Spreadsheet Problem Causes Loss of Over 6,500 Votes during Putney Election Tally
The constituency of Putney saw Labour candidate Fleur Anderson hold the seat in the July general election vote.
A spreadsheet issue has resulted in the loss of more than 6,000 votes on election day in Putney, the Wandsworth Council has found.
The general election saw Labour hold the seat in London’s constituency of Putney, where Fleur Anderson was reported to receive 20,952 votes. She beat the Conservative candidate Lee Roberts, who secured 10,011 votes.
Liberal Democrat Kieren McCarthy received 5,189 votes and the third-largest share of votes.
In a statement, the council said that as a result of “a spreadsheet issue,” the election count in Putney failed to include all votes.
“This was identified and the figures on this page have been updated. This did not affect the result or the order of the candidates,” the local authority said.
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Putney has been held by the Conservatives between 2005 and 2019. The seat was the sole Labour gain in 2019 general election, amid the worst results for the party in 84 years. Ms. Anderson had won 45.1 percent of the votes share, against 35.7 percent received by the Tory candidate Will Sweet.In July, Putney became one of 411 seats won by Labour in a record landslide victory.
Tory Reactions
Reacting to the miscalculation of votes, Wandsworth Conservatives said they were “shocked to learn 6,558 votes went missing on election night.”
Aled Richards-Jones, leader of the Conservative group on Wandsworth Council, has called on the local authority to explain the miscount of votes. He added that the council “tried to smuggle this fact out unnoticed.”
Conservative councillors brought up the issue at the meeting of the council’s Finance Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday.
During the meeting, councillor Peter Graham–who had requested to discuss the vote count issue as an urgent agenda item–questioned the decision by the chair Annamarie Critchard to not allow it.
Ms. Critchard said it was an important issue, which needs “a proper and full response” but decided that it was “not the time and place to do it.”
She told Mr. Graham that she will get back to him and his colleagues “reasonably quickly.”
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