Labour’s Janet Daby has won the Lewisham East byelection after only 33.4% of eligible voters cast their ballots. The party suffered a swing to the Liberal Democrats, who leapfrogged the Conservatives to come second.
The byelection was triggered by former Labour MP Heidi Alexander’s decision to quit Westminster to take up a job with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
Alexander had a majority of 21,213 in the south-east London constituency at the 2017 general election. The Conservatives finished second in 2017 with the Liberal Democrats a distant third.
For the byelection, the Lib Dem leader Vince Cable campaigned in the seat for the party’s candidate, Lucy Salek, with the party confident of an improved performance in a constituency that voted heavily for remain in the EU referendum.
In the end, the Lib Dems succeeded in reducing Labour’s majority from nearly 45% to 25.6% and pushed the Conservatives into third place.
The official turnout announced by officials fell well below the 69% who voted in the 2017 general election.
Full results
Janet Daby (Lab) 11,033 (50.20%, -17.75%)
Lucy Salek (LD) 5,404 (24.59%, +20.17%)
Ross Archer (C) 3,161 (14.38%, -8.62%)
Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah (Green) 788 (3.59%, +1.88%)
Mandu Reid (Women) 506 (2.30%)
David Kurten (UKIP) 380 (1.73%, +0.04%)
Anne Marie Waters (FBM) 266 (1.21%)
Maureen Martin (CPA) 168 (0.76%, +0.28%)
Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 93 (0.42%)
Massimo DiMambro (DVP) 67 (0.30%)
Sean Finch (Libertarian) 38 (0.17%)
Charles Carey (ND) 37 (0.17%)
Patrick Gray (Radical) 20 (0.09%)
Thomas Hall (YPP) 18 (0.08%)
Lab maj 5,629 (25.61%)
18.96% swing Lab to LD
Electorate 66,140; turnout 21,979 (33.23%, -36.05%)
2017: Lab maj 21,213 (44.94%) - turnout 47,201 (69.28%)