By Will Cracknell and Ed Southgate
December 13 2019, 03.00
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The Conservative Party’s Stephen Hammond was narrowly re-elected in Wimbledon with 20,373 votes, a slender majority of just 628.
Liberal Democrat candidate Paul Kohler came a close second with 19,745 votes, a 22.7% vote share increase on 2017.
Labour’s Jackie Schneider was third on 12,543 votes and independent Graham Hadley fourth with 366 votes.
Mr Hammond, whose vote shared dropped by 8.1%, said: “It is an honour and privilege to have the trust of the Wimbledon constituents again.
“Tonight’s result is about looking to the future not the past. I have always strived to put the constituency first and in my next term I shall do so.
“I’d like to thank my fellow candidates for the honourable way this election has been fought and my congratulations to all of them on what they have done.
“I wish to thank my sister and particularly my daughter Alice and my wife Sally for their unfailing support.”
Runner-up Paul Kohler, who received the highest ever number of Liberal Democrat votes in Wimbledon, said: “When canvassing, I found people rejected the extremism of the hard left and the hard right.
“Unfortunately, the progressive Liberals did not form an alliance. Our opponents did.
“The only reason we lost was because the Brexit Party and the Conservatives came together.
“Unfortunately from the progressive side, it was only the Greens and the Lib Dems who were the grown-ups in the room.”
Turnout rose 0.5% to 77.7%, the highest level recorded since the 80.2% recorded in 1992.
