membership in 6 weeks.
“They voted out of fear.”
Green’s Vivien Lichtenstein claimed the first past the post electoral system meant her party was forgotten. She said: “The system is broken we need proportional representation.”
The turnout was 67.9% (43,856), up from 2017’s 63.8% (38,667).
