This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Labour’s Janet Daby has won the Lewisham East byelection and immediately promised to oppose a hard Brexit, after the party’s margin of victory was cut by a resurgent Liberal Democrats in the heavily pro-remain seat.

Daby took just over 50% of the vote in the south-east London constituency, ahead of the Lib Dems’ Lucy Salek, who won 25% of the vote – a 20 percentage point rise in the party’s share of the vote – to leapfrog the Conservatives and take second place. The Conservative share fell by 9 percentage points after their candidate, Ross Archer, won less than 15% of the votes.

Daby won a closely contested internal Labour battle to run for the safe seat vacated by Heidi Alexander, who quit parliament to work with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

The former Lewisham councillor said the result showed “we will not tolerate an extreme Brexit in Lewisham East”.

“I will oppose an extreme or a hard Brexit,” she said. “I will consider people’s jobs, the economy and people’s rights, and that will dictate to me the precedent in how I will conduct myself both within parliament and out of parliament.”

The Labour share of the vote fell by almost 18 percentage points from the 2017 election, and, with a much-reduced turnout from last year, Daby secured a majority of 5,629, compared with the 21,213 seen by Alexander.

A Lib Dem bounce in Lewisham cannot shift Labour’s Brexit stance | Owen Jones Read more

The Lib Dems claimed the swing was the biggest against Labour in a seat since 2004, and the most significant since 1983 when Labour was in opposition.

The Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, who campaigned in the constituency a number of times, said Salek had “fought a proud, pro-European campaign”.



“This result sends a message to the Labour leadership that it cannot take pro-European voters for granted.

“This is the largest swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats in over a decade and the failure of Labour’s leadership to oppose the Conservatives’ hard Brexit cannot be hidden or forgotten.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vince Cable and Lucy Salek campaigning during the Lewisham East byelection. Photograph: Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Salek said the result showed the party was “the real opposition here. We’re back and people are starting to notice. This is about recognising that the people have a final say on Brexit.”

Labour frontbencher who quit over EEA vote defends decision Read more

During her campaign, Daby had pledged to seek continued UK membership of the single market and customs union after Brexit, a notably softer proposal than that sought by the Labour leadership.

On Wednesday, Jeremy Corbyn faced the biggest parliamentary revolt since he became leader, as 75 backbenchers defied party instructions to abstain and voted for an amendment for the UK to remain in the European Economic Area.

Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) Congratulations @JanetDaby on winning the #LewishamEastByElection for Labour. I'm looking forward to welcoming you to Parliament and working together to build a society for the many, not the few. #LewishamEast

Asked how much distance there was between her and Corbyn’s views on Brexit, Daby said: “In terms of the single market, our Labour view on this is that we would have a new single market where we have the same access that we presently do.

“For me, it’s about ensuring that we have as close a relationship to the EU as possible and that’s what I’ll be arguing for and that’s what I’ll be putting forward my views on.

“In terms of Jeremy Corbyn, I voted for Jeremy Corbyn twice in the leadership election and obviously within politics not everybody will agree on everything.”

The Greens came fourth in the byelection, followed by the Women’s Equality Party. Ukip, which campaigned hard on a programme highlighting crime rates, won 380 votes.

The former Ukip leadership runner-up Anne-Marie Waters, who quit to establish the anti-Islam party For Britain, took 266 votes, narrowly beating the Christian People’s Alliance and the Monster Raving Loony party.

Full results



Janet Daby (Lab) 11,033 (50.20%, -17.75 percentage points, pp)

Lucy Salek (LD) 5,404 (24.59%, +20.17pp)

Ross Archer (C) 3,161 (14.38%, -8.62pp)

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah (Green) 788 (3.59%, +1.88pp)

Mandu Reid (Women) 506 (2.30%)

David Kurten (Ukip) 380 (1.73%, +0.04pp)

Anne Marie Waters (FBM) 266 (1.21%)

Maureen Martin (CPA) 168 (0.76%, +0.28pp)

Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 93 (0.42%)

Massimo DiMambro (DVP) 67 (0.30%)

Sean Finch (Libertarian) 38 (0.17%)

Charles Carey (ND) 37 (0.17%)

Patrick Gray (Radical) 20 (0.09%)

Thomas Hall (YPP) 18 (0.08%)

Lab maj 5,629 (25.61%)

18.96% swing Lab to LD

Electorate 66,140; turnout 21,979 (33.23%, -36.05pp)

2017: Lab maj 21,213 (44.94%) - turnout 47,201 (69.28%)

• This article was amended on 18 June 2018 to correct the figures for the Conservative candidate’s share of the vote.

