Tooting By-election Announced

Almost from the moment Sadiq Khan was elected as the Mayor of London, his seat of Tooting became vacant. There will therefore be a by-election in Tooting which will be held on 16th June.

No candidates have yet been confirmed. George Galloway, the former MP for Bradford West, has said that he is "almost certain" to stand. I received an e-mail from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party leader Alan "Howling Laud" Hope who tells me that he will be standing. As fascinating as a two way battle between George Galloway and Howling Laud Hope would be, we should expect the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP and the Green Party to also stand.

I will update this page with all candidate and vote information on the Tooting by-election as it becomes available.

Tooting is a marginal seat held by Labour with the Conservatives in a close second place. In Election 2015 Labour won Tooting with 47% of the vote and the Conservatives won 41.9% of the vote. The Green Party came in third with 4.1%, the Liberal Democrats in fourth with 3.9% and UKIP in fifth with 2.9%. In its 40 year history the Conservatives have never won Tooting, but they came close to winning in the elections of 1983, 1987, 2010 and 2015.

Labour will most likely hold this seat because by-elections usually go against the governing party. It will be an interesting fight as it is the first marginal seat to have a by-election in this parliament. All previous by-elections in this parliament have been safe Labour seats with UKIP a distant second.