A Labour-run London council has apologised after failing to count more than 6,500 votes in the general election.
Wandsworth Council blamed a “spreadsheet glitch” for the loss of 6,558 votes when it announced that Labour MP Fleur Anderson had retained her Putney seat on July 4.
The local authority’s error, which meant 13% of all ballot papers cast in the seat were not included in the official results, was only discovered on Wednesday when Conservative councillors noticed that the declared results had been quietly altered on the council’s website.
The missed votes did not affect the outcome of the election, as the order in which candidates finished voting remained the same.
But the mistake sparked fury among Conservative councillors, whose party had ruled the south-west London council from 1978 to 2022.
“The Council must explain itself”
Conservative opposition leader Councillor Aled Richard-Jones said Labour must take responsibility for the “fiasco”, adding: “In any democracy people need to have confidence that their votes will be counted.
“The people of Wandsworth deserve urgent clarity about how a mistake of this magnitude could have happened, why it was not detected at the time and what steps the council is taking to ensure it does not happen again. Above all, the secrecy surrounding this matter must end and the council must explain itself.”
Mr Richard-Jones then accused the Labour chairman of the scrutiny committee of refusing to allow the error to be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday evening.
A statement on Wandsworth Council’s website said: “We acknowledge a spreadsheet issue which meant that not all correctly counted and allocated votes were included in Putney’s election night count announcement for the 2024 general election.
“This issue has been identified and the figures on this page have been updated. This had no impact on the outcome or order of candidates. While we are confident this was an isolated incident, we are taking this opportunity to review processes with a particular focus on spreadsheet procedures.”
Total participation increases from 59% to 68%
According to the updated results, Ms Anderson won 24,113 votes, up from 20,952 previously, and a majority of 12,488 votes instead of the 10,941 initially announced. The total turnout increased from 59% to 68%.
Lee Roberts, the Conservative candidate, received 11,625 votes instead of the 10,011 initially predicted, and Kieren McCarthy, the Liberal Democrat candidate, saw his total increase from 5,189 to 5,943.
Fergal McEntee’s (Greens) vote increased from 3,182 to 3,721, and Peter Hunter’s (Reform UK) vote increased from 2,681 to 3,070. Heiko Khoo (Workers’ Party) got 491 votes, not 433, and Felix Burford-Connole (Rejoin EU) got 332 votes, not 289.
A Wandsworth Council spokesperson said: “The acting returning officer has apologised to all candidates and agents.”
