Labour has picked up two more seats after yesterday’s by-election in Blackwall and Cubitt Town ward, the results of which were announced today.

The results give Labour and the Conservative party - which picked up the third of the three seats up-for-grabs - a narrow majority over their rivals in the Mayor’s Tower Hamlets First (THF) party.

Labour’s Dave Chesterton was elected with 11.29 per cent of the vote, or 956 votes.

The next highest was Christopher James Chapman for the Conservatives, elected with 10.35 per cent (877), followed by Labour’s Candida Ronald, who was elected with 10.33 per cent (875) of the vote.

This gives the Labour group 22 seats as against THF’s 18, although the latter holds all the council’s cabinet posts.

The results bring the Conservative group’s number of seats to five, in an election that saw a turnout of 31.64 per cent of the electorate turn out to vote.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s THF was forced into third place, with none of its three candidates elected, followed by Ukip, the Green party and the Liberal democrats respectively.

Yesterday’s election was put back after the sudden death of Tower Hamlets First candidate Hifzur Rahman, who had a heart attack the day before of the May 22 local election.

Council officers went door-to-door ahead of the election making inquiries to prevent voter fraud, and the Electoral Commission said it would have officers at every polling station and at the count.

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