After an all night count at Bridgwater Town Hall which didn’t declare until 0830 in the morning due to a very large turnout, Tory incumbant Ian Lidell-Grainger held his Bridgwater & West Somerset seat with a slight increase in vote and % .
Ian Lidell Grainger (Conservative) 25,020 (46%)
Stephen Fitzgerald (UKIP) 10,437 (19%)
Mick Lerry (Labour) 9,589 (17.6%)
Theo Butt-Phillip (Lib Dem) 6,765 (12.4%)
Julie Harvey-Smith (Green) 2,636 (5%)
This means that Lidell-Grainger benefited from the Nationwide Tory swing to hold his seat with a slight increase of 345 votes.
UKIP, running a campaign of fear about immigration and the EU, had a massive increase from2,604 in 2010 to 10,437 a jump of 14%
Labour pushed the Lib Dems down the poll and increased their vote from 9,332 to 9,589 an increase of 257.
The Lib Dem vote collapsed from 15,426 to 6,765 a drop of 8,661 votes and down from 28% to 12%.
The Green vote, although achieveing an increase from 1.6% to 5% nevertheless meant only a jump of 1779 votes and came a distant 5th.
Speaking after the election Mick Lerry said “The high turnout is a good day for democracy but it’s clear that Labour is now the only opposition to the politics of fear that have led us to this position.”
The number of eligible voters was 80,491 and the turnout was 67.62%
Ian Lidell-Grainger once again won with a minority of the votes cast.
Ian Lidell Grainger 25,020
Voters who didn’t want Ian Lidell-Grainger 29,427
Congratulations Mick on pushing up the Labour vote; not easy when there’s such a universal wing to the right. No doubt you would have got many more votes if UK and the Tory press ahdn’t worked up unfounded fears about immigration.
As you say, ILG again elelcted on a minority fo votes: time for Labout to espouse PR perhaps.
Well done again, Mick.
Doug
This is a black day for ordinary people in Britain. This tory scum will now ride roughshod over the working classes and all thanks to their UKIP & SNP cronies. The result here in our constituency tells me that there are far too many ‘don’t cares’ out there and they should hang their heads in shame at this result. The persecution will now continue with a renewed vigour and these right wing extremists will need to be harried every day for the next five years. In the broader context it tells me that there are about a third of the people in this country who are selfish in the extreme and couldn’t give a fig for those less fortunate than themselves – I am disgusted with my fellow men that they could allow this to happen.
A fight well fought, Mick. I agree with your comments about the outcome. Am now very sleepy, having watched the election results all night! Do you think that across the country, Lib Dems voted tactically to keep the Tories in so that they could continue in coalition? If so it back-fired; the Tories don’t need them and they have lost most of their seats.
Cheers
Elaine