Sorrow for Vassall

After a determined, exploitative and corrosive campaign against Labour by the Lib Dems in Vassall ward, we had to accept defeat at around midnight last night.

I was in the Assembly Hall at Lambeth Town Hall for the count, watching uncomfortably as the greater number of ballot papers stacked up for the Lib Dems.

In the end Labour's Andy Flannagan - a good comrade and hard-working campaigner - lost by 859 votes to identikit Lib Dem Steve Bradley's 1209. Andy, a candidate of substance and character, would have made an excellent councillor and I hope he goes the distance and is elected in 2010. As a by-election candidate myself, I know what it's like to be personally attacked by Lib Dems, and how hard Andy worked to promote a positive vision for the ward.

The weather was terrible - bitterly cold, windy and wet - for much of the day, which is never a good sign. The recent attacks on Ken Livingstone by the Evening Standard and various other warped anti-Labour messages exploited by the Lib Dems in their tsunami of leaflets, meant much of our hoped-for support stayed at home. There is much to learn from this defeat, and I hope that learning will make Labour in Lambeth stronger.

In my polling day role, cycling round the four polling stations from 7am to 10pm collecting numbers to take back to the committee rooms, I knew that we were not getting our voters out in sufficient numbers - particularly in the Labour-voting areas of the ward. But it was good to see so many Labour activists out on the streets, including many councillors from Lambeth and neighbouring boroughs, and Stephen Twigg braving the harsh weather without a coat.

We faced a swing to the Lib Dems which, if it were to be repeated on a wider scale in the GLA election, would give those charlatans more than enough votes to gain the marginal Lambeth and Southwark division. The challenge for Labour campaigners is to get out on the streets in bigger numbers and make sure that the terrible prospect of losing Val Shawcross as our assembly member, and Ken as our Mayor, is averted.