KING CHARLES WAKES UP IN LABOUR CONSTITUENCY FOR FIRST TIME IN CENTRAL LONDON
The King was waking up in a Labour constituency for the first time on Friday after the Cities of London and Westminster dethroned the Conservatives.
Amid a historic landslide for Sir Keir Starmer’s party, Labour candidate Rachel Blake took 15,302 votes or 39% of the total for a majority of 2,708 over Conservative Tim Barnes.
The constituency, which encompasses Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, had been held by the Tories since it was created in 1950.
It was won by Nickie Aiken in 2019 with a majority of 3,953. She had been leader of Westminster Council, which was long a flagship Tory town hall.
But the council was seized by Labour in the May 2022 local elections. Ms Aiken stood down at this election.
King Charles tends to spend more time in Windsor Castle than “Buck House”.
But the monarch will follow tradition and be on hand to “kiss hands” with Sir Keir, the third Prime Minister of his short reign so far, in London later on Friday.
The Labour leader will then take the short drive to Downing Street to address the nation and begin appointing his first Cabinet, his party’s first since 2010, when Queen Elizabeth was still on the throne.
In a break with convention, in September 2022 the Queen appointed Liz Truss as PM at Balmoral Castle rather than Buckingham Palace. It was one of the monarch’s last official acts of her 70-year reign. She died two days later.
Meanwhile in Windsor, Conservative MP Adam Afriyie also stepped down at this election. Tory candidate Jack Rankin was defending a seemingly impregnable majority of 20,079.
The count there was still underway. Most pre-election MRP polls had projected a narrow win for Mr Rankin over Pavitar Mann, a Labour councillor in Slough.
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2024-07-05T04:49:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd