Tommy Gale at the Town Hall just after midnight with his Labour supporters and his parents

SOUTH HAMPSTEAD BY-ELECTION RESULT:
TOMMY GALE (Labour) ELECTED 882
——————————————-
DON WILLIAMS (Conservative) 766
PATRICK STILLMAN (Liberal Democrat) 531
LORNA JANE RUSELL (Green) 295

LABOUR held its ground in the South Hampstead by-election as Tommy Gale was named the victor shortly after midnight.

The result means the ruling party holds 46 of the 55 seats in the council chamber, but Mr Gale – a 26-year-old social worker – said he would bring his own individual take to the role. He takes the place of Will Prince, the Labour councillor who quit the council less than a year after being elected, citing a work move to the United States.

Conservative challenger Don Williams was 588 votes adrift of Mr Prince when Camden went to the polls last May, but the gap narrowed to 116 as he claimed another second place finish this time around.

Sixty-five per cent of those who cast a ballot did not support Labour, but he Tories were not the only party to invest in the campaign over the last five weeks. These non-Labour votes were shared around, with the the Lib Dems increasing its figures and the Greens running close to taking 300 votes having not fielded any candidates at all last year.

The line-up in South Hampstead is now Izzu Lenga, Tommy Gale and Nina de Ayala Parker

Around 70 per cent of people eligible to vote did not take part. It was the first election in Camden to require photo ID to cast a ballot.

Mr Gale, who plays the keyboard in the band Fonn, said of joining Labour’s massed ranks: “I think we all bring something a bit unique and hopefully I can come at  it from a unique take from my background working in a council myself and knowing how that all works and coming in from the grassroots. Hopefully that’s what I can offer.”

Reps watch the votes being counted in a committee room at the Town Hall

While the issue of the 02 Centre redevelopment – all Labour councillors on the planning committee voted for the 16-storey proposals apart from Mr Prince – regularly came up in the campaign jousts between the rival parties, Mr Gale said: “I think we ran a positive campaign which people seemed to respond to really well. We wanted to focus on  the cost-of-living crisis which is hitting people extremely hard at the moment and that came up all the way through the campaign. It’s great that they see Labour as the best party to support with that.”

He added: “There were a number of local issues, especially flooding and housing as well. There was a lot of support for what we are saying. Hopefully some of the experience I bring from working as a social worker and my social enterprises which is about helping state school kids to uni will be useful.”

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