The Brexit Party has won the most votes across Sedgemoor – which includes the Burnham-On-Sea area – in this week’s European Elections, it was announced on Sunday night (May 26th).
The turnout figure in the Sedgemoor area was 35.35%, with 31,872 people voting out of a total of 90,173 eligible electors.
The Sedgemoor results are:
- Change UK: 701
- Con: 3,219
- English Democrats: 156
- Green: 3,807
- Lab: 1,692
- Lib Dems: 6,469
- Brexit Party: 14,314
- UKIP: 1,254
- Maxey (Ind): 29
- Rahman (Ind): 12
- Seed (Ind): 52
- Rejected: 169
The local votes from the Burnham area were counted by a team of 88 counters at the Canalside in Bridgwater on Sunday evening, as pictured above.
The results for all the local voting regions across the South West were then sent to BCP Council in Bournemouth, which was the co-ordinating authority for the South West. These these were combined to produce one definitive set of results for the entire South West region.
Six MEPs were chosen to represent the whole South West region – Ann Widdecombe of the Brexit Party, Caroline Voaden of the Lib Dems, James Glancy of the Brexit Party, Molly Scott Cato of The Greens, Christina Jodan of the Brexit Party, and Martin Horwoood of the Lib Dems.
Ann Widdecombe said: “It’s very clear… there was only ever one reason for voting for the Brexit Party – and that is what the nation has done, big time.”
“What this does is send a very clear message to Westminster – again – that if they don’t sort out leave, at the next general election both the big parties are going to face carnage.”
“We shouldn’t even be having these elections. These elections are a clear demonstration of the farce that has enveloped Westminster.”
“I want a clean Brexit and that is where we have to put our pressure.”
Lib Dem MEP Mr Horwood said that the South West was “not such a leave region now”.
He added that the “Lib Dems, Greens and Change UK beat Brexit Party and UKIP in the popular vote across the South West”.
Green MEP Molly Scott Cato thanked supporters “for putting your trust in me again”.
The Brexit Party took 36.7% of the vote, while the Conservatives lost more than 20% of their support in the region.
Of the remain parties, the Lib Dems were up by more than 12% while the Greens were up by 7% – giving the two parties 41.2% of the vote.
Although voters went to the polls on Thursday, the election count had to wait until Sunday night when elections had been completed in every one of the EU member countries.
Across the whole south west, the Brexit Party attracted the most votes at 611,742 with the remain-backing Lib Dems in second place on 385,095 votes.
The six MEPs who had represented the South West since the previous European elections in 2014 were William (Earl of) Dartmouth (Independent), Ashley Fox (Conservative), Julia Reid (Independent), Julie Girling (Independent), Clare Moody (Labour) and Molly Scott Cato (Green). Only three (Ashley Fox, Clare Moody and Molly Scott Cato) stood again at this year’s 2019 elections.
Voting in the European Elections is different from voting at a general election. MEPs are elected on a proportional representation system. The ballot paper had a list of parties with their candidates, along with independent candidates. It is a closed party list system so voters were expected to put a cross next to the party of candidate they are voting for. Voters could not vote for an individual candidate.
