Local Member of Parliament Conservative Amber Rudd more than doubled her majority to 4,796, after defeating sitting Labour MP Michael Foster in 2010 by 1,993 votes, writes Charles Harkness. She won a 44.5% share of the vote this time in a turnout of 50,927, slightly up on 2010’s 49,814 votes.
But the General Election turnout at polling stations like Rye’s Community Centre (pictured above) did mean around 20% more votes being cast in the local elections than were cast last time in 2011.
But that did not help Labour’s first time candidate Sarah Owen who saw Labour’s vote fall by nearly 600. The Hastings and Rye constituency had been one of Labour’s target seats that it needed to win, but Labour’s share of the vote actually fell by two per cent while Rudd’s share went up by 3.5%. Andrew Michael increased UKIP’s share of the vote by over 5,000 and came third, while the Green vote nearly doubled to 1,951 since it last had a candidate in 2005. Biggest loser was the Lib Dems’ Nick Perry who came last after being in third place last time, when his vote collapsed to 1,614 from 7,825 in 2010. Rudd’s vote increased by more than 2,200 from 20,468 in 2010 to 22,686 this time.
Image Credits: Rye News library .