Croydon Central election result: Labour's Sarah Jones defeats Tory minister Gavin Barwell

Victory: Labour's Sarah Jones takes the Conservative seat of Croydon Central this morning
Chris Gorman
Russell Lynch9 June 2017
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

​Labour's Sarah Jones dethroned Tory minister Gavin Barwell in the key Croydon Central marginal, romping home by more than 5,000 votes to become the borough's first ever female MP.

The sweet victory for Jones comes two years after she lost by just 165 votes to Barwell in London's fiercest battleground.

The marginal had been held by the Tories since 2005 but Jones wrested it from their grasp with the help of hundreds of activists who flooded Croydon throughout polling day to support the mother of four and bring her the biggest ever win in the marginal.

Campaigners reported high turnout and Labour's pledges on scrapping tuition fees encouraging younger voters to head to the polls. Overall turnout rose from 68% to 71.5%.

Ousted: Ex-Tory MP Gavin Barwell.
Chris Gorman

Jones, who said it was a "huge privilege" to be elected, acknowledged the contribution from younger voters in her victory speech. She said: "Young people have won this election today because they came out for the first time and wanted to vote.

"They wanted to vote for Jeremy Corbyn, they wanted to vote for our manifesto and they wanted to vote for their own future. Tonight young people have taken back control."

CROYDON CENTRAL

Lab gain from Con

Sarah Jones (Lab) 29873

Gavin Barwell (Con) 24221

Gill Hickson (LD) 1083

Peter Staveley (UKIP) 1040

Tracey Hague (Green) 626

John Boadu (Christian Peoples Alliance) 177

Don Locke (Independent) 71

Majority 5652

Labour also benefited from a collapse in support for the Greens and UKIP in the seat where leader Jeremy Corbyn launched the party's national campaign almost seven weeks ago.

Since then a host of senior figures have campaigned in the seat including London mayor Sadiq Khan, shadow chancellor John McDonnell and shadow Brexit minister Keir Starmer.

The new Labour MP - a communications professional who has worked on campaigns for government, charities and the Olympics - fought on local issues including the delay-ridden Southern rail franchise as well as housing, education funding and the NHS.

Defeat is a bitter blow for Mr Barwell who was consoled by neighbouring Croydon South MP Chris Philp and said: "It had to happen sometime."

Barwell has worked hard to build a reputation as a strong local MP since 2010, and wrote a book called "How To Win A Marginal Seat" last year.

He added: "I'm devastated to have lost the job, being MP for your home town is the best job in the world."

Barwell said: "I've got no plans at the moment beyond having a rest and spending the weekend with my wife and kids."

Barwell helped win £25 million from the Government to help rebuilding work and attract investment in the wake of the 2011 riots while developers are due to start work on a new £1 billion shopping mall in the town centre next year.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT