The Labour MP’s victory speech was interrupted by chanting from supporters of a pro-Palestine independent candidate who finished third, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

David Lammy gives his victory speech at Alexandra Palace (credit LDRS)

David Lammy has retained his parliamentary seat in Tottenham despite a 20-point drop in his vote share since 2019.

Pleased with the result, Lammy thanked his campaign group and family in his speech at Alexandra Palace, where the count took place overnight following the general election held on Thursday (4th).

However, pro-Palestine campaigners supporting independent candidate Nandita Lal, who finished third, drowned out the end of Lammy’s victory speech.

“Tell us about genocide, David?” and “you’re a genocide apologist, Lammy” was shouted while the Tottenham MP described the honour he felt representing the constituency. Labour supporters chanted his name in response.

Lammy said: “I have never forgotten where I come from, I am from Tottenham, this is my home and it’s been the honour of my life to represent it.”

Stating people had voted for change, and that the Labour Party takes issues such as climate change “seriously”, Lammy concluded: “As I said 22 years ago, I will continue to represent all of the people of Tottenham.”

Asked by the Local Democracy Reporting Service if he thought Labour’s approach to Palestine should change amid the criticism he had received, Lammy said he recognised there was “huge concern” at the loss of life in Gaza.

He said: “I think that when we look at the results tonight, the Labour Party has done well across the country, they’ve done well in London, people have voted for change and they’ve voted for a range of issues.

“I do recognise of course there is huge concern at the loss of life in Gaza. Now, if we’re about to take power, we can play our role in bringing about a ceasefire, a ceasefire that we’ve now been calling for since the end of last year.”

Lammy has been challenged for abstaining on a ceasefire vote in November 2023, and for failing to sign two early day motions, with one in March calling for an end to arms sales to Israel and the other in May calling on the government to support the International Criminal Court’s recent actions on the issue.

In response to how frequently Gaza was mentioned when canvassing in Tottenham, Lammy said: “I canvassed across Tottenham, it did come up, but by and large people are raising public services and I think you see that reflected in the votes tonight, certainly in the votes that I had.

“Those that stood on that single issue did not do so well relative to the 23,000 majority that I now have.”

Tottenham result:

David Lammy, Labour: 23,066 votes, 57.5% (-20.3)
David Craig, Green: 7,632 votes, 19% (+14.7)
Nandita Lal, independent: 2,348 votes, 5.8% (+5.8)
Attic Rahman, Conservative: 2,320 votes, 5.8% (-5.3)
Hari Prabu, Liberal Democrat: 1,928 votes, 4.8% (-0.2)
Roger Gravett, Reform UK: 1,602 votes, 4% (+2.7)
Jennifer Obaseki, Worker Party: 659 votes, 1.6% (+1.6)
Andrew Miles, Rejoin EU: 306 votes, 0.8% (+0.8)
Amelia Allao, Christian Peoples Alliance: 224 votes, 0.6% (+0.6)
Pamela Holmes, Communist League: 63 votes, 0.2% (+0.1)

Turnout: 53% (down 7.3 points on 2019)

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