Tories romp home in by-election

Cllr Brown

Andrew Brown is the new councillor for Town Ward in Fulham following an electoral trouncing of Labour, albeit in a safe Conservative seat. Team Blue, or "Brown for Town" as they liked to call themselves took just under half of all ballots cast. The full count was as follows:

• Conservative 768
• Labour 416
• LibDem 331
• UKIP 39

That is overwhelming and Mr Brown carries a majority into the chamber that most of his Conservative colleagues will be envious of. He follows his predecessor Stephen Greenhalgh who resigned to become a gaffe-prone Deputy Mayor for Policing under Boris Johnson.

Labour's candidate Ben Coleman declared himself happy with an 11.5% swing from the Conservatives to Labour, based on the votes cast at the last election. Referring to the next local elections he said after the votes were declared this evening: "..if this is what we get in their safest seat then roll on 2014".

So congratulations to Cllr Brown, commiserations to the others and for all those who came out to vote on a rainy thursday night a very important thank-you - democracy is not something everyone everywhere has the chance to enjoy, using your vote is a duty as well as a right.