Held it together all night until I saw this sign at Green and Brown Cafe at Gypsy Hill on my way into work. pic.twitter.com/0jgLLHVlKr — Gauge Opinion (@gaugeopinion) May 8, 2015

The Green Party has narrowly missed out on a council seat in Gipsy Hill, South London, despite tripling its vote.

The Greens increased their vote from 10% in 2014 to 42% on Thursday, while Labour’s share of the vote decreased from 70% to 43%.

The Greens campaigned hard in the Lambeth seat and secured 1,184 votes for their candidate, Pete Elliot, just 36 less than Labour’s candidate Luke Murphy.

The result was celebrated by Greens on twitter and caused concern among Labour party figures.

Labour MP for Vauxhall, Kate Hoey tweeted: “A majority of only 34!!! Council leadership need to listen and lift suspension of Councillor Heywood.”

Councillor Rachel Heywood was suspended from the Labour Party for criticising the actions of Labour-controlled Lambeth Council.

In particular, she criticised plans to close a local library and apparent collusion with Network Rail who are taking advantage of gentrification in Brixton to raise rents for long-standing local traders in the railway arches.

The Green Party have campaigned against all the decisions which Heywood broke ranks to criticise.

According to local news website Brixton Buzz, both Lambeth Labour in general and Luke Murphy in particular are heavily influenced by a right-wing Labour faction called Progress.

Lambeth is typical of inner London in that it’s council is dominated by Labour. However, it does have one Green councillor as well as three Tories.