The vote count in Kensington has been suspended until Friday evening after counting staff became “visibly tired” as a third recount of the closely fought west London seat was requested.
The count will recommence at 6pm on Friday, a spokesman for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea said. The count was suspended at around 6am after a recount proved inconclusive.
The seat, previously considered a Tory stronghold, will be the last constituency to declare its result.
The BBC and the Huffington Post reported on Friday lunchtime that the Conservatives had conceded the vote, but a representative of Labour candidate Emma Dent Coad told the Guardian the party had heard nothing about it from the returning officer or Tory campaign and expected the recount to go ahead on Friday evening.
Dent Coad also tweeted:
Thank you all for your congratulations, but I've not heard that the Kensington Conservatives have conceded to me. Recount at 6pm I'm told!
— Emma Dent Coad (@emmadentcoad) June 9, 2017
A spokesman for the Tory candidate Victoria Borwick could not immediately confirm that she had conceded.
Borwick was defending a 2015 majority of 7,368, when she won 52.3% of the vote. But like other London Conservatives she faced a Labour surge, and the seat remains too close to call.
The BBC’s Emily Maitlis tweeted:
Hearing less than 35 votes between lab and con in #Kensington - extraordinary. Brexit MP loathed in v cosmopolitan area
— emily m (@maitlis) June 9, 2017
Borwick, a former deputy mayor of London, campaigned for Brexit, although the Kensington and Chelsea voted for remain by 69%. Dent Coad, an architecture journalist, positioned herself as opposing inequality in the constituency, which comprises extremely affluent areas and impoverished ones.
The area covered by the seat, which was formed in 2010 when it replaced large parts of Kensington and Chelsea, has been solidly Conservative for decades. It was previously held by Malcolm Rifkind, who was preceded in Kensington & Chelsea by Michael Portillo and Alan Clark.
In a statement, the returning officer, Tony Redpath, said: “The provisional result of the election was known at approximately 2am. That result was very close and a recount was therefore requested.
“The result on that recount also remained very close. A request for a third count was therefore made. At this stage staff had been up all night and were becoming visibly tired.
“In order to have confidence in its accuracy, the recount has been suspended to allow staff to rest and recuperate.”
