By Lucille Brobbey
December 13 2019, 04.51
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Labour candidate Bell Ribeiro-Addy gained the Streatham seat this evening having secured 30,976 votes.
Liberal Democrat Helen Thompson won 13,286 votes, Conservative party’s Rory O’Broin secured 9,060 votes, Green Party’s Scott Ainslie gained 2,567 votes, while Brexit Party’s Penelope Becker won 624 votes.
Chuka Umunna previously held the seat for the Liberal Democrats following his defection from the Labour Party in February 2019.
Ms Ribeiro-Addy said: “To my family, my friends, and my parents who are here today, you never get to do something like this if you don’t have that firm rooting. They keep me rooted and I am so blessed to have them all.”
Following Jeremy Corbyn’s announcement that he will stand down as Labour leader, Ms Ribeiro-Addy said Mr Corbyn mentioned this prior to the start of the election and that he was a man of his word.
She added: “Personally, I think the Labour Party put forward a fantastic manifesto, something which people around the country really got behind.
“We had a full plan for real change and it’s sad if things have gone this way but let’s wait until the end of the night and see what can happen.”
Liberal Democrat Helen Thompson said: “We got a big increase in our vote share, we did not want to see a conservative majority but I think Labour needs to look at why it has suffered the losses it has.”
She added: “It is obviously so sad to see Jo Swinson lose by such a small margin.”
