58 votes

I lost my seat as a Councillor for East Acton by just 58 votes in the local elections.

East Acton saw the lowest swing to the Tories of any key Labour ward in the Borough, and we managed to save the seat of my East Acton ward colleague Cllr Kate Crawford by 43 votes. Indeed one local Tory said to me after the result was declared “I’m sure you’ll be back in four years time”. Whilst all of this is short-term consolation, it is galling to get so close to being re-elected in a marginal ward in a Labour meltdown year nationally, and fall short by just 58 votes.

I will work to be re-elected in 2010, and I’ve always believed that you haven’t got to be a Councillor in order to fight for your community. East Acton is and always will be my home, and I’m not going to go away and sulk just because I lost an election for national rather than local reasons. I also been very chuffed, and bit humbled, by the number of local residents who've contacted me to urge to stand again next time.

I also intend to keep this blog going. Apologies that it hasn’t appeared for a month or more, which is due to a mixture of computer problems and then pressure of election time.