Conservatives keep Sussex Weald, but with a vastly reduced vote share

Although Conservative candidate Nus Ghani held onto her seat, she does so with a much smaller share of the vote than in 2019. With just 34.1 per cent of the vote, she’s down -29.6 per cent, compared to the last election.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, she told voters she was ‘pleased to be returned as MP for Sussex Weald.’

She added: “[The] country has demanded change and it will be up to a new government to deliver it. We have no divine right to power and we, quite frankly, took too much and too many for granted. Sleep first and then some humility as the post-mortem begins.”

Her main rival, Liberal Democrat Danielle Newson, saw her share of the vote increase by 3.4 per cent, giving her a total vote share of 20.2 per cent.

Closely following Danielle Newson was Reform UK candidate David Morgan, who won 18.1 per cent of the vote. Labour also gained seats – candidate Dipesh Patel increased the party’s vote share by 1.9 per cent compared to 2019, bringing the party’s total to 16.8 per cent. The Green Party’s Austin Henderson won 7.7 per cent of the vote, an increase of 3.1 per cent compared to last year.

Stephen Gardner, for the Social Democratic Party took 0.6 per cent of the vote, Dominie Stemp for the Heritage Party, 0.3 per cent, and Chris Magness for UKIP, 0.3 per cent.