SUSSEX DECIDES: Chichester election results breakdown

A shock overthrowing of Tory Andrew Tyrie was thought unthinkable before the night and so it proved.

He will continue in the seat he first won in 1997, as he took 57.7 per cent of yesterday’s vote (May 7) – a total of 32,953.

This is a 2.4-per-cent increase on the 55.3 per cent he gained back in 2010, when he won 31,427 votes.

The biggest swing on the night was for the Liberal Democrats, who were routed in line with the national trend, dropping from 15,550 votes in 2010 to 4,865 votes yesterday. This equated to a percentage drop of 27.4 per cent of the Chichester vote to just 8.5 per cent this time around.

As the Liberal Democrats dropped from second place to fourth, they were overtaken by both UKIP and Labour.

UKIP came second with 8,540 votes – 14.9 per cent.

Labour was third with 6,933 – 12.1 per cent.

It was an encouraging night for the Green Party, which did not field a candidate in 2010, however took 6.5 per cent of the vote this time with 3,742 votes.

Patria came last with 106 votes, which works out at 0.19 per cent of the vote.

The total election turnout was 57,139 in 2015, compared to 56,787 in 2010.

However, although the total number of votes cast rose, there was an overall fall in the percentage of turnout from 69.7 per cent down to 68.7 per cent.