Labour wins by-election in key marginal with 47% vote share

Labour has won a council by-election in a ward within the key marginal seat of Two Cities – receiving 47% of the vote just four weeks ahead of the general election.

Labour’s Helen Fentimen won the ward of Aldersgate on the City’s Common Council in a poll on Wednesday. Labour retained the seat following the resignation of councillor Richard Crossan in September.

Fentimen was opposed by four Independent candidates – Shahnan Bakth, Ian Burleigh, Paul Clifford and Heather Thomas. Labour is the only organised political party that contests City Corporation elections, as noted by Britain Elects.

Commenting on the result, newly elected councillor Fentiman said: “I was always hopeful of winning the by-election, but to win 47% of the vote is far beyond our expectations.

“It’s a huge vote of confidence in what the Labour members of the council have already been able to do in the City, and I’m looking forward to joining them.”

Fentimen is a resident of the ward, and a former chief executive of an NHS trust. The magistrate and school governor was given an OBE for services to healthcare in 2006.

She added: “This also gives all of us in Labour in this area a huge confidence boost with a general election just a month away. Labour has won here today, and it can do it again on December 12th.

“We have a brilliant candidate for Cities of London and Westminster in Gordon Nardell, and I hope our Labour councillors in the City will soon be working with him as our MP.”

Labour currently holds six seats on the City’s Common Council, having never won a seat in this area before 2014. Aldersgate ward lies within the Cities of London and Westminster parliamentary constituency, one of the key target seats in the upcoming election.

Cities of London and Westminster was narrowly held by the Tories in the 2017 general election, with Conservative incumbent Mark Field securing a majority of 3,148 votes. Labour’s Ibrahim Dogus, now the candidate for West Bromwich East, came a close second.

Gordon Nardell has been selected as the new candidate contesting the seat for Labour. He will be up against new Tory candidate Nickie Aiken, as well as former Labour MP Chuka Umunna who is standing for the Lib Dems.