The council has miscalculated the Green Party's general election result due to a spreadsheet error.

Richmond Council confirms that an error has been discovered in the 2024 general election results for Richmond Park.

The mistake particularly affects Richmond Park Green Party candidate Chas Warlow's results, who laments the 'banal error'.

General election results from 5 July saw Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrats) win the Richmond Park seat, followed by Sara Gezdari (Conservatives), Laura Coryton (Labour), Michael Hearn (Reform UK), Chas Warlow, Chris French (The Mitre TW8) and Richard Harrison (Social Democratic Party).

The results published on 5 July show Chas Warlow in fifth place and Michael Hearn in fourth but the correct results sees them swapped (credit: Richmond Council).

However, the updated results would have seen Warlow earn 688 more votes, placing him in fourth and dropping Hearn to fifth.

Asked if he was surprised by the mistake, Chas Warlow told Richmond Nub News: "Yes, I was surprised and disappointed by the Green Party result in Richmond Park in July - it didn't really reflect the work we have been doing in the borough as a whole."

He adds: "This result now makes a lot more sense – we can see now that we got 6.54% of the vote, almost the same as our result in Twickenham.

"This vote reflects the work done by the Green Group on Richmond Council: we've inspired the Council to become a social housing provider, we've pushed for more help for renters and we've been constantly pushing for better recycling and more help for residents to improve their homes' energy performance and keep bills down, as well as supporting residents who are facing regular anti-social behaviour.

"However, the Council has not covered itself in glory here and the processes must be reviewed urgently to ensure this never happens again."

The council say the mistake, which has not affected the declared outcome, was duet to an error in an isolated spreadsheet formula.

Warlow continues: "I think this error is worrying because it seems to have been such a banal error - apparently a spreadsheet formula was adjusted incorrectly.

"This could happen anywhere without the proper checks and balances.

"I think there's been a dependence on technology rather than doing basic mental arithmetic checks on the totals."

Richmond Council under reported Chas Warlow's votes by 688 which would mean he earned 3,416 votes instead of 2,728 (credit: Oliver Monk).

Leader of Richmond Council, Gareth Roberts, has come out an announced an enquiry into 'what went wrong' and a review into the election count procedures.

He says: "The integrity of elections is of the upmost importance to the Council and to those residents we represent.

"We have a duty of care to voters in this borough to ensure that elections in general, and election counts in particular are conducted with the highest levels of professionalism.

"I have agreed with the Returning Offer, therefore, to order both an enquiry into what went wrong in this instance and also a review of election count procedures so residents can be assured of the accuracy of election results going forward."

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