Buckingham Palace could be in a Labour seat for first time in history

THE King will wake up in a Labour constituency on July 5 if, as the polls suggest, the Cities of London and Westminster seat goes red.

- Nicholas Cecil and Rachael Burford

"Buckingham Palace, the City and the Houses of Parliament could easily end up in a Labour constituency," said Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics. Former Westminster council leader Nickie Aiken won the seat for the Conservatives in 2019 with a majority of 3,953.

But the flagship Tory town hall was seized by Labour in the May 2022 local elections. The Cities of London and Westminster seat has been held by the Tories since it was created in 1950.

The new seat of Kensington and Bayswater is likely to be on an "absolute knife edge", according to Professor Travers, but Labour would be "doing badly" if they did not win it.

If these two seats fall to Sir Keir Starmer's party, it would leave Chelsea and Fulham as the last Tory constituency in inner London. MP Greg Hands, who is also London minister, was outside Putney Bridge and Parsons Green Tube stations early this morning campaigning to protect his 11,241 majority.