Central Devon election result and speech by winner Conservative Mel Stride, video Alan QuickIMG_6860

Central Devon election result and speech by winner Conservative Mel Stride, video Alan Quick IMG_6860

Transcript

00:00I, Stephen Walford, being the Acting Returning Officer of the above election, do hereby give

00:19notice that the number of votes recorded for each candidate at the said election is as follows.

00:25Leaps, Geoffrey, Reform UK, 7,784. Pearson, Oliver Andrew David, Labour Party, 16,770.

00:42Price, Stephen, Independent, 477. Stride, Melvin John, the Conservative Party candidate, 16,831.

01:07Westcote, Gillian, Green Party, 3,338. Wooding, Mark, Liberal Democrats, 8,232. There were 211

01:26spoiled ballot papers. The turnout was 71.2% and I do hereby declare that Melvin John Stride is duly

01:34elected. Well thank you and can I thank the returning officer and all of those who conducted

01:52the account so efficiently here through the night. Could I give a special thank you to my agent Mike

02:02Nucky, my friend Mike Nucky and all those who helped me during what has been a very hard-fought

02:09campaign. I would also like to pay tribute to my opponents. This has been a decent, fair and

02:17well-spirited contest without any personal acrimony and I thank them for that and I think

02:23that's good for democracy within our constituency. I would like to express my sadness at the loss of

02:32so many of my colleagues who will not be joining me in the House of Commons. We have suffered a

02:40truly major, major defeat over the last 24 hours. My party must now go away and learn the lessons

02:50and think deeply about what has happened and the message that it has sent to my party as we seek

02:58to rebuild and establish ourselves in time once again as the natural party of government and I

03:04look forward to playing my role in that endeavour. I would also like to thank my family. Politics is

03:13a journey. It's exhilarating, it's exciting, you can often get many, many useful things done

03:18but it's also tough and it's toughest for those who love you the most. So my love to my wife

03:25Michelle and to my three daughters. And finally I want to say this which is that I take the

03:32responsibility of having been elected for a fifth term as the Member of Parliament for Central Devon

03:39extremely seriously. This is one of the most beautiful constituencies in the country and it

03:44has within its boundaries some of the finest people that live in this country and I will

03:51continue to fight for them as I have in the past and stand up for them in this next Parliament.

03:58Thank you.