Waterloo’s Ibrahim Dogus misses out on West Bromwich East seat

Conservative Nicola Richards won the seat with a majority of more than 1,500.

Ibrahim Dogus, best known as founder of the British Kebab Awards, was elected to Lambeth Council in May 2018 and immediately became deputy mayor of the borough, becoming Lambeth's first citizen a year later.

He is one of the three councillors for Bishop's ward, the northern tip of the borough of Lambeth that includes the South Bank and Waterloo Station.

Cllr Dogus – who arrived in the UK from Turkey when he was 14 – is the man behind three South Bank restaurants: Troia, Westminster Kitchen and Cucina.

Dogus hoped to succeed Kate Hoey as Vauxhall MP but lost out to Florence Eshalomi in the Labour selection this autumn.

His use of his own Lambeth Life newspaper to promote his candidacy raised eyebrows among local party members.

Dogus's fellow Bishop's ward councillor Kevin Craig took the highly unusual step critical of publicly criticising his colleague, branding Lambeth Life's coverage of its proprietor as"simply not right". "It verges on the embarrassing," he tweeted.

When Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson revealed he wouldn't fight this general election, Dogus was rapidly selected as the Labour candidate to replace him.

Former Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey tweeted that she was "very pleased" at the West Bromwich East result and that Dogus "did not deserve to be the MP".