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How Peckham Rye Voted

Last week people across London voted for who they wanted to be their Mayor and representatives on the London Assembly. Obviously we're disappointed that Ken Livingstone couldn't quite pip Boris Johnson to be Mayor of London, but we're very pleased that Val Shawcross was re-elected as our Assembly Member. Val is an excellent and hard-working representative for our area and I'm sure she'll continue to campaign for us on issues like extending the 63 bus route to Honor Oak Park station.

One of the helpful things about the publication of the London election results is that you can get the ward breakdowns of how areas voted from the London Elects website. The results from Peckham Rye are fascinating (particularly if you're a bit of a geek and happen to be a Councillor). Each voter had the opportunity to vote on three ballot papers (one for Mayor on which you could put first and second preferences, one for the top up 'list' members of the GLA and one for your constituency member of the GLA).

The first thing to say about Peckham Rye is that turnout was slightly down on the last time people cast these votes in 2008. I haven't worked out the exact % figures for our ward, but in the first preferences for Mayor 300 less votes were cast than in 2008. However, it's worth pointing out that turnout was down across London and in 'Southwark-terms' , our local turnout was good.

Labour performed very strongly in Peckham Rye across all three ballot papers. In the vote for Mayor, the first preference vote the chart below shows that Ken Livingstone polled just short of 50%. Noticeably the Lib Dem (Brian Paddick) vote collapsed into 5th place and they were beaten by both the Greens and the Independent candidate. (You can click on the images to make them bigger).


On the GLA 'list' vote where people just had to choose their preference between different parties, Labour again polled just shy of the 50% mark. The chart below shows the change in this vote from the same election back in 2008. As you can see the Labour vote has surged (good news!) whilst the Lib Dems have dropped by almost 8% (more good news you might say!).



This trend is even more marked when it comes to the vote for who people in Peckham Rye wanted to represent them on the London Assembly. Val Shawcross (Labour candidate) secured 53% of the votes cast.


It's also interesting to see that the trends seen in Peckham Rye were repeated in neighbouring East Dulwich ward, which has had less Labour voters in recent elections and which has three Lib Dem Councillors. The reasons for this will be complex but my guess is that people are very angry about the hypocritical behaviour of the Lib Dems in government. Others are perhaps coming round to Ed Miliband as a future Prime Minister. Whatever the reasons for this voting pattern, it's good to see people putting their faith in the Labour Party. As local Councillors Victoria, Renata and I will continue to work hard to retain your confidence.

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