Over 6,000 Votes Missed in Putney Election Result Declaration

Council apologises for 'spreadsheet error' which did not affect outcome

About 13% of votes cast were missed. Picture: Wandsworth Council

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July 18, 2024

It has emerged that the result declared for the Putney constituency in the General Election did not include 6,558 votes cast.

Wandsworth Council said that the error, which missed 13% of electors in the original announcement by Acting Returning Officer Sana Jafri, was due to a ‘spreadsheet issue’. Adding back the excluded votes made no difference to the order the candidates finished and little difference to the overall vote share.

The corrected result shows that the percentage lead that Labour’s Fleur Anderson had over the Conservative candidate Lee Roberts was reduced but the numerical size of her majority was increased from 10,011 to 12,488. The inclusion of the missed ballots meant that Ms Anderson increased the number of votes she received compared with 2019 despite an overall fall in turnout from 77% to 68%

The council updated the figures on its web site without making an announcement this Wednesday (17 July) and said, “While we are confident this was an isolated incident, we are taking this opportunity to review processes with a particular focus on spreadsheet procedures.”

Actual Putney Constituency General Election Result - 4 July 2024
Party	Candidates	Votes	%	±%
Labour	Fleur Anderson	24,113	48.9	+4.6
Conservative	Lee Roberts	11,625	23.6	−12.8
Liberal Democrats	Kieren McCarthy	5,943	12.1	−4.8
Green	Fergal McEntee	3,721	7.5	+5.2
Reform UK	Peter Hunter	3,070	6.2	+6.1
Workers Party	Heiko Khoo	491	1.0	N/A
Rejoin EU	Felix Burford-Connole	332	0.7	N/A
Majority		12,488
Votes cast and turnout		49,295	67.9

The change was spotted by Conservative councillors who were angered by the refusal of the chair of the borough scrutiny committee to discuss the matter on Wednesday night.

Incorrect Putney Constituency General Election Originally Result Announced
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Labour	Fleur Anderson	20,952	49.0	4.7
Conservative	Lee Roberts	10,011	23.4	-13.0
Liberal Democrats	Kieren McCarthy	5,189	12.1	-4.8
Green	Fergal McEntee	3,182	7.4	5.1
Reform UK	Peter Hunter	2681	6.3	6.3
Workers Party	Heiko Bernard Khoo	433	1.0	1.0
Rejoin EU	Felix Burford-Connole	289	0.7	0.7
Total Votes		42,737
Turnout		58.9%

Cllr Aled Richard-Jones, the Tory opposition leader, said, “In any democracy, people need to have confidence their votes will be counted.

“Wandsworth residents deserve urgent clarification about how an error of this magnitude could have occurred, why it wasn’t detected at the time and the steps the council is taking to ensure this can never happen again. Above all, the secrecy surrounding this needs to stop, and the council needs to explain itself.”

Ms Anderson, said, “I have been informed that the declaration of result for Putney at the general election has been updated after a clerical error came to light. I have been informed of the reasons for these errors in the process.”

A spokesman for Wandsworth Council said, “The acting returning officer has apologised to all candidates and agents.”

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