Labour has lost a local by-election to the Tories in south east London amid a Conservative campaign against police station closures and the scrapping of winter fuel allowance for many pensioners.
The Conservatives saw their vote jump 12 per cent in the Eltham Town and Avery Hill of Greenwich council, while Labour was down by almost nine.
Charlie Davis, who had previously been a councillor in the borough until May 2022, was returned to the town hall after running an unsuccessful campaign to become MP for Eltham and Chislehurst at the general election.
He picked up 1,522 votes in the ward, compared to Labour’s Chris McGurk who won 981. Reform came third with 290 votes.
During his campaign Mr Davis vowed to lobby Sadiq Khan for a new Metropolitan Police base in the area. Eltham Police Station was closed down by the Mayor in 2022 and recently demolished to make way for housing.
Mr Davis argued that officers now have to spend too much time travelling to area and are not seen on the beat enough.
Tory activists had also urged voters to “send Labour a message” over scrapping the Winter Fuel Allowance in the ward where around 2,000 pensioners live and promised to hold the Labour-run Greenwich council to account on it “poor” housing repairs service. Across the country, it was another bruising night of council by-elections for Labour following Sir Keir Starmer’s landslide victory at the general election.
In the flurry of local votes called since July 4 Labour has lost 17 seats it was defending, while the Conservatives have picked up an extra 12.
On Thursday Sir Keir’s party lost four of the eight seats it was defending. The Tories won new councillors on Swindon, Greenwich and Kirkless council, while the Green Party took a seat from Labour on Ashford council.
The Conservatives also took a seat off the Liberal Democrats in St Albans.
