BREAKING NEWS: Amber Rudd holds on to Hastings and Rye seat

The Home Secretary won by a marginal 346 votes after a full recount at the Horntye Sports Complex.

Ms Rudd secured 25,668 votes compared to Mr Chowney’s 25,322 votes. Liberal Democrat Nick Perry was third with 1,885 votes followed by Michael Phillips (1,479 votes) and Nicholas Wilson (412 votes).

Two years ago, Ms Rudd was re-elected as Conservative MP for the Hastings and Rye constituency after receiving 22,686 votes, a majority of 4,796, equal to a 9.4 per cent margin of victory.

She was first elected MP in 2010 after beating long-standing Labour MP Michael Foster, who had held the seat since 1997.

Ms Rudd was appointed Home Secretary last July by Theresa May.

She previously served as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2015 to 2016 after being the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State in the same department from 2014.

At this year’s General Election the Green Party agreed not to field a candidate, forming an alliance with Labour in a bid to oust Ms Rudd.

The voter turnout for this year’s election was 70.05%. In 2015 it was 68%.

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