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Firstly, let me say that Labour won the General Election in Hackney South. I came second and the Tories came third. I was at the count non-stop from 10pm til 3pm the next day (the longest count in London! – see below) and I do not dispute the ranking of our three parties. However, whilst the count showed the Lib Dem vote had increased by 3,000, some people have contacted me to say that they were disappointed it had not gone up more. To you I say - don’t believe the numbers. Let me explain:
Firstly, we know that literally hundreds of people were turned away at the polling station. Near London Fields alone, the police estimated over 200 were refused the chance to vote, even though many had queued for over an hour. This was replicated in other areas too, including De Beauvoir and Dalston. We don’t know how many of these people would have voted Lib Dem of course. We do however know that most were people with jobs who didn’t have any other time in the day when they could vote (note that there were also queues in the morning, before work, and many people thus chose to come back in the evening). In addition, we also know that many people simply saw the queues and gave up. People have told me directly that they had to look after their young children and quite simply couldn’t queue up for an hour to vote. We have no way of knowing how many people gave up like this. Then there were administrative blunders by Hackney Council. More than one resident has contacted me because they were not allowed to vote, even though they should have been on the register. One had an email from the council saying ‘don’t worry, you’re definitely able to vote’ but then was refused on the day. In one location, a local resident has emailed me to say that the polling card printed the incorrect location for the polling station, and that signs on the street had not shown where to go. This resident had told the council this at the last election, when they made the same mistake then, but they did it again! Finally, there are question marks about the counting of the votes, too. At the count, hundreds of council staff accurately and diligently counted the votes one by one and I commend them for the dedication they showed over a very long day and two nights. They also bundled the votes, using paper clips and rubber bands, into quantities of 25 and 100 for each party. This was also done faultlessly in my opinion. However, these bundles were then taken by senior staff at the council over to a corner of a cramped room, away from anyone else being able to clearly see them. There is thus no way that I, or any politician, could see what happened to these bundles. We were then told what the final numbers were. Both my bundles and the Conservative bundles were put in boxes, out of view, whilst the Labour votes were laid out on the table. Senior council staff then told us that the Lib Dem vote was 9600 and the Tory was 5800. (Strange how these were very round numbers! - the chance of this happening is 10,000 to 1). There is no way we could see this, nor inspect the bundles to make sure that it was accurate. Since we had all been up for all of Thursday and most of Friday, since the council had not even started to count the local election results (another 58 people to be elected!) and since we had seen the individual votes being counted and knew that Labour had won and the Lib Dems had come second, our party decided not to ask for a bundle check. However, there is no way that we can know whether the ‘9600’ was the right number or not. In Hackney North, for example, where the bundles were laid out for all to see, the Lib Dems got a higher vote. So, to summariase, I am not a 'sore loser'. I've already stated that Labour won the election and the Lib Dems came second. However, I personally believe that, for all the reasons stated above, Lib Dem support is higher in Hackney than the ‘official’ numbers show. And can you believe it that the UK sends observers to other countries to check that they administer elections correctly!! Other countries should visit Hackney next time.
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