Former Portsmouth councillor re-elected on Isle of Wight

A FORMER Portsmouth councillor who defected from Ukip to the Conservatives before resigning has been re-elected.

By The Newsroom

Published 26th Jan 2018, 20:23 BST

Updated 29th Jan 2018, 08:32 BST

Former Portsmouth councillor Steve Hastings has been elected onto Isle of Wight Council.

Steve Hastings won the Central Wight seat on the Tory-controlled Isle of Wight Council in yesterday’s by-election.

Cllr Hastings was elected for Portsmouth’s Baffins ward for Ukip in 2014 but deferred to the Tories in 2015.

As previously reported in The News, he resigned from the city council recently.

But Cllr Hastings has now been re-elected after the Tories held on to the Central Wight seat winning with 547 votes compared to 286 for the Liberal Democrats, 143 votes for the Green party, 101 for Labour and 24 for Ukip.

The low Ukip number comes after the local party withdrew from the campaign amid the row over Henry Bolton’s leadership.

Two days before polling day, the Ukip local branch executive was reported to have issued a statement saying it was suspending campaigning and accusing Mr Bolton of having brought the party into disrepute.

Portsmouth