London voters take to polls for ‘Brexit by-polls’

LONDON: Residents of the posh London suburb of Richmond took to the polls on Thursday in a local byelection that has turned into a minireferendum on Brexit in a pro-EU heartland.

Liberal Democrat challenger Sarah Olney, ( pictured) whose party wants a second referendum on Brexit, is hoping the result will shock Downing Street, as the government forges on towards the EU exit door.

Olney is running against Zac Goldsmith, who held the seat for Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party but quit in protest after the government backed expanding the nearby Heathrow Airport. He is now standing as an independent candidate.

“While some people feel very strongly about Heathrow expansion, lots more people feel much more strongly about Brexit,” Olney said during the campaign.

“That’s really alarmed and upset people and they want to use this opportunity to send a message.”

In the June referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union, 52 per cent nationwide voted to leave.

But in the well-heeled borough of Richmond in southwest London, 69 per cent voted to remain in the bloc.

Its 82 per cent turnout, one of the highest in the UK, showed it was an issue locals felt passionate about.

The centrist and unambiguously pro-EU Lib Dems, reduced to a rump in the 2015 general election, are eyeing a comeback by filling the void for disgruntled ‘Remain’ voters.

However, the 39-year-old Olney faces a tough task in overturning Goldsmith’s majority.

Both the Conservative and Brexitcheerleading UKIP parties are giving him a clear run.

Goldsmith won Richmond from the Lib Dems in 2010 and retained it in the May 2015 general election with 58 per cent of the vote. Wealthy, suave, affable and soft-spoken, 41-year-old Goldsmith is Brexit royalty.

He is the son of the late tycoon financier Jimmy Goldsmith, whose highspending Referendum Party, calling for a vote on UK-EU relations, got the anti-EU bandwagon rolling.