Shock result as Leicester East constituency turns Conservative

A conservative candidate has been elected as the MP for Leicester East in a shock turn of events.

Shivani Raja secured 14,526 votes in the General Election 2024 - a 4,426 lead ahead of Labour candidate Rajesh Agrawal.

Meanwhile former Labour MPs - Claudia Webbe had 5,532 votes and Keith Vaz gained 3,681 votes.

Webbe won this constituency in 2019 with 25,090 votes.

She won with a hugely reduced majority which her predecessor Keith Vaz had built over the previous decades - from 22,428 in 2017, to just 6,019 by 2019.

While an MP, Webbe was convicted of harassment and consequently lost the Labour whip to become independent.

Vaz was standing for the local One Leicester Party which was launched in August last year.

Controversy has followed the former Labour MP throughout his career but across four decades he has become one of the most influential figures in Leicester.

Vaz held the Leicester East seat for the Labour party for thirty two years but he stepped down before the 2019 election after he was found to have "expressed willingness" to buy cocaine for male prostitutes.

The allegations were enough to see him suspended from the House of Commons for six months.

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