Tom King, BA Politics
Two SOAS alumni were elected to parliament in Thursday’s general election.
David Lammy has been returned as the Labour MP for Tottenham, where he’s sat since 2000, increasing his majority and taking 67% percent of the vote. In Hornsey and Wood Green, Liberal Democrat Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone was ousted by Labour’s Catherine West, who took more than half of votes cast.
Lammy graduated from SOAS with an LLB in 1993 before going on to study at Harvard Law School. He served as a minister in the last Labour government and has been a visiting lecturer at SOAS. Lammy is planning a bid to be Labour’s candidate for London Mayor.
West studied for a Masters’ degree in Chinese Studies at SOAS.
Nik Slingsby, also a SOAS alum, contested the Cities of London and Westminster constituency for Labour, coming second with 9,899 votes to the Conservative candidate Mark Field’s 19,570 votes.