The Isle of Wight has spoken and Conservative candidate, Bob Seely has won the seat in the 2017 General Election with 38,190 votes – that’s 51.28% of the vote (jump to other results).
High Sheriff, Ben Rouse, made the announcement to a hushed room.
A former spin doctor for the Conservatives, who served in Iraq in the Territorial Army, Bob is also an Isle of Wight councillor for Central Wight.
In his acceptance speech, he paid tribute to former Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Andrew Turner.
Turnout on the Isle of Wight was 67.38%, up just 4,276 from 2015.
The results for the other candidates was:
2nd – Julian Critchley – Labour: 17,121
3rd – Vix Lowthion – Green: 12,915
4th – Nicholas Belfitt – Liberal Democrat: 2,740
5th – Daryll Pitcher – UKIP: 1,921
6th – Julie Jones-Evans – Independent: 1,592
Comparisons with 2015 election
An analysis of the numbers in comparison with the last election (2015).
Bob gained 9,599 votes on top of Andrew Turner’s 28,591 ending up with 38,190 votes. That’s a gain of around 33% extra votes.
Labour nearly doubled their vote moving from 8,984 to 17,121, putting on 8,137.
UKIP lost 12,967 votes, dropping from 14,888 to 1,921. That’s nearly a 90% drop.
Green gained 3,511 votes on top of the 9,404 from 2015 ending at 12,915.
Lib-Dem nearly halved their vote dropping 2,495 votes from the 5,235 of 2015, to 2,740.
Rejected ballot papers
The number of ballot papers rejected was as follows:
A – want of an official mark: 5
B – voting for more Candidates than voter was entitled to: 26
C – writing or mark by which voter could be identified: 6
D – being unmarked or wholly void for uncertainty: 58
TOTAL: 95
If you missed our live coverage last night, you can catch up with the blow-by-blow action.
Image: Allan Marsh
