Jeremy Corbyn holds Islington North as Lib Dems and Labour make London gains

Wes
Streeting was only 500 or so votes from losing his seat of Ilford North.

He could have lost to
an independent called Leanne Mohamed who prioritised calling for an immediate
and permanent ceasefire in Gaza as part of her campaign.

Leanne is from a
Palestinian family and her campaign has resonated with voters – over 50% are
from a South Asian background, 30% are Muslim in this constituency.

The turnout
was down here, widely thought to be due to Labour voters not turning out.

Streeting said
this had been the ugliest campaign he’d ever fought. As he made comments about
Gaza, he was met by boos.

He also spoke about how a deepfake video of him put
out over the weekend highlighted the need to get a grip of the damage this
stuff is doing to our democracy

In
Illford South, Jas Athwal won. In second place, again an independent, who had
again resonated with voters on her stance on Gaza .

He spoke about a chance for Labour to change the country from local government all the way up.

Both men hugged and celebrated their victories and took pictures together. But how will these communities recover from what has been quite a divisive campaign, especially in Ilford North.