NADHIM Zahawi has retained the Stratford seat.
As the Tories look set to sweep to victory nationally Mr Zahawi comfortably defended the historically safe Conservative seat despite his majority of nearly 21,000 being very slightly reduced as the Liberal Democrats moved into second place in the constituency.
Mr Zahawi, who has held the seat since 2010, polled 33,343 votes, followed by Liberal Democrat Dominic Skinner with 13,371, Labour’s Felix Ling with 6,222 and the Green Party’s Dave Passingham with 2,112
Turnout was 74.72 per cent.
Mr Zahawi said: “I want to thank the people of Stratford for trusting me with their vote and returning me to Westminster. I promise, as I have promised the last three elections, to be champion for the constituency.
“I think it is time has come for us all to come together. The nation has spoken and it is time to deliver Brexit. We will do this by the end of January and trade deals by the end of next year, and then we can put it behind us.
“We really want to spend the next five years focusing on public services, our NHS and schools and I hope we will come together as a nation.”
The result was equally straightforward in Kenilworth and Southam, which includes parts of Stratford district, where Jeremy Wright comfortably held onto the seat for the Tories.
The member of former prime minister Theresa May’s cabinet was defending an 18,000 plus majority, which increased to 20,353.
Mr Wright polled 30,351 votes, followed by Liberal Democrat Richard Dickson with 9,998, Labour’s Antony Tucker who polled 9,440, the Green Party’s Alison Firth with 2,351 and Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Nicholas Green with 457.
Turnout was 77.2
Mr Wright said: “I want to thank my campaign team for their remarkable support.
“I want to thank all the candidates I have shared the campaign trail with. I think we can be justly proud we can maintain a standard of discussion that it is for the most part honest respectful and enables people of the constituency to see the arguments clearly, and I like to think that it something we will see more of in politics in future.
“Politics I believe has become too fractious, argumentative and hostile and it is time to move past that. I hope the picture not just in this constituency but nationally too shows the constituency wants us to move past that and work better together in future.”
