General election: London swings to the left

Amid terrible results in the UK as a whole, Labour sought consolation in the party's performance in London, where it increased its share of the capital's 73 seats from 38 to 45.

The results left the city looking like "a variegated coral island in a sea of blue", said Tony Travers, professor at the London School of Economics and the director of the LSE London research centre.

"Amid the chaos, a good night for us in London," said one Labour official in the small hours of Friday.

The gains were all the more remarkable because key Labour economic pledges - the mansion tax, the banker's bonus tax and plans to scrap the "non-dom" tax status - were all predominantly London policies. "Although they would have affected a minority," Mr Travers said, "it could have led to the impression that Labour didn't care about London. Yet we saw a further shift towards them."

Labour took Ealing Central and Acton, Brentford and Isleworth, Enfield North and Ilford North off the Conservatives, while it also captured Brent Central and Hornsey and Wood Green, ousting Lynne Featherstone, from the Lib Dems. It even ejected Simon Hughes from Bermondsey and Old Southwark where he had been MP for 32 years.

With Vince Cable losing Twickenham and Ed Davey the Kingston and Surbiton seat to the Tories, Tom Brake is the sole surviving Lib Dem London MP, in Carshalton and Wallington.

Sadiq Khan, the head of Labour's London drive, had spoken of the importance of the "ground campaign" and millions of face-to-face conversations. Before the polls closed, the party said it had been encouraged by reports of high turnout across the capital and thousands of volunteers helping to get out the vote.

Its hopes had also been raised by an eve-of-election opinion poll showing Labour with a 13-point lead over the Conservatives in London.

"Our campaign in London has clearly resonated with millions of Londoners," said Mr Khan, who retained his Tooting seat. "We focused on our radical plans to fix the housing crisis and reduce inequality. Our candidates reflected London's diversity, with more women and ethnic minority candidates than ever before.

The tabular content relating to this article is not available to view. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience caused.

Mr Travers pointed to several reasons why London continued to be out of kilter with the rest of England. "It has an increasing minority ethnic proportion - we know that many minority ethnic groups are far more likely to vote Labour," he said.

"The population is also relatively young, and London may attract a disproportionate number of people with progressive values. It's the reverse of those places where Ukip would look for voters."

"There is also a very much higher proportion of people renting than buying, and without wishing to overgeneralise it may be that low-income renters are more likely to vote Labour than owner-occupiers."

The Tory vote had held up rather than falling away, however. "Eighty per cent of Londoners voted for the two main parties, which is really startling," said Mr Travers.

Sean McKee, director of policy at the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the national Conservative victory and the Lib Dem defeat would be good for business in the capital as it would remove obstacles to big infrastructure projects the city needed.

Mr Cable's defeat in Twickenham meant that opposition to the expansion of Heathrow airport, for example, would recede.

"Now we expect the government to govern," Mr McKee said. "They have a clear mandate and no more excuses. Heathrow expansion, HS2 [the high-speed rail project] and Crossrail 2 - these can all go ahead without dithering and without delays."

The political focus for Londoners is now likely to turn to who will be the city's next mayor, after Boris Johnson returned to parliament by winning the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat.

Both Mr Khan, whose reputation will have been bolstered after the London campaign, and David Lammy, who increased his majority in Tottenham, are thought to be considering throwing their hats into the ring when applications to be the Labour mayoral candidate open later this month.

However, Tessa Jowell, who stood down as an MP, is the favourite to win the party's nomination.

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation