Wharf Election analysis - Millwall stays blue
FOR ISLAND voters, the first fruits of their labours trickled in at around noon with the election of a new Millwall councillor.
A mere 12 hours later, over a million capital-dwellers had ushered a new face into City Hall.
The Wharf chased the action from Royal Docks to Tower Bridge as Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign as Mayor came to an end.
Millwall stays blue
Barclays senior banker Simon Rouse has overseen a massive turnaround in the fortunes of the Conservatives on the Isle of Dogs. In September 2004, he won the party's first ever seat on Tower Hamlets Council with a victory in Millwall ward.
Less than four years later, the Tories hold all six seats on the Island, and have effectively created a blue outpost in the Labour-run borough by throwing their weight behind residents on several local issues, from the proposed Barkantine post office closure to replacement bus disruption on Saunders Ness Road.
Cllr Rouse gave up his local Tory leadership last year, and quit Millwall earlier this year to battle for a parliamentary seat in his home town of Nuneaton. But the Island remains a happy hunting ground for Conservatives seeking election.
New councillor David Snowdon missed out on a seat in Shadwell in 2006, but attracted nearly half of the vote at the polls in Millwall, increasing his party's grip on the seat still further.
Cllr Snowdon managed 2,133 out of the 4,465 votes which were cast on polling day. Labour's candidate, former Mayor Doros Ullah, managed 1,421. The Liberal Democrats were third with 370. The turnout was 38.58 per cent.
The winning councillor, a Cambridge graduate who works as an economist in Blackfriars, claimed his strategy was to do "more of the same" for Millwall residents.
He said: "I intend to fight very hard for the local community. I've been running the campaign to save the Barkantine post office, and I presented the Prime Minister with a petition signed by a large number of residents.
"So far, we've been very encouraged by the response we've received."
Doros Ullah gained more votes than his Labour counterpart in 2006, but the gap between the reds and blues was greater than two years ago.
He said: "We'll be back, and hopefully we'll win this seat again. It's been a fantastic result for the Labour party, and I think we can say we've closed the gap.
"I think that given the short space of time we've had to meet the voters, we've done a brilliant job. We've destroyed the Respect party and the Liberals as a force in the ward, and now the only real challengers to the Conservatives are ourselves."
Nearly 15 years since it controversially took Millwall in 1993, the British National Party secured 219 votes to achieve fourth place. But the Labour candidate said: "The leaflets the BNP handed out incited racism and it upset a lot of people. I don't think they should be allowed to distribute things like that, as it affects community cohesion. Life in the borough would be a lot better without them."
Labour took Weavers ward from the Liberal Democrats on Friday (May 2), increasing its Town Hall total to 28 seats. The Tories have eight, Galloway's Respect has seven, the Lib Dems five and Respect's independent wing has four.
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"attracted nearly half of the vote at the polls in Millwall, increasing his party's grip on the seat still further."
The Tories share of the vote dropped this time as the LibDems made a recovery, more than doubling their vote. Also previous Respect voters returned to Labour increasing their threat to retake this seat next time.