Kennedy keeps South Ribble

CONSERVATIVE Seema Kennedy has been re-elected as the MP for South Ribble.

Out of the 54,834 people in the area that voted in the General Election last week, Mrs Kennedy managed to secure 28,980 votes, just over half of the total vote.

The Conservative Party, which secured an extra 6.4% of the votes compared with the General Election in 2015, was the clear winner for the area, gaining a majority of 13.5%.

Mrs Kennedy said: “I am delighted to have the honour of representing the people of South Ribble and doing my best to stand up for them in Parliament.

“I hope that my majority increased because people saw the hard work I have done within the constituency and Westminster over the last two years addressing local issues like flooding, farming and infrastructure.”

Julie Gibson, the Labour Party candidate, came in second place by securing 21,559 votes – 39.3% , a 4.2% increase on 2015.

John Wright, candidate for the Liberal Democrats, received a total of 2,037 votes – 3.7% overall.

Mark Smith, the candidate for the UK Independence Party (Ukip), was next and received a total of 1,387, which was 2.5% of the overall votes.

The party suffered a loss of 11.6% of votes compared with the election held in 2015.

Andrew Wright for the Green Party was second from last and received a total of 494 votes - less than 1% of the overall votes.

Lastly, Mark Jamell, candidate for the National Health Action party, received the lowest amount of votes at 341.

The overall turnout was 72% – an increase of 3.5% on 2015.

Mrs Kennedy said: “I think turnout increased because people felt they were faced with a stark choice and this motivated them to come out to vote.”