Cornwall turns red and yellow! General Election winners and losers

Cornwall is waking up to a very different political picture this Friday morning after Labour won a landslide victory nationally and took four of the Duchy’s six MP seats - the others going to the Liberal Democrats.

Here is a round up of the General Election 2024's winners and losers, and Cornwall's new MPs.

It was a crushing defeat for the Conservative Party, which previously held every seat in Cornwall and now has none.

One of Labour’s most anticipated seats was the Truro and Falmouth constituency, and so it proved, with Jayne Kirkham elected with 20,783 votes.

Former MP Cherilyn Mackrory came in second with 12,632 votes and the Liberal Democrat’s Ruth Gripper third with 6,552 votes – but only just.

Reform UK – Nigel Farage’s party, which formed in 2018 and has seen many former Conservative voters defecting there – polled 6,163 votes with their candidate Steve Rubidge.

Had the party not split the Tory vote, Ms Mackrory is likely to have achieved a much higher percentage of the vote – although still not enough to keep her seat.

READ NEXT:

• Election turnout and full voting breakdown for every constituency in Cornwall

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• Losing Tory MP cries as she says she was ‘swimming against the tide’

It’s a common theme throughout this election, both nationally and in Cornwall, and is likely to be behind arguably one of the biggest shocks of the night for the Conservatives with the loss of Sheryll Murray, who had been MP for South East Cornwall since 2010.

Ms Murray polled 13,379 votes and Reform’s Paul Wadley 9,311. However, it was Labour’s Anna Gelderd who benefitted from the splitting of the vote – taking the seat with 15,670 votes.

Further west, the St Ives constituency, which also covers Helston, the Lizard and West Cornwall, has seen former MP Andrew George reclaiming his seat from Derek Thomas.

Liberal Democrat Andrew George has been re-elected as MP for St Ives and West Cornwall after a nine-year absence (Image: Falmouth Packet)

Liberal Democrat Mr George, who was previously MP between 1997 and 2015, polled a convincing 25,033 votes to take the seat from previous Tory incumbent Mr Thomas, who came in second with fewer than half number, at 11,247. Reform’s Giane Mortimer took third with 6,492 votes.

Mr George is one of the Liberal Democrat Party’s 71 seats won nationally – the best result for the party in many elections – and one of two ‘yellow’ seats in Cornwall now.

In North Cornwall, Conservative Scott Mann lost his seat to the Lib Dem’s Ben Maguire, who polled 24,904 votes to Mr Mann’s 14,137. As has been a familiar picture in Cornwall this election, Reform’s Rowland O’Connor came third with 8,444 votes.

Elsewhere Cornwall has gone entirely red, including in Camborne and Redruth. The constituency was always going to have a new MP after George Eustice announced he would not be standing for this election.

With all to play for it was Labour’s Perran Moon who won it, with 19,360 votes, while Conservative Connor Donnithorne came second with 11,554 votes and Reform’s Roger Tarrant third with 8,952.

New Camborne and Redruth MP Perran Moon with some of the Labour team at Truro College (Image: Falmouth Packet)

It was even closer in St Austell and Newquay, where Labour’s Noah Law took the seat with 15,958 votes but faced strong competition from previously sitting Conservative MP Steve Double who won 13,488 votes and Reform’s Stephen Beal who polled 9,212 votes.

You can read the voting full breakdowns here: Election turnout and full voting breakdown for every constituency in Cornwall

You can also see how the night unfolded here: General Election 2024: Results and reaction as it happened through the night

Nationally, some of the big name Conservative MPs to lose their seats include former Prime Minister (for a short time) Liz Truss, along with Penny Mourdant, Grant Shapps and Plymouth's Johnny Mercer.

Rishi Sunak, Oliver Dowden, Jeremy Hunt and James Cleverly all kept their seats. However, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg lost his seat to Labour's Dan Norris.

It was a good night for the Reform party, which was founded in 2018. Party leader Nigel Farage won a UK parliamentary seat at his eighth attempt, being declared MP for Clacton shortly after Lee Anderson became Reform’s first MP of the night. Reform now has a total of four MPs in parliament.