Here's what every Bognor Regis and Littlehampton general election candidate had to say following narrow Conservative victory

The Conservative Party’s Alison Griffiths bucked the national trend on Thursday (July 04), winning the Bognor Regis and Littlehampton election with 15,678 votes, despite the fact that once-safe Conservative seats were turning Labour red or Liberal yellow up and down the country, including in Chichester, where senior Conservative Gillian Keegan lost her seat to Liberal Democrat Jessica Brown Fuller.

The Conservative candidate takes over from previous candidate Nick Gibb, who has served since the creation of the constituency in 1997, before announcing his retirement last year, and has not yet released a statement about her victory. In election materials, speeches and interviews given prior to Thursday’s general election, however, she told voters: “your priorities are my priorities”, promising to combat sewage releases, renew high streets, improve the NHS and upgrade local infrastructure.

It was only a narrow win for the Conservative candidate, however. With only 62 per cent of local voters taking part, the Conservatives lost 29.4 per cent of the vote compared to 2019. While the Labour Party increased its share by 10.1 per cent, compared to the last election.

Labour candidate Clare Walsh led an optimistic campaign, and many voters felt she was primed to snatch the seat from under the Conservative party’s noses, even though it’s been a true blue stronghold for the last 27 years. But, in the aftermath of the election, she told voters it just wasn’t her night. Writing on X, formerly, Twitter, she added: “To have eaten into such a large 2019 majority is a huge achievement. Thank you to all that voted for me and to my amazing team! Next time”

Labour wasn’t the only political party eating into a once unimpeachable Conservative majority. The Reform Party also claimed a considerable 10,262 votes. Writing on Facebook, former Bognor Regis town councillor Sandra Daniells thanked her supporters for one of the strongest Reform performances in Sussex: “An excellent result for a new party with very limited resources, and no funds, dependent on lots of willing volunteers who kindly helped deliver leaflets around the constituency. Sadly we couldn’t get to everyone- and it seems the Royal Mail election address was not delivered to all households either, which was disappointing.”

Coming in fourth place was Henry Jones, who stood for the Liberal Democratic Party, with 5,081 votes. While he has yet to comment on the election results themselves, he promised voters he would champion local issues, writing: “Liberal Democrats continue to be the only party to champion localism, the belief that decisions affecting local areas should be made by those closest to it.”

The Green Party was represented in this election by Carol Birch, who claimed 2,185 votes. Writing on Facebook, she thanked her supporters, and congratulated the four Green MPs elected elsewhere in the country, adding: “With 4 Green MP's elected to get a Green voice for you in Parliament every vote will support them. Myself and many of our local members have helped to achieve this, I have been in Brighton and Suffolk. With almost 2 million votes it shows the support for the party and the clear need for a fairer voting system in the UK.”

David Kurten also stood in the election, representing the socially conservative Heritage Party, and gaining 708 votes. Writing on Facebook after the election, he criticised the new Labour government, while the party itself thanked those who lent their support.