Although Putney's election night count, with an angry shouting match between defeated Tory David Mellor, James Goldsmith and pro gun lobbyists, was exceptional, the Putney result curiously enough was not. Tony Colman, whose dignified contribution to election night went unnoticed by the TV cameras, won the seat for the Labour Party. Gloss aside, Putney was a major party contest in 1997 and will be again. The swing to Labour was 11.2%, very near the average for inner London.

Putney has tended to move according to long-term trends. It was a citadel of 'villa Toryism' from 1918 to 1964, when the Labour London County Council finally managed to build the Tories out of Putney through large council housing projects in Roehampton. Left wing MP Hugh Jenkins held the seat until his defeat by Mellor in 1979. Then the Conservatives managed to sell off a lot of the former council houses and capitalise on Putney's environmental advantages (transport links, the river, parks) and the demographic changes of the 1950s and 1960s went into reverse. Putney looked safely Tory by the end of the 1980s. Labour's new ascendancy in Putney is unlikely to be as long-lived.

In the 1998 local elections, Putney showed the largest Tory majority in a Labour seat anywhere in the country, a massive 29% (60-31%). The Tories won every ward in the seat, including the former council estate wards of Roehampton and Parkside. Despite this Putney probably shifted little in its preferences over that year, as there are many voters who vote Conservative in local elections and Labour in general elections because of the generally positive reputation of the Tory Wandsworth Council. The Tories only led by 5% in Euro 99, but in the 2000 GLA election their lead was back up over 20%. Their candidate Michael Simpson probably starts the favourite in the next general election.

Parliamentary Statistics pre-Election 2001

Labour majority 2,976 (6.8%)  Conservative target 51
MP Tony Colman
1997 (Turnout 71.4%)
Labour	20,084	45.7%
Conservative	17,108	38.9%
Liberal Democrat	4,739	10.8%
Referendum	1,518	3.5%
UK Independence	233	0.5%
Others	313	0.6%

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For Putney 2001 Election result - click here.