Labour Party candidate, Richard Quigley, has made history by becoming the first Labour MP for the Isle of Wight.
The Isle of Wight councillor for Cowes North, gained more than enough votes to beat former Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely.
When Bob arrived at the count, he’d no doubt been given the picture from Conservative counting agents — who had been closely watching the counting tables for the previous few hours — because he was very stern-faced, telling the media he would not be talking.
A two-horse race?
Although there were six candidates in the West constituency, for some time pundits have suggested it was just a two-horse race between the Labour and Conservative candidates.
Richard Quigley received 13,240 votes, Bob Seely 10,063.
Richard thanked everyone involved with his campaign, the counters and his family. He thanked Cameron, Ian and Nick for a clean campaign. He thanked Bob for his seven years’ of service.
He said,
“However you voted this evening together we can change, we can build the future for our Island that it deserves.”
OnTheWight caught up with an ecstatic Richard Quigley after the result.
The turnout for Isle of Wight West was 62.03% with 34,368 ballot papers returned. 13 ballot papers contained more than one mark, 1 had a mark that could not be identified and 64 were unmarked or void.
The other results were:
- Cameron Palin (Green): 2,310 (6.74%)
- Ian Pickering (Reform): 5,834 (17.01%)
- Richard Quigley (Labour): 13,240 (38.61%)
- Robert Seely (Conservative): 10,063 (29.35%)
- Nick Stuart (LibDem): 2,726 (7.95%)
- Rachel Thacker (ADF): 117 (0.34%)
