Thousands of people have turned out since 7am this morning to cast their votes in the General Election, called by Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson in October.
As usual, OnTheWight will be at the Count, this year being held in the main sports hall of Medina Leisure Centre.
Live updates all night
Throughout the night, from around 9.30pm, we’ll be bringing you live updates from the heart of the action and will be able to reveal which candidate fielded the most votes to take the Isle of Wight seat in Parliament.
The final result
- Conservative Party – Bob Seely – 41,850
- Labour Party – Richard Quigley – 18,078
- Green Party – Vix Lowthion – 11,338
- Independent Network – Carl Feeney – 1,542
- Independent – Karl Love – 874
- Independent Brexiteer – Daryll Pitcher – 795
Our thanks to Allan Marsh for joining us tonight with his many lens and photography skills to capture such great photos. If you see yourself in any and want a copy, contact Allan via his photographic studio in East Cowes via Facebook.
03:11
It looks as though many tables have finished counting. The ballot papers have been sorted, counted and clipped together. Now we wait for the final numbers to be verified.
02:39
Intense interest at one particular table
02:37
Newport West by-election
The official results for the Newport West by-election are:
- 605 – Richard Hollis, Conservative
- 408 – Maria Villa Vine, Labour
- 361 – Joe Lever, Green Party
- 238 – Nick Stuart, Liberal Democrat
- 47 – Stephen Reynolds, Independent
- 36 – Julian Harris, Independent
02:25
Bob Seely has perched down at one of the press tables and is busy scribbling away on a piece of paper – his acceptance speech?
02:16
Sorting, counting and clipping
00:46
It gets interesting now
00:39
A hush descends as stage two of the count begins
01:28
Managed to catch a shot of Richard Quigley (Labour) who has been here for quite a while.
01:21
Stage two of the count now starts with the papers being sorted into candidates (the first stage was just to count the number of ballot papers)
01:18
Verification of Turnout – There was a 66.09 per cent turnout for the election with 74,691 papers.
01:05
Bob Seely has arrived in the hall.
00:54
Going back to the 2017 election, coming in third place was Vix Lowthion (Green) with 12,915 votes, an increase of 3,511 from 2015.
This represented 17.34 per cent of votes cast and 11.67 per cent of the electorate.
00:42
Independent Brexiteer, Daryll Pitcher, here enjoying a conversation with Carole Dennett.
00:22
Independent Candidate Karl Love, who is also an Isle of Wight councillor for East Cowes, seen here chatting with fellow councillor, Stephen Hendry.
00:04
In second place in 2017 election was Julian Critchley (Labour) with 17,121 votes.
That was 22.99 per cent of the votes cast and 15.47 per cent of the electorate. It was an increase of 8,137 from the 2015 election.
00:00
In the 2017 election Conservative candidate Bob Seely won the seat with 38,190 votes. This was 51.28 per cent of the vote and 34.50 per cent of the electorate.
He saw an increase of 9,599 votes from Andrew Turner’s result in 2015.
The turnout was 67.39 per cent.
23:53
Ballot boxes awaiting counting
23:37
Isle of Wight police keeping us safe
23:32
The Green Party candidate, Vix Lowthion, who has had the BBC following her around today is also here now too.
23:20
Counting well in progress now, with every table counting
23:07
Carl Feeney (Independent Network) was one of the first candidates to arrive.
22:55
On the Isle of Wight there are a total of 113,021 residents who were registered to vote in this election. This includes 18,434 postal votes and 792 proxy votes.
There are 2,3338 more people registered than in the 2017 election, which saw a 67.3 per cent turnout – meaning over 36,000 people did not make it to the polling station.
22:53
Isle of Wight residents had a choice of six candidates. In alphabetical order, those standing:
- Carl Feeney – Independent Network
- Karl Love – Independent
- Vix Lowthion – Green Party
- Daryll Pitcher – Independent
- Richard Quigley – Labour Party
- Bob Seely – Conservative Party
22:46
David Pugh, former leader of Isle of Wight council, who is the agent for Bob Seely and also Chairman of the Island Conservatives has arrived. Here he is chatting to Whippingham councillor, Stephen Hendry.
22:43
A quick thanks to Steve G for lending us one of his laptops for the night (use use desktop computers usually)
22:41
And whoosh, out spill the first ballot papers to be counted
22.21
22:20
The first ballot box has been opened and counting has begun
22:15
Simon Wiggins is now briefing the counters. They are about to start first stage, only counting number of papers, not looking at how people have voted. This is an important part of the count ensuring all polling stations and ballot boxes have been delivered. They will be counting against the ballot account filled out at the polling stations.
Checking ballot papers not used or spoiled or replaced. He stresses that accuracy is more important than speed to obtain the verification figure. Final results must reconcile with that figure.
He will announce where ballot boxes go over the PA system, so the observers from all the candidates know where to stand.
The last ballot box will arrive no later than 11.30 – and the first stage completed soon after.
The parliamentary election result is expected no later than 3-4am!
Newport West local election and St Helens Parish council elections are being counted in the other smaller hall.
22:05
Clare Shand is addressing the room – she explains how the count will work. Official returning officer is High Sheriff Geoff Underwood. He’ll be announcing the result.
Counters are being pointed to the secrecy notices in order to maintain integrity of the count.
21:54
21:51
The table managers are being briefed
21:36
The polling stations close in 15 minutes. We were met with queues in Ventnor earlier today
Shooting for OnTheWight
Isle of Wight photographer Allan Marsh LRPS has kindly agreed to shoot for OnTheWight for the evening. You can see his work on his Flickr Page and find out more about his photographic studio in East Cowes via Facebook.
Article edit
11.03am 12th Jul 2024 – Removed some images (they were massive!)
