ELECTION: Conservatives take Chichester with first female MP in seat

Gillian Keegan succeeds fellow Conservative Andrew Tyrie, who announced in April he would not be standing for re-election after 20 years in Parliament.

Mrs Keegan, who is a cabinet member at Chichester District Council, described being ‘absolutely delighted’ by the result, polling 36,032 votes.

She said: ‘I’ve had a fair amount of practice, my public service apprenticeship as it were but to actually become MP for Chichester is fabulous, it really is a dream come true.’

Labour candidate Mark Farwell described being delighted by his tally of 13,411 votes, adding: ‘I missed the all time record by 341 so it’s the best since 1966.’

Addressing the fact that Mrs Keegan had talked to her about addressing environmental issues, Green Party candidate Heather Barrie said: ‘I think it’s really important that the issues we’ve all raised have been aired people are talking about them, people are concerned about these issues and I think that although it’s been a bit of a landslide here locally, I think these things still need to be talked about.’

Lib Dem candidate Jonathan Brown added: ‘Congratulations to Gillian but also all the other candidates for taking part. I think this was an election dominated by national issues, difficult I think for all of the candidates to engage with people locally.’

---

Results:

Heather Barrie, Green Party 1,992 votes

Jonathan Brown, Lib Dems 6,749 votes

Andrew Emerson, Patria 84 votes

Mark Farwell, Labour 13,411 votes

Gillian Keegan, Conservatives 36,032 votee

Andrew Moncreiff, UKIP 1,650 votes.