General election 2010: Mixed early results in London
Thursday, 6 May 2010 1:30 AM
By Sabine Klensch
The Conservatives have sustained a comfortable majority in Putney with 21,223 votes as well as in Battersea with 23,103 votes, suggesting a strong night for the opposition in London.
Yet Battersea's moderate swing of 6.5% compared to Putney's considerable swing of 9.9% from Labour to the Tories showed the result of the battle for the capital is far from clear.
The Conservative winner in Putney, Justine Greening, first won the seat in 2005, where she achieved 42.4% of the votes (52.0% in 2010). At this election, she was followed by Labour with 11,170 and the Liberal Democrats with 6,907.
Battersea's newly elected Conservative MP, Jane Ellison, gained the seat for her party. Martin Linton, the former Labour MP, had held the seat since 1997 but was replaced by Stuart King as the governing party's candidate in 2010.
He lost votes in this seat, 5.6% less than in 2005.
The large proportion of young professionals living in Battersea since the mid 90s has influenced the swing from Conservative to Labour in 1997.
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