Labour has taken the West Central London Assembly seat for the first time, ousting the Tory incumbent by just over 4,000 votes.
The constituency, which includes Fitzrovia West and covers the boroughs Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster, also backed Labour in the mayoral vote, on a day when incumbent Sadiq Khan won an historic third term.
Conservative Tony Devenish, who has held the West Central seat since 2016, said it has been a “huge honour” to represent the area, and that his priority “will always be the people in this part of London”.
James Small-Edwards, who won with 46,831 to second-place Devenish’s 42,578, said the result was “humbling” on a day when his party picked up both the local constituency and Mayoral votes.
Labour’s official line on the day, as elsewhere, was that the race would be close, with no room for complacency. The first result to be announced were the local votes for the London-wide mayoral race, with Khan securing over 10,000 more than second-place Susan Hall, the first time Labour had won in West Central.
Cllr Stephen Cowan, Labour Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, described the result as a “huge endorsement for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party”. He continued: “We’re winning significantly in areas that we’ve not won before, and while there’s no complacency, it bodes well for Chelsea and Fulham, the City of Westminster, and Kensington in the General Election.”
Prior to the London Assembly announcement, several candidates spoke of a want for change picked up while out campaigning. Nicola Pateman, of ReformUK, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) she was “confident” the people of London and West Central want something new.
“I care deeply about this part of London, I care deeply that it’s not as wonderful as it used to be,” she said.
Green candidate Rajiv Sinha, while acknowledging the mayoral result as “not surprising”, similarly expressed hope at picking up support in the constituency vote. “I think the constituency will go along more positive lines, just on account of my experience of campaigning and canvassing across all of West Central,” he said.
Local turnout was down when compared with the 2021 elections, from 39 percent to 34.94 percent. Devenish won by just over 2,000 votes four years’ ago, after being run close by Labour’s Rita Begum.
Following today’s result, Devenish, who is also a Westminster City councillor, told the LDRS: “It’s been a huge honour, they are the three best London boroughs, and I am biased but it’s my home. The best parts of the country by far.”
“The reality is my priority will always be the people in this part of London and I will serve them on Westminster Council, and I’m determined to retain the three Conservative [parliamentary] seats which form parts of the West Central GLA [constituency].”
Small-Edwards said it was “really humbling” to be elected as the first Labour London Assembly Member for West Central on the same day the party won the Mayoral vote. “I think it shows that our priorities as a party chime with those of ordinary Londoners, and that also is a story which I think is being played right across the country,” he said.
Small-Edwards added continuing support for the cost of living crisis will be one of his key aims on the London Assembly, alongside more affordable and social housing and action to combat climate change.
Like Devenish, Small-Edwards is also a Westminster City councillor, where he is the deputy cabinet member for planning and economic development. In the London-wide mayoral race, Sadiq Khan won an historic third term, securing over 276,000 votes more than Conservative candidate Susan Hall.
Full West Central results:
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Victims of road collisions in London are being denied justice because of a lack of guidance for police collecting evidence, City Hall has heard.
An inconsistent and uncertain approach to evidence-gathering by officers means that there is sometimes not enough information to prosecute, London Assembly members were told on Tuesday.
Rory McCarron, a senior solicitor at Leigh Day, said at a meeting of the Assembly’s police and crime committee: “I’m not convinced that one officer to the next knows exactly what they’re looking for.
“Certain, very basic information is lost at that initial stage [immediately after a collision] — capturing witnesses who might be at the scene, looking to see if there’s a traffic camera or a commercial property that might capture that footage of what happened.
“Basic things like photographs of the scene, positions of vehicles, positions of where people would have been travelling from, where did the victim end up when a collision has occurred.”
McCarron, who generally works with injured cyclists and pedestrians, clarified that there can also be more positive outcomes, where “there’s been a really good initial search of the scene to see what has happened and get that information together”.
He suggested that officers be instructed to use their body-worn cameras — which are switched on during stop and search — to record footage of the collision site and document evidence that way.
According to Transport for London (TfL), there were 23,465 reported collisions on London’s roads in 2022, resulting in 102 people being killed, 3,859 being seriously injured and 23,246 being slightly injured.
But it was said at Tuesday’s meeting that the true number of serious injuries could be higher.
Nick Simmons, CEO of the charity RoadPeace, said: “Our sense is that the number of serious injuries is probably very significantly under-reported, so I think the problem is even worse than we might imagine it to be.”
The committee was told that this was because some injuries are not immediately recognised as being serious in the aftermath of a collision.
McCarron stressed that thorough investigations into collisions can be vitally important for victims’ finances, due to the need to establish liability when attempting to claim monetary support.
He said: “Some victims live hand by mouth. They’re reliant on a monthly income to pay for their mortgage or rent or whatever it might be, and sometimes when collisions happen, that is immediately cut off, because they don’t have that income stream [due to injuries].
“It’s hugely important for police to be able to understand that whilst a prosecution may be serving justice, it doesn’t plug those gaps in financial aid for a victim, and that’s where we [solicitors] come in.
“If an investigation isn’t conducted properly, that has a material impact on the victim, what really counts for them in the long-term future.”
The Met Police has been approached for comment.
In 2018, mayor Sadiq Khan published his Vision Zero action plan, which aims to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries on London’s transport system.
The 2022 target was to reduce the number of people who are killed or seriously injured by 65 per cent against 2005-09 levels. This was not met, with the number of people killed and seriously injured on London’s roads only reduced by 38 per cent.
London Assembly: Police and Crime Committee – Wednesday 22 November 2023.
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Dr Susi Arnott
Editors