I  would like to thank the 25,301 constituents who voted for me and elected me as Member of Parliament for Ilford South for the fifth time. Although I will now be  returning to the opposition benches I last sat on in my first Parliament from 1992 to 1997 I am personally delighted and humbled by the confidence my constituents of all faiths and backgrounds have shown in me .  There was an increase in my  share of the vote and my majority went up by more than 2,000 votes. 

There has been much comment about the national  results. But it is worth pointing out that we do not have a Presidential system  of Government. What  we have is a Parliamentary system with 650 individual constituency contests between candidates of competing political parties and some independents. 

Overall the results were bad for Labour and we lost our majority and almost 100 seats. But the Liberal Democrats also lost seats and the Conservatives fell well short of the majority they had expected only a few weeks earlier.  Different parts of the United Kingdom voted differently and Labour did badly in several parts of England including East Anglia , the South East and East Midlands. But Labour won in Scotland and did well overall in London , particularly in East London.

Labour now begins the process of choosing a new party leader and deputy leader and  a wide ranging debate and consultation to learn the lessons of our defeat and then develop policies for the future .  I am writng this column the day before Parliament resumes for the re-election of the Speaker. Next week we have the first Queens speech of this strange  new Con Dem  coalition. Then in June we will face another budget as the coalition bring in their dangerous and premature savage cuts to public spending. I promise to continue to work hard to serve all my constituents and to fight to defend and improve our vital services.