The Conservatives suffered a severe blow in Bexley after losing one of their seats to Labour – and holding on to the other by a narrow margin.
Rishi Sunak’s party lost Bexleyheath & Crayford, a seat it had held since 2005, to Labour’s Daniel Francis. The winner’s five-minute victory speech had the losing Tory candidate Mark Brooks staring glumly at his shoes, the ceiling and the gathered crowd.
Francis, who has been a councillor in the borough for two decades, was keen to emphasise that Labour had changed. He said: “I have lived in this borough my whole life and understand the priorities and aspirations of working people here.
“That is why I will fight every day to deliver those driving missions of this Labour government – economic security, cheaper bills, safer streets, getting the NHS back on its feet, securing our borders and better opportunities for our children.
“But I am a realist. I know there is no magic wand. I also know we have changed our Labour party and with the same laser focus, we can change Britain.”
Despite Francis’ victory, it was Reform that yielded the biggest challenge to Bexley’s Conservatives. Tom Bright snatched 9,861 votes in Bexleyheath & Crayford and Maxine Fothergill took 10,384 votes in Old Bexley & Sidcup, leaving significant dents in the Tory vote.
Brooks garnered just 13,603 votes while his predecessor Sir David Evennett won with 25,856 votes in 2019 – which gave him a majority on a par with Brooks’ total share of the vote in this election. He said he would be nursing his wounds with a large glass of whisky, adding: “Labour did not win, we lost.”
He blamed the party’s disastrous national outcome on a prime minister who he said was too far removed from working-class aspirations. “We have stopped listening to people who live here,” he said.
While Conservative candidate Louie French won his seat in Old Bexley & Sidcup back with 17,910 votes, he was only slightly ahead of Labour’s Edward Jones on 14,362 votes. At 37.6 per cent, his share of the vote was much smaller than the Tories managed in 2019, when the late James Brokenshire took 64.5 per cent.
French admitted it had been a “bruising” election but said: “I’m pleased that local people have proudly re-elected me to serve them in parliament, locally and against Sadiq Khan in London.”
He told The Greenwich Wire: “Blame is a difficult word to use. As a party, we have to look at why we lost those votes to Reform. It quite clearly cost us the election in Bexleyheath and other seats across the country.
Thankfully most people in my constituency realised that a vote for Reform would be a vote for Labour and we managed to buck that trend.”
The sense of defeat among Tories was palpable as soon as the first national results began trickling in. As Labour notched up win after win, shoulders slumped and huddles formed to pen speeches conceding defeat.
Even embalmer Laura Turner, who spends her days beautifying corpses, struggled to put a gloss on proceedings. She was called on to run the coffee counter alongside the count at Crook Log Leisure Centre until 2am because her sister Emily Burns, who owns it, was away on holiday.
Her cakes, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands, evoked a festive-like atmosphere earlier in the evening as candidates and their entourages picnicked in the lobby. But it was largely Labour staying jovial as the night wore on as the Conservatives grew more despondent.
Francis said he was not complacent and there was much work to be done because of “frustration after 14 years of Conservative chaos and sticking-plaster politics”.
He added: “I understand the challenge for us is immense, to show that politics, hard work and rolling up your sleeves can once again deliver for working people. But we must do that in order to show that things can be better and that politics and government can deliver for working people.
“Never again can we go back to that chaos, to a government that is more interested in looking after its mates, that breaks the rules rather than maintains them.
“I’ve heard loud and clear in this election that people here need their faith restored in politicians and politics. They need to see our country being rebuilt and see the change they have voted for.”
They might not have secured seats but Bright and Fothergill could not suppress triumphant smiles after winning tens of thousands of votes that might otherwise have gone to the Tories.
Bright said: “We are looking at the numbers and seeing the queues at polling stations and it is clear people are fed up. They are looking for an alternative. The two-party system is broken.
“They have come to the realisation that neither party is any form of solution. The country is broken.”
Fothergill added that the party was looking at a long-term strategy of eclipsing the Conservatives and being a viable alternative to Labour.
“The 2029 election is going to be our day,” she said. “This election was about testing the water.”
The Green Party saw a surge in votes in both constituencies from the 2019 election. George Edgar got 2,076 votes in Bexleyheath & Crayford, compared with Tony Ball’s 1,298 in 2019, while Brad Davies garnered 2,601, over a thousand more than his predecessor in Old Bexley & Sidcup five years earlier.
It was a bad day for the Liberal Democrats though, who haemorrhaged thousands of seats in both constituencies.
Turnout across the two constituencies was lower than in 2019, coming in at 61.99 per cent in Bexleyheath & Crayford compared with 66.1 per cent five years ago and 65.25 per cent for Old Bexley & Sidcup, down from 69.8 per cent.
Candidates and their agents privately blamed the drop in numbers on complacency over predictions that Labour would win the election.
Back at the coffee counter, Turner had her own take on matters: “As embalmers, we see it all. When bills went up, the death rate went up because old people were too frightened to put the heating on. Everything politicians do, we see the effect of.
“It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got or how poor you are, we’re all going to the same place.”
Bexleyheath & Crayford result: Daniel Francis (Labour) 15,717; Mark Brooks (Conservative) 13,603; Tom Bright (Reform UK) 9,861; David McBridge (Lib Dem) 2,204; George Edgar (Green) 2,076, Turnout 63 per cent.
Old Bexley & Sidcup result: Louie French (Conservative) 17,910; Edward Jones (Labour) 14,362; Maxine Fothergill (Reform UK) 10,384; Brad Davies (Green) 2,601; Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett (Lib Dem) 1,927; Laurent Williams (Rejoin EU) 251; Andrew Still (Independent) 198. Turnout 66 per cent.
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