Stunning Euro Election Results For Lib Dems In Merton
Party wins most votes locally in European election by a wide margin
Irina von Wiese topped London wide poll for Lib Dems
The Liberal Democrats are celebrating in Merton after winning the local vote by a huge margin. The declaration of voting in the borough in the European Parliamentary elections showed them performing well ahead of their expectations.
They topped the poll locally with 20,221 votes, which represent 32.7% of those cast, well ahead of Labour in second place with 20.8% (12,735 votes).
The Conservatives could only manage 5th place with just 7.8% of the vote. The Brexit Party got 16.4%, coming 4th below the Green party that received 11.1% of the votes.
There were 61,273 voters in the borough, which represented a turnout of 45%. It was a 1% increase on the 2014 turnout, which coincided with a full borough council election.
Across London, the Liberal Democrats have won three of the eight seats available for the London constituency after achieving the highest vote of any party in the elections for the European parliament.
Their share of the vote surged by 20 points to 27.1% ahead of next placed Labour on 24% This meant that the Lib Dems gained three seats having had none before while Labour lost two.
The result was a disaster for the Conservatives who gained 7.9% of the vote thereby losing their two seats. The Brexit Party achieved 17.9% of the vote winning two seats although one of them was at the expense of UKIP. The Greens retained their seat in London increasing their vote by 3.5 percentage points.
Successful Lib Dem candidate Luisa Porritt said: "Real and pressing issues have long been ignored by our two main parties, that is why we must have a people's vote."
Commenting on the European Elections results in Merton, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Wimbledon Councillor Paul Kohler said: “These results signal a massive political shift in Merton, with the Lib Dems now the most popular party here. Former Labour and Conservative voters are switching to us because they believe in our simple and honest message that a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote to Stop Brexit.
“I would like to thank the people of Merton for putting their faith in the Liberal Democrats. Nationally we will continue to fight to stop Brexit, and locally we will continue to push for a fresh start for Merton."
A London Labour Party spokesman said: "We're ecstatic that both Claude Moraes and Seb Dance have been elected as MEPs for London.
"Our MEPs will go to Brussels championing workers rights, fighting climate change and the other issues important to our party."
Benyamin Habib, one of the two newly elected Brexit Party candidates in London said:"We launched seven weeks ago and proved in that short time the nation still wants Brexit and Brexit with a no deal".
Turnout in London was 41.3% slightly up on 40.1% in the previous election.
| Eight members elected for the London region | ||
| Seat | Full name | Party |
| 1 | Irina von Wiese | Liberal Democrats |
| 2 | Claude Ajit Moraes | Labour Party |
| 3 | Benyamin Naeem Habib | The Brexit Party |
| 4 | Dinesh Dhamija Cinnabar | Liberal Democrats |
| 5 | Scott John Ainslie | Green Party |
| 6 | Seb Dance | Labour Party |
| 7 | Luisa Manon Porritt | Liberal Democrats |
| 8 | Lance Philip Forman | The Brexit Party |
The number of votes which each successful party had during the process of allocation of seats was as follows:
| Party | Vote total | Allocation |
| Liberal Democrats | 608,725 | Seat one |
| Labour Party | 536,810 | Seat two |
| The Brexit Party | 400,257 | Seat three |
| Liberal Democrats | 304,363 | Seat four |
| Green Party | 278,957 | Seat five |
| Labour Party | 268,405 | Seat six |
| Liberal Democrats | 202,908 | Seat seven |
| The Brexit Party | 200,129 | Seat eight |
Nationally the Brexit Party won the largest share of the vote at 31.6% with London the only region declared so far in which it didn't top the poll. Out of 64 MEPs declared so far, they will have 28, the Lib Dems 15, Labour 10, Greens seven, the Tories three and Plaid Cymru one.
However, the combined vote of parties explicitly backing a second referendum (Liberal Democrats, Greens and Change UK) was 5.95 million in England and Wales compared with 5.79 million for the Brexit Party.
May 27, 2019