Tory triumph in General Election, LibDem success in the Town Council vote

At just before 05:40 this morning (Friday 5 July) Danny Kruger was called by Deputy (Acting) Returning Officer, Perry Holmes as the first Member of Parliament for the new constituency of East Wiltshire. And in the Town Council election, Abi Beaumont was announced as the new Councillor for Marlborough West.

So more of the same at Westminster? Not quite so simple and whilst many of Danny’s colleagues – Cabinet members and others, some with far safer seats than his were falling by the wayside in what on the surface appears to be a Labour rout – Danny triumphed. Result below:

Candidate	Political party/Independent	Votes
Pete Force-Jones	True & Fair Party	278
Emily Herbert	Green Party	1,844
David Kinnaird	Liberal Democrats	8,204
Danny Kruger	Conservative Party	16,849
Rob Newman	Labour Party	12,133
Stephen Talbot	Reform UK	7,885
Turnout: 63.88%
Danny Kruger is elected

Far closer than in 2019 but a strong showing by Rob Newman for Labour in his first Parliamentary contest. Whilst Labour were strong elsewhere (or appeared to be strong, vote share scrutiny indicates that it was the fall in the Conservative vote that created the Labour success), Rob and his team delivered a performance that was far closer to the Conservatives than was ever achieved previously in the old Devizes constituency. Who would bet against Rob gaining a Parliamentary seat elsewhere before this Parliamentary session is out? A very impressive performance.

Also a strong performance by David Kinnaird for the LibDems, pushing Reform candidate Stephen Talbot into fourth place.

Overall across the whole Country Labour gained a landslide victory. But with an overall share of vote likely to end up smaller than in 2019, it can be stated that it was the Conservatives that lost the election, as did Labour in 2019.

In the Marlborough West Town Council election it was Abi Beaumont for LibDem who triumphed over Caroline Wrench. Large turnout (over 66%) for this contest as voters turning out for the Parliamentary set also voted for the Town Council election. A close result with Abi achieving 1,090 votes against Caroline’s 878.