Sir Alan Duncan holds Rutland and Melton seat for Conservatives
The results were:
Richard Billington (UKIP) - 8,678
Sir Alan Duncan (Con) - 30,383 - ELECTED
Marilyn Gordon (Independent) - 427
Alastair McQuillan (Green) - 2,325
Dr James Moore (Lab) - 8,383
Ed Reynolds (Lib Dem) - 4,407
Mr Duncan, who has held the post since 1992, received cheers and applause from his Conservative supporters as the votes were announced.
He said: “It’s been far better than I’d expected. I’m very grateful to the people in Rutland and Melton.
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Hide Ad“Nationally we’ve done better than we expected, meaning that we are clearly in a position to govern this country.
“I myself never take anything for granted and from this win I will continue to work for everyone in the Rutland and Melton area.”
Meanwhile, Richard Billington (UKIP), who came second just in front of Labour with only 295 more votes said: “We’ve more than tripled the vote so the support is there. I’m delighted and we will fight another day.”
Green candidate Alastair McQuillan said: “I’m immensely proud of our campaign, of hope and inspiration. We gave people the opportunity to voice their aspirations for a brighter greener future, and vote for a positive vision for Britain. I believe we did that, as did more people than ever before in Rutland and Melton, many of whom were voting for the first time.”
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Hide AdIn 2010, Mr Duncan received 28,228 votes, followed by Liberal Democrat candidate Grahame Hudson, who received 14,228 votes, with Labour’s John Morgan third with 7,893 votes.
At 10pm yesterday (Thursday) the ballot counters took to their tables to begin their long shift of sifting through the papers at Melton Cattle Market.
As it was five years ago, it was clear that candidates for Rutland and Melton would be in for a longer than anticipated wait to find out the results, with a large amount of time spent verifying the votes.
The final declaration wasn’t made until gone 6am this morning (Friday).
A total of 54,817 votes were declared for Rutland and Melton in this year’s election.