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Labour's Jennette Arnold will continue to represent Islington at City Hall after storming to victory in last week’s London Assembly elections with an unprecedented 100,000-plus majority.

In what was a sign of the party’s crushing dominance in north-east London, Ms Arnold secured 134,307 votes, soundly beating Conservative rival Sam Malik, who came a distant second with 32,565 votes in an election which saw a record 49 per cent turnout.

Ms Arnold has represented the North East constituency, which includes Islington, Hackney and Waltham Forest, since 2004. She previously held a majority of 66,000.

“It’s been an amazing campaign,” the grandmother from Highbury said in her victory speech at Alexandra Palace, where the count took place. “We ran a clean, issue-based campaign.”

Ms Arnold pledged to continue her focus on the environment – she wants to see a fleet of electric-powered London buses – tackling the school places crisis and scrutinising the Met police.

She was congratulated on her victory by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who gave her a hug before recalling how he had first met her when she volunteered at his Islington North constituency office in the 1980s.

There was also good news for the Greens, whose candidate, Samir Deraj, came third with 29,401 votes. The Liberal Democrat candidate, former Town Hall leader Terry Stacy, came fourth with 14,312 votes.

Holloway ward Labour councillor Paul Smith said: “This was an extraordinarily high turnout for a local government election. It was a 20 per cent increase on last time [2012, when turnout was 41 per cent]. It was the highest turnout of any [London] mayoral election ever.”

He added: “It’s very clear that people in Islington who want to have affordable housing came out to vote in record numbers, and they voted Labour. That’s the number one issue that got people out to vote. It was also a triumph of the politics of hope over fear.”

Ms Arnold, who was born in a village on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, was a councillor in Islington for eight years, and served a term as deputy mayor. She was first elected to the London Assembly in 2000.

Freddy Vachha (Ukip) secured 11,315 votes, Tim Allen (Respect) 5,068, Bill Martin (Socialist Party of Great Britain) 1,293 and Jonathan Silberman (Communist League) 536 votes.