PRESS RELEASE

7 October 2002

OTTAWAY: CONSERVATIVES LEAD OVER LABOUR IN LONDON

Richard Ottaway, Conservative MP for Croydon South, has welcomed a recently published analysis of the May 2002 Local Elections which show that, across London, the Conservative Party won more votes than the Labour Party (see table below).

	Votes	%
Conservative	587,790	34.2
Labour	586,973	34.1
Lib Dem	353,833	20.6
Independent	20,468	1.2
Green	95,394	5.5
Other	75,856	4.4

Richard Ottaway says:-

"Many people consider London to be a predominantly Labour city. However, these figures clearly dispute this point of view - overall more Londoners voted Conservative than Labour. This is the first time this has happened in the London borough elections since 1982."

"There is every possibility that the next Mayor of London will be a Conservative - this would be good news for London and good news for the UK as a whole."

Note to editors
The Local Elections Handbook 2002 was published by the Local Government Chronicle Elections Centre, University of Plymouth in September 2002. It contains a breakdown of the share of the vote across the London Boroughs. This can be viewed at http://www.politics.plymouth.ac.uk/politics/lgcecentre/results%202002.htm