The newly created parliamentary constituency for Kensington & Bayswater has an equally new member of parliament: Labour’s Joe Powell.
After an intensive six week election campaign, which began immediately after Rishi Sunak’s surprising announcement in the rain outside 10 Downing Street on the afternoon of 22 May 2024, 17,025 voters put their trust in Joe Powell, which was 2,903 more than those who wanted to keep Conservative Felicity Buchan as MP for Kensington and Bayswater.
Considering that the former Labour MP, Emma Dent Coad, in 2017 won over the Conservative Victoria Borwick with only 20 votes and that Felicity Buchan beat Emma with only 150 votes in 2019, this was a decisive win.
Joe was helped in his campaign by hundreds of devoted Labour activists from both the constituency party and other parts of London, as well as guest canvassers such as Sadiq Khan, Hilary Benn, Emily Thornberry, Stella Creasy, David Lammy, Marsha De Cordova, Tulip Siddiq, Catherine West and many others.
But it wasn’t just Kensington & Bayswater that was won by Labour on 4 July: on the east side of our constituency, Rachel Blake won Cities of London & Westminster, which had been a Tory stronghold since 1950, and Chelsea & Fulham, directly south of our constituency, which had been held by the junior minister Greg Hands since 2010, was won by Ben Coleman. All parliamentary seats in Inner London are now held by Labour MPs and an independent former Labour MP!
Joe’s acceptance speech
When Joe Powell was declared winner, shortly before 5am on Friday morning, he held the following speech in Kensington Town Hall’s Great Hall, where the counting had taken place:
Thank you to the people of Kensington & Bayswater.
Today you have sent a loud and clear message that after 14 long years of Conservative government it’s time for change.
Tomorrow is the moment we get a fresh start for our community and our country.
I know, from the thousands of people I’ve met on this campaign, that, for too many people in our community, government is not working.
From the millions on NHS waiting lists, to households struggling to make ends meet, to the housing crisis for renters, social tenants and homeowners, and to the bereaved survivors and affected community still waiting for justice seven years after the Grenfell fire tragedy.
They see too many politicians putting political party before country, self-interest before community. And I know that trust in government – and politicians – is rock bottom in this country as a result.
I’ve spent the past 11 years working to make democracy work better – so it’s more inclusive, less corrupt and delivers for people on the priorities they care about.
So that is the work we will start tomorrow:
To fix our broken NHS, and finally build a new St Marys hospital.
To tackle our housing crisis, and give people the respect they deserve.
To get our economy going, and put more money in people’s pockets.
To create more opportunities for our young people.
To keep on advocating for Truth, Justice and Change for Grenfell.
None of this will be easy, but I believe that, with Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, change is coming – and regardless of whether you voted for me or not – I will work hard to earn your trust and deliver for our community.
I would like to thank everyone who has made this election run so smoothly – the returning officer, electoral services, council staff, and the police.
I’d also like to thank all of the candidates who put themselves forward – and I thank Felicity for your service over the past 5 years as our member of parliament.
I’d like to thank my fantastic agent and our incredible campaign team – you all know who you are – for being so positive, professional and dedicated. Each of you has played a massive part in this result tonight – and I can’t thank you enough.
Finally, I’d like to thank my family – my mum and dad for all the door-knocking, babysitting and leaflet delivery – and most of all my wife Elspeth. It certainly wasn’t in the plan for our twins to arrive in the first week of a general election campaign – and some days I’m not sure how you managed to get through it – but you have been simply amazing and I know we could not have achieved this result tonight without you.
Being the MP for Kensington & Bayswater is the greatest honour of my life.
My solemn promise tonight is that I will represent everyone here – if you voted for me, or against me, or did not vote at all.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Thank you.
