By Harry Mottram: Somerset (and to a lesser extent the West Country) has gone Liberal Democrat with the colour orange dominating the map. In Somerset which had been Tory blue up until election day on July 4th, 2024, is now dominated by Ed Davey’s party – the successive political party of the old Liberal Party. Back in the day under Jeremy Thorpe the Liberals had been a force in the region – now they are again. In the traditional area of the county Wera Hobshouse won for the LibDems in Bath with big majority, and in North Somerset and Hanham the Conservative Jacob Rees Mogg was unseated by Labour Metro Mayor Dan Norris. Liam Fox, a fixture in North Somerset for the Tories for years lost his seat to Labour’s Sadik Al-Hassan as Weston-super-Mare also went to Labour with Daniel Aldridge beating long term Tory John Penrose.
In Somerset – reduced in size since local Government reforms – only Bridgwater held out for the Conservatives although crossing the borders to Devon and Wiltshire the blue colour of the Tories still held several contituencies. The Conservatives as a whole have collapsed in numbers of MPs to just 121 – down 250 – while the LibDems across the country have seen their numbers rise to 71 – their best result since their demise in the 1918 election when Asquith was their leader.
The full results for the UK are Labour 412, Conservatives 121, LibDems 71, SNP 9, Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland on 7 (they don’t take up their seats as they campaign for a united Ireland, the DUP on 5, the SDLP who are similar to Labour on 2, the old Unlster Unionist Party on 1 – they used to be linked to the Conservatives – and the TUV and Indepents on 1 each.
Interestingly the votes cast – not the MPs won – give a different picture. Labour actually had fewer votes this time compared to 2019 while the Green Party had just under 2 million votes and got 4 MPs while Reform UK got over 4 million votes and also got 4 MPs. And if those stats seem odd – ponder this – the LibDems got fewer votes than Reform UK and end up with 71 MPs. It is all down to the First Past the Post system – which has been in place since the beginnings of modern parliamentary elections. It benefits the two main parties who are unlikely to change it to proportional representation while they keep winning.
In Somerset the results were (stats from Somerset Confidential) while the map is from ITV:
Bridgwater
- Sir Ashley Fox (Cons) 12,281
- Leigh Redman (Lab) 10,932
- William Fagg (Ref) 8,913
- Claire Sully (LD) 5,781
- Charles Graham (Grn) 1,720
- Pele Barnes (Ind) 334
- Gregory Tanner (Workers) 168
Frome & East Somerset
- Anna Sabine (LD) 16,580
- Lucy Trimnell (Con) 11,165
- David Swain (Ref) 6,441
- Robin Moss (Lab) 6,416
- Martin Dimery (Grn) 5,083
- Shaun Hughes (Ind) 737
- Gavin Heathcote (Ind) 294
Glastonbury & Somerton
- Sarah Dyke (LD) 20,364
- Faye Purbrick (Con) 13,753
- Tom Carter (Ref) 7,678
- Hal Hooberman (Lab) 3,111
- Jon Cousins (Grn) 2,736
Taunton & Wellington
- Gideon Amos (LD) 24,331
- Rebecca Pow (Con) 12,392
- Charles Hansard (Ref) 8,053
- Brenda Watson (Lab) 3,552
- Ryan Trower (Grn) 1,832
- Rochelle Russell (Communist) 134
Tiverton & Minehead
- Rachel Gilmour (LD) 18,326
- Ian Liddell-Grainger (Con) 14,819
- Fred Keen (Ref) 7,787
- Jonathan Barter (Lab) 4,325
- Laura Buchanan (Grn) 2,234
Wells & Mendip Hills
- Tessa Munt (LD) 23,622
- Meg Powell-Chandler (Con) 12,501
- Helen Himms (Ref) 6,611
- Joe Joseph (Lab) 3,527
- Peter Walsh (Grn) 2,068
- Abi McGuire (Ind) 1,849
- Craig Clarke (Ind) 190
Yeovil
- Adam Dance (LD) 23,765
- Marcus Fysh (Con) 11,497
- Laura Bailhache (Ref) 7,677
- Rebecca Montacute (Lab) 3,002
- Serena Wootton (Grn) 2,403
- Steve Ashton (Ind) 608