Conservatives deliver landslide victory in Medway

By Oliver Trapnell

Conservative MPs have won all three available seats in the Medway constituencies tonight after dominating in the Exit Polls.

Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood), Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford) and Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) have all been re-elected with a landslide victory and extending their majorities.

“The result we have tonight quite clearly shows that residents support their local member of parliament, who’s done this job for nearly nine-and-a-half years” said Mr Chishti.

“They want to get national issues resolved.

“They want to get Brexit done and they see Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as the man who can deliver that and great investment in health, education and law and order which is what this Conservative government will now do.”

The results for Rochester and Strood were announced first, with Kelly Tolhurst winning the seat with 31,151 votes.

She achieved a majority of 17,072 votes, increasing on her majority from the 2017 election by 7,222 votes.

She said: “I’m very lucky. I’ve been re-elected as the MP in the place where I was born and bred.

“I love this place, so for me it’s very personal and I’ve worked every hour to try and maintain the seat.

“It’s been the privilege of my life and I’m extremely pleased to be able to doing it again.”

The next result to be released was for Chatham and Aylesford which saw Tracey Crouch re-elected with 28,856 votes.

She achieved a majority of 18,540 votes, increasing on her majority from the 2017 election by 8,082 votes.

She said: “I’m enormously proud to have been re-elected the MP for Chatham and Aylesford.

“It’s a real privilege and a real honour to represent local residents up in Westminster.”

She praised her competitors for running a ‘clean campaign’, saying: “Chatham and Aylesford has a reputation for clean campaigns and yet again we have excelled as parties”.

Finally, Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti was re-elected with 28,173 votes.

Mr Chishti achieved a majority of 15,119 votes, increasing on his majority from the 2017 election by 5,689 votes.

Mr Chishti said: “The public here in Gillingham and Rainham have decided enough is enough of a parliament that dithers and delays.

“Now, we have to get on and deliver Brexit by the 31st January.”

Conservative claimed seats in Medway mean that Boris Johnson will retain his role as Prime Minister.

It was a disastrous night for Labour who came second in every Medway constituency.

Although not all bad news for the Labour party in Kent, as Rosie Duffield retained her seat in Canterbury by a narrow majority of 1,836 votes.

Exit Poll results came as a surprise to many voters and MPs.

The results predicted that the Conservatives would have a landslide majority of 368 seats, while Labour would only claim 191.

Labour candidate and Cllr Vince Maple said: “It’s disappointing because we’ve had hundreds of thousands of activists out across the country taking out our positive message”

Cllr Andy Stamp (Lab) said Brexit dominated the election.

The Gillingham North Councillor said: “Clearly there was an underlying issue and that was Brexit.

“I think they have been duped by the phrase ‘get Brexit done’.”

Overall, Medway saw a drop in voter turnout, compared to prior elections.

All three Medway towns had around 60% voter turnout (60.71% in Chatham and Aylesford; 62.68% in GIllingham and Rainham; and 63.51% in Rochester and Strood).

Gillingham South Councillor — Naushabah Khan (Lab) suggested voter turnout may have dropped due to ‘election fatigue’.