‘Spreadsheet issue’ saw 6,500 votes ‘go missing’ in Putney election count

A “spreadsheet issue” led to more than 6,000 votes being missed from the declaration of the election result in Putney .

Labour’s Fleur Anderson held the south London seat in the July 4 contest, receiving what was announced on the night as 20,952 against Conservative Lee Roberts’ total of 10,011.

But on Wednesday, Wandsworth Council revealed that it had mistakenly failed to include 6,558 votes in the totals, publishing revised results on its website.

The missing votes did not affect the overall result, with Ms Anderson still emerging as the winner and with a larger majority of 12,488 votes over Mr Roberts.

She received a total of 24,113 votes, while Mr Roberts received 11,625. Third-placed Kieren McCarthy, the Liberal Democrat candidate, saw his total increase from 5,189 to 5,943.

While we are confident this was an isolated incident we are taking this opportunity to review processes with a particular focus on spreadsheet procedures

A statement on Wandsworth Council’s website said: “We acknowledge a spreadsheet issue that resulted in not all the properly counted and allocated votes being included in the announcement on the night in the Putney election count for the General Election 2024.

“This was identified and the figures on this page have been updated. This did not affect the result or the order of the candidates.

“While we are confident this was an isolated incident we are taking this opportunity to review processes with a particular focus on spreadsheet procedures.”

Wandsworth’s Conservative Party expressed anger at the mistake and called for a full explanation from the council.

Aled Richards-Jones, leader of the Conservative group on Wandsworth Council, said: “Previous elections in Wandsworth have been won by a handful of votes – three years ago, a by-election in Tooting was won by a single vote, demonstrating how important it is that every vote is counted.

“Yet today, residents have been told – without any explanation – that 6,558 votes essentially went missing during the counting process.

“Wandsworth residents deserve urgent clarification about how an error of this magnitude could have occurred, why it wasn’t detected at the time and the steps the council is taking to ensure this can never happen again.”