Putney Turns Red After Fourteen Years Blue

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Tactical voting by remainers delivers victory to Fleur Anderson

Fleur Anderson (centre) celebrates with Rosena Allin-Khan and Marsha De Cordova

Labour’s Fleur Anderson is the new MP for Putney, gaining more than 22,000 votes to beat Conservative candidate Will Sweet.

Her victory saw the constituency turn red after a huge campaigning effort that involved more than 700 volunteers out canvassing one night this week.

Following the result she told this website, "I am delighted and honoured to be elected as MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields. Thank you to every single person who voted for me. I pledge to work hard and honour the faith you have put in me. I'd like to thank the many Labour supporters who have made this such a team effort. I will get to work straight away."

Labour won 22,780 votes compared to the Conservatives’ 18,006.

Liberal Democrat Sue Wixley came third with 8,548 votes, followed by Green candidate Fergal McEntee with 1,133 votes.

Overall turnout was 77.4 per cent, well up from 2017 which saw a turnout of 72.1 per cent.

General Election 2019: Putney
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	+/-
Labour	Fleur Anderson	22,780	45	+4.4
Conservative	Will Sweet	18,006	36	-8.4
Liberal Democrat	Sue Wixley	8,548	17	+5.3
Green	Fergal McEntee	1,133	2	-0.1
Majority		4,774	4.9
Turnout		50,583	77.4	+5.3
Labour win

Fleur Anderson currently works as head of community services at the Katherine Low Settlement Community Centre in Battersea, running youth services and projects for elderly people, and has previously worked for WaterAid, CAFOD and the Catholic Aid Agency.

She says she is “pro-Europe and proudly remain” and pledges to have a People’s Vote, but was criticised by the Liberal Democrats who said the Labour Party were not committed to remaining in the EU, regardless of Ms Anderson’s personal stance.

She also faced difficult questions at hustings about tactical voting and Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.

She admitted she was “frustrated” Labour took so long to adopt its position on a People’s Vote on Brexit, and conceded that Mr Corbyn had “not done enough” and should have apologised in his interview with Andrew Neil.

Until recently, pollsters believed the Conservatives would hold the seat, but the latest YouGov MRP prediction showed a slight lean to Labour, estimated to receive 40 per cent of the vote, compared to 37 per cent for the Conservatives.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service at the end of the evening Ms Anderson said she hoped that having Labour MPs will force through change at Conservative-led Wandsworth council.

“It means something for the council. The Conservative council are being held to account even more now with three Labour MPs,” she said.

“The people of Wandsworth have said they prefer to have Labour.”

She added: “I will do everything to serve and to honour their vote. I will also be looking at the issues on Putney High Street, including air pollution.

“I can’t wait to start being an MP and to tackle some of the inequalities in our area. I will be working very much on Roehampton and opposing some of the worst parts of the regeneration."

Justine Greening has held the seat since 2005, but stepped down when the election was called after having the Conservative party whip removed for supporting an emergency motion to allow the House of Commons to take over proceedings on the EU Withdrawal Bill.

She was a known ‘remainer’ figure in the party, and accused the Conservatives of “becoming the Brexit party.” Putney voted 72.24 per cent to remain in the EU referendum in 2016.

The 2017 election was close, with just 1,554 votes between the Conservatives and runners-up, Labour.

The Conservative candidate hoping to replace Ms Greening was Will Sweet, a local councillor on Wandsworth Council and the borough’s cabinet member for education and children’s services. He grew up in Wandsworth, and worked for the Foreign Office for the last six years.

However, he has received criticism for his stance on Brexit – which was rarely mentioned in his campaign literature. Mr Sweet said at hustings that while he was a “remainer”, he wants to see the country move forward with a good Brexit deal. He was also criticised by some parents’ groups about changes he oversaw to provision for Autistic children in the borough.

Other candidates in the running included Sue Wixley for the Lib Dems and Fergal McEntee for the Green Party.

The Lib Dems won 11.6 per cent of the vote in 2017, while the Greens received 2.4 per cent and UKIP received one per cent of the vote share.

The last time Putney was a Labour seat was in when Tony Colman was the local MP from May 1997 - May 2005, when he unseated David Mellor at the famously rowdy election in 1997.

Conservative candidate Will Sweet responded to the news: “I am disappointed not to have been elected to represent the area I love. It has been a privilege to meet so many residents over the past few weeks. I’m looking forward to continuing my work for Putney, Southfields and Roehampton on Wandsworth Council.”

Sue Wixley the Lib Dem canditate responded: "Congratulations to Fleur Anderson for her win. It was a real honour to stand for election in Putney, my adopted home and an area I love. Thank you to everyone who voted for the Liberal Democrats and put your faith in us this time around.

Across the country and in Parliament, Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for liberal values and for a United Kingdom that is internationalist, open and inclusive. In Putney, we will use every Liberal Democrat vote in this election to hold our new MP to account."

Green party candidate Fergal McEntee commented: "I would like to congratulate Fleur on her successful nomination as our new MP for Putney.

"2019 is the year the World has awoken to the climate disaster, we have very little time to act and Putney is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate breakdown. My campaign was designed around speaking the truth and bringing a well-informed voice of reason to educate my fellow running colleagues Will, Sue and Fleur and to the constituencies of Putney of the urgency of the situation and to the well thought out scientifically based the solutions. To me, this was a success."

General Election 2017: Putney
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	+/-
Conservative	Justine Greening	20,679	44.1	-9.7
Labour	Neeraj Patil	19,126	40.8	+10.8
Liberal Democrat	Ryan Mercer	5,448	11.6	+5.3
Green	Ben Fletcher	1,107	2.4	2.5
UKIP	Patricia Ward	477	1.0	3.6
Independent	Lotta Quizeen	58	0.1	-0.3
Majority		1554	3.3
Turnout		46,895	71.7	+4.5
Conservative hold

Written with contributions from Sian Bayley - Local Democracy Reporter

December 13, 2019