'Extraordinary evening' as Tories continue decades of power in South West Wiltshire

Despite a national win for Labour, Conservative MP Andrew Murrison has retained his seat in South West Wiltshire, the area he has represented for decades.

He was treated to applause as he was declared the MP for South West Wiltshire.

He received 15,617 votes whilst Labour candidate Evelyn Akoto received 12,374, making it a Conservative majority of 3,243.

Mr Murrison has represented South West Wiltshire for over two decades and was first elected in 2001, when the constituency was still known as Westbury.

He was elected Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire in May 2010, and was first elected as the Conservative MP for Westbury in June 2001.

Meanwhile, Reform candidate Garry Irvin left with 7,840 votes, Liberal Democrat Bret Palmer with 7,205, Green candidate Fay Whitfield with 2,243, independent candidate James Ward with 448 and independent candidate Thomas Culshaw with 441.

The Conservative MP described it as an “extraordinary evening”.

Mr Murrison said: “With a huge majority comes big responsibilities.

“For those of us who are being returned to the opposition benches, we have a huge responsibility too to hold the government to account.”

He thanked those working throughout the day and night during the election, as well as his team and his family.

He concluded: “Most of all, I’d like to thank the people of South West Wiltshire who have done me the honour of returning me to Parliament for the seventh time.

“To them I say I will do everything in my power to serve them over this term to the best of my ability and with all my energy and strength.”

Although expected, this will be a relief for the party, as its number of seats dropped dramatically across the country overnight.

The ballot papers were transported from across South West Wiltshire to Trowbridge County Hall where hundreds of staff were waiting for them.

Candidates began to arrive from just before 10pm, in time to watch the exit poll.

Conservative candidate Andrew Murrison was reserved, declining to comment on the prediction, whilst Labour candidate Evelyn Akoto described it as “exciting” and Liberal Democrat Bret Palmer noted it was “very good”.

A verification was then carried out over almost four hours to compare the number of ballot papers in the boxes against the number recorded at the polling station.

At around 2am, the turnout was announced to have been 63.41 per cent for South West Wiltshire, 35,361 votes were cast at the polling station and 10,974 postal votes were received.

The candidates spent an increasing amount of time down in the main hall as the count progressed, keeping a close eye on proceedings.

They gathered around the stage to hear the final result at 4.30am.